Heartland Riders Tour Towns 2

I started out by adding a couple of "extra towns". The first was McFarland on May 29th.

From Extra Towns

On June 2nd I was looking at some of the flood damage and added Willard.

From Extra Towns

Friday June 3rd I took off to tour southeast Kansas. I started with Vinland which is southeast of Lawrence. Normally you would go south of Lawrence a mile and turn east but they are working on US 59 and I came back 1 mile north then east a mile then back south.

From Tour Towns

View Larger Map
I then headed south through Baldwin City. My next stop was an "extra" at Lane. My sister-in-law was from Lane and I had never been through there.

From Extra Towns

The next tour town was Rantoul.

From Tour Towns

View Larger Map
From there I headed south to Garnett and fueled then on to Centerville. It seemed Lola took me the long way around to get here.

From Tour Towns

View Larger Map
From Centerville I headed on south to Redfield which is just west of Fort Scott.
Lola took me across some gravel roads to get there.

From Tour Towns

View Larger Map
It was really starting to get hot and windy now. I went into Fort Scott and at lunch at Subway. I then headed south to Arcadia.

From Tour Towns

View Larger Map
I went on south and picked up Mulberry which borders Missouri. This is in the area of the coal strip mines of years ago and there were many waterways that was probably good fishing.

From Tour Towns

View Larger Map
In 2005 I rode down in this area and went to West Mineral the home of Big Brutus the monster crane that dug many of the strip mines. This is me standing in the bucket.

From Al's October AR trip

Big Brutus

From Al's October AR trip

If you have never been to the museum it is worth a visit.
After that things got interesting when I tried to find Englevale which is just northwest of Mulberry. Lola took me one mile west of US69 on a rock road and said I was there but I didn't see anything resembling a town. A farmer was driving by but I didn't need help yet. I can find it myself! I went back to the highway and went north but wasn't finding anything. I was turning around on a side road as a car was coming from the west. I got off the bike with my map and the lady stopped and rolled down the passenger window. She didn't know if there was anything left of the town but it was abandoned many years ago. I thanked her and went across the highway where a Crawford County truck pulling a trailer was spaying noxious weeds. I asked him if he knew where the town was and he said, "Sure. Let me turn around and you just follow me." I followed him back to the intersection where Lola had taken me. He told me to go in front of him and showed me a building about a 1/4 mile south. I stopped at the building and the driver, Ed Fields, said this used to be a music hall. There was no writing on it though. He said there was a cemetery about a 1/2 mile west that had Englevale on the sign. There was another building just to south of where were were and we drove up there and it said Englevale on it. Eureka! This building was the meeting hall. So a big thanks to Ed Fields!

From Tour Towns

From Tour Towns

From Tour Towns

Even this map is not quite correct. Go south at the intersection.

View Larger Map
Instead of going back to the highway I went west from the cemetery and rock roads for about 5 miles. It wasn't the wisest decision but I made it. I headed south and west towards Labette, my next stop. I very seldom traveled on State of Federal roads but opted for paved county roads.

From Tour Towns

View Larger Map
I then headed back northwest to Lafontaine which is west of Neodesha.

From Tour Towns

View Larger Map
I went back to Neodesha with hopes of finding a motel. I saw one but it didn't look too good so opted to head on north on US75 to Yates Center. I found a motel there that wasn't great but but was clean and had a good bed. No ice machine and the window air conditioner was off but did work. It was 87 in the room but soon cooled down. I fixed my favorite traveling drink. This bottle has many miles on it and has been refilled numerous times.

From Tour Towns

I walked down the street a few blocks to a Pizza hut and had a pizza and a couple of Bud Lights. Saturday morning I took off about 7:15 and headed northeast to Neosho Falls. The road is paved coming in from the south.

From Tour Towns

View Larger Map
I headed north on a gravel road that wound around several miles. I finally came to a paved road and went north several miles then Lola headed me west about two miles the back north on a rock road. I should have backtracked to the paved road but I listened to a women again and it headed me to trouble. This was the road she sent me on.

From Tour Towns

Looks like marbles eh! Felt like it too! I finally came to a paved road and this meadow where lots of pretty flowers were blooming.

From Tour Towns

I made it to Aliceville.

From Tour Towns

View Larger Map
My next town was Michigan Vally and Lola gave me more gravel roads. I am going to have to start treating her better so she gives me better roads. On the way to Michigan Valley I passed through Waverly:

From Extra Towns

Melvern

From Extra Towns

and Quenemo

From Extra Towns

I made it to Michigan Valley with the last 4 1/2 miles gravel.

From Tour Towns

View Larger Map
Of course I couldn't overlook Overbrook!

From Extra Towns

I rode to US 75 on US56 but 56 is closed to the west and I wanted to go to Burlingame so I went south and then west to Osage City then back north to the Santa Fe cafe in Burlingame. The Heartland riders have a monthly meeting there at 10AM the first Saturday each month. It was time for breakfast! After the meeting I headed home. I mowed the lawn and went to 4:30 Mass. Then on Sunday I drove the car to Melvern Lake and went fishing with my brother. I had walleye and crappie for dinner! Yummy! So this completes all the tour towns east of US75. I will make a trip southwest and one northwest in the future. The rest of the Heartland riders that want to find Englevale should have a much easier time at it with my good directions.