This year I joined the Heartland Riders Motorcycle Club and the Back Roads Tour sounded fun. There is a total of 35 towns small towns to visit and take a picture of. These towns are all east of US81 in the eastern half of the state and most are unincorporated. Many of you are probably not aware that I slipped on the snow 1-11-11 and broke my right ankle. So January and February I was mostly confined to the house only dreaming of riding again.
On April 8th I visited my first town of Jarbalo, which is east of McLouth and north of Tonganoxie.
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After adding my first town I rode to Cabelas at the Legends made a couple of purchases then rode home. One off the list.
On April 11 I headed out again and rode north of Rossville to Delia.
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We can get extra points for adding other towns so I stopped at Emmett and added it.
I rode on northwest to Duluth for my third town on the list. I ended up taking some gravel roads to get here. There wasn't a sign marking the town but there was a Duluth road sign and a Luthfran Church. Yes that was the way they spelled the name of the church.
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I rode cross county to Wheaton and Blaine and added them as extra towns. Mary and me were married in Blaine at this church.
I went back south and stopped in Westmoreland for fuel then went southwest to Flush. Mary graduated from High school there and all that's left is the school and church. I added number four.
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I rode on south to St George and added it as an extra. This town is actually growing and has new homes.
I headed on east to Wamego and then back to Topeka.
On April 14 I headed out again as the weather is supposed to deteriorate the next several days. I rode the back-roads northeast of Topeka some of which ended up being gravel. I put in a via point of Good Intent so Lola would take the back roads and I thought there might be a building but nothing there, not even a marker. Then I rode back roads until I came to a marker for Monrovia.
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There are just a few houses there now. So I rode on north to Severance for another extra.
The next tour town was Leona. There was just a few house there.
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I rode northwest to Hamlin and then Powhattan and added those two tour towns.
From there it got difficult. I was headed for Kelly. Lola wanted to take me north when I got to 75 hwy but Kelly was south west so I continued west on a paved road that quickly changed to gravel. Then Kelly was straight west 10 miles but this road was freshly graded rock. That was a rough, scary ride for 6 miles until I hit pavement again. I had a couple of pucker moments on this road. I made it to Kelly and St Bede's Catholic church.
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I headed south on 63 hwy and the wind was very strong out of the east and it was rough riding. I stopped at Havensville to add an extra town.
I wasn't sure if I had enough gas to make it to St Mary's so I stopped in Emmett for gas. The rest of the trip home was rough with the wind blowing. It blew the map out of my tank bag so I stopped and walked back for it. I came down though Maple Hill as I didn't want to cross the river south of Rossville on that metal deck bridge. I don't like it on a good day and with the wind I was afraid of it. When I crossed the river north of Maple Hill I knew I made the right decision. Made it home about 2 PM and rode 225 tough miles.
So this is a lot like a scavenger hunt, only on a much larger scale. I will get to see a lot of back roads in Kansas I haven't seen yet. Stay tuned for more.
