After waiting about an hour for a thunderstorm to pass I headed southwest about 9:15 AM on Friday. On the way to the first tour town I passed Allen and Bushong for an extra towns.
A few more miles south I came to Americus.
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I had to go back north about ten miles then to US-56 where I headed west. I passed through Delavan where they have a pay phone by the highway so you can call 911. I didn't check to see if it worked.
I went on west to Herington and found Lost Springs!
I had lunch there in a Mexican restaurant and bar. For a small town there were about 5 nice looking girls working the lunch period. I remember when I was a trooper in McPherson I used to meet the Marion County trooper there occasionally for lunch. They had great fried chicken. The restaurant was in a different place then of course that's been 40 years ago! After lunch I headed west and came across where the real Lost Springs started. There are numerous makers in the area where the Santa Fe trail crossed and wagon ruts.
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I went on west and then north to the next tour town of Ramona.
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I headed back south until I came to a sign showing Tampa west. It was a good rock road and I must have gone about 8 miles west to Tampa.
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I headed southeast on county roads and saw a church in the distance. I turned south to Pilsen.
They had a beautiful Catholic Church.
And a gift shop.
On the way to the next town I came to Burns.
The next tour town was Elbing.
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The next town was Smileyburg and I was apprehensive about finding this place and did quite a bit of research on it. I have a hand held GPS I use for Geocaching and I put the coordinates in it. I tried to put Smileyberg in Lola and nothing showed up. I knew it was east of Douglass so I started east on a county road. My hand held showed 42 miles which I knew wasn't correct so I scrapped that idea. Dumb luck works pretty well.
Smileyburg was what we were supposed to find. Lola showed Smileyville. The map shows Smileyberg. So what is it? You ask the locals. So I pulled up at his place and asked the young man working on a car and he was not aware the bait shop was spelled burg. He went inside so I took the picture and got back on the bike. Probably his father came out and said,"Leaving so soon?" So I talked with him a while and he said the correct spelling is Smileyberg like his shop. He gave me a key ring with the shops name and went on to explain some of the history. The natives are friendly. I hate to make this so easy for the rest of the riders with all this good information but I'm a nice guy!
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I headed on east a county road and came to what I think used to be a town of Clay Center. There were two buildings that had Clay Center on them. This was the school.
Next tour town was Atlanta.
While taking a picture of the post office a lady pulled up and inquired what I was doing. I said I was touring the state for small towns. She said, "Well you found it here. There is an elevator and a bank." They did have a post office though.
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South of Atlanta I came across this neat farmstead.
Next on my list and the last tour town for this trip was Maple City. I went to where Lola said this is it and this is what I found.
Reflections!
Lots of antiques but no sign saying this was Maple City. There was a church but no sign. I tried to find some one to talk to but no one was around.
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I headed back northeast to US166. I was looking at my map when a car pulled up and wanted to know if I was okay. I said yes and asked if he lived around here and knew about Maple City. Why yes he did, in fact he was the pastor at the church there and no there wasn't any signs that had Maple City on them. He also told me of another town that used to be just south of our location but there was nothing there now. I thanked him before we parted ways.
I was hot and ready for a place to spend the night so I headed east to Sedan where they have one motel. I got a room, had my Jack Daniels, showered, talked with Mary then went next door to dinner. The motel was the Ranch motel and the restaurant was also the Ranch. I also ate breakfast there the next morning. It was a perfect day with light winds, sun and the Flint Hills. I headed north on K99 which is a great motorcycle road that runs from Oklahoma to Nebraska. The crops this whole trip just looked great. Most of the wheat in the southern counties was harvested and some planted to another crop, probably beans. Most of the area had received recent rains and some places quite wet. The corn crop really looked good. Of course the Flint Hills are nice and green. I finally reached the climax of my trip.
Yes there is a Climax, KS.
As I was riding along I stopped several times for pictures of the Flint Hills.
The sign says "eat beef". If these steers knew what it meant they might not be so contented.
Some of the blue skies and wheat.
Some Kansas beef!
Here some wind turbines off in the distance.
Some of the towns I came to along the way home.
When I came to Emporia I had to wait on two trains, one going west and then one headed east. Both trains had inter-modal containers and most from China. Each trains was over a mile long.
I came to the new overpass they put in over the turnpike north of Emporia that kept the stretch of K99 closed for several months.
And I had to stop and admire, Admire. This flagger gal was not very friendly and talked to herself. We were stopped more than a mile south of US56 and 2 miles from where the construction started.
This is what the process looks like and it is very hot. Wouldn't want this job. The company is Dustrol Milling.
I came on north on K99 to Eskridge where I took K4 back to Topeka. Along the way there is this neat rock barn.
Then I came to Dover.
I arrived home before lunch and traveled 493 miles. I spent $45.86 for gas and averaged 41mpg. I really enjoyed this trip. Many thanks to Steve Hart for putting these tours together. Every one who goes on these trips is a winner for all the great scenery and history we take in. In 2005 I went to every county and took a picture of the court house. There is so much to see in Kansas and even if you don't travel by motorcycle get out and tour Kansas! You too can be a winner! I have one more tour to the northwest to complete all the towns.
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