A Ride in the Flint Hills

Yesterday I rode in the Flint Hills. It was just a great day for a ride with the temperatures in the upper 60’s to low 70’s. My kind of riding day. I went west of Topeka on I-70 about 8 miles then took the Vera road exit and headed south through the country on rock roads. I came to and intersection and went west to Boot Hill road and then went south again. As I reached the top of a large hill I stopped to take some pictures of the countryside. This is Jeffery Energy Center about 25 miles away.

The rolling hills of the Flint Hills.

I came to a small cemetery that I had stopped at before. I got off and took a picture of a grave and while stooped over a turkey flew out of the weeds and it about scared me to death.

Some of the roads had large rocks on them.

Then I came to this area where not many had traveled because grass was growing on the road.

I soon found out why no one was traveling this road.

I wanted to check this out before I ventured down the hill so I walked down a ways to see if I wanted to try it. This is what I saw.

Well I decided I could probably make it if I picked my way down and didn't go too fast. The problem with the GS is low gear is not slow enough to suit me. With 6 gears low should be slower IMHO.:evil
I made it to the bottom with much bouncing around and stopped to check out the mud. It didn't look too bad so I went through. This is what it looked like looking back up the hill.

There were many birds out enjoying the nice day too. I saw doves, finches, red tail hawks, turkeys, kingbirds, cardinals, flycatchers, killdeer and other birds.

Here are pictures of a male scissor tailed flycatcher.

So it was a great day for a ride and I made it home safely. The only damage was the loss of my garage door opener I had attached to the bike. Darn! Now I need a new one.

Preparing for Alaska Trip

My plans are to leave Topeka June 8, 2009 for my second trip to Alaska. In July I purchased a 2005 BMW 1200GS for this trip. I have rode about 6,000 miles on it since purchased and many of these miles have been on rock and gravel roads to become familiar riding it on roads similar to Alaska. Since I purchased it I added the following farkles:

Russell Day Long seat
Aeroflow clear half faring
Aeroflow headlight cover
Happy Trails panniers
Marsee Tank bag
Kaoko throttle control
Jesse luggage rack
Garmin GPS
Sirius satellite radio
Coleman hydration bag and probably a few things I forgot about.

But before I head for Alaska I should have a shake down cruise so I did a Saddlesore 1000 from Topeka to Wakins, CO and back this week. I made the trip in 16 hours for 1031 miles. Since I was riding hard I only averaged 37 mpg which wasn’t very good.

I left Topeka at 4:11 am on Thursday May 7 on I-70 in a light rain. I don’t like riding in the rain, especially in the dark, so I rode about 65 to 70 to begin the trip. There are many deer in our area and I don’t like surprises. By the time I got to Salina, which is 100 miles, I was getting cold so I pulled up an exit ramp and put on another jacket. I noticed quite a lot of water on the seat and didn’t think it was raining that hard. I wiped it off and away I went.

As I got west of Salina the rain quit and daylight began to appear so I cranked it up to about 77mph and tried to maintain a speed about there. I sure miss the cruise control I had on my K1200 LT. I have the Kaoko throttle control but it’s still not a cruise control but did give me a chance to let go of the throttle and give my hand a rest. Just west of Salina there is a huge wind charger farm and they were hardly turning so there was not much wind.

Some people don’t like these but I think they are rather fascinating to watch. Some of these are right next to the road. I went on to Russell that is about 180 miles from Topeka and stopped for gas, potty break, coffee and a couple of sausage McMuffins. The temperature was 59 degrees.

I headed on west on I-70 trying to maintain 77mph. This area is pretty flat and if the wind blows, which it usually does, it can be a tough ride. Today was a good day however. There are spots where there are trees and some low areas where deer cross. In the east bound lane a semi was the side of the road and a Trooper behind it. The semi had struck a deer and it was stuck in the grill. Glad it wasn’t me! My next stop was at Goodland for gas and a short potty break. I was now about 335 miles into the trip.

I headed on west into Colorado. I was getting thirsty and picked up the tube from my hydration bag and nothing. I knew I put about two liters in it. Maybe that is why my seat was so wet! That was my first equipment malfunction. I have the Sirius radio and my Garmin connected to a MixIt 2 and have ear buds to listen to both of them. It makes the time pass quicker if I can listen to some music. The time changes just west of Goodland to Mountain Time. As I was coming to the Watkins exit I stopped and took some pictures, I thought. The camera was on video so no pictures. Another malfunction. Darn! So when I pulled into Watkins, CO which was my turn around place it was 11:02 MDT. I fueled up and purchased a large bottle of water and a Snicker bar. I checked the Coleman Hydration bag and the drinking tube was loose on the bottom so I screwed it in tight and filled the bag with water. That fixed the first malfunction.

I thought I sent a Spot signal but turned on the tracking instead. I called my wife at work and she said she received a Spot message at 4:11 AM when she checked her email. That was the time I fueled before leaving.

Well time to head home. So far I feel pretty good. I drive cars for a dealership in Topeka and make trips to Denver and back in about 16 ½ hours and it is 1,100 miles. The furthest I have ridden a motorcycle before today was 832 miles. I had some wind in Colorado but not terrible. I made a move to adjust something and my music quit coming out of one ear. I fiddled with the connection where the ear buds plug into the MixIt and that seemed to be where the problem was. Darn, no music! The third malfunction. It was starting to warm up so I pulled off a ramp and took off my Aerostich rain gear and put on my Olympia mesh gear. Ah, much better! My next stop was Goodland again where I fueled up. Then it was on to Russell where I fueled and ate a burger. Around Hays and Russell the temperature rose to 90 degrees and was still 89 when I went through Salina. I really enjoy coming from the west on I-70 towards evening. East of Junction City you enter the Flint Hills of Kansas and they are especially beautiful in the evening in the spring. Many burn the pastures to kill the cedar trees and to get rid of the old growth of grass. When the pastures green up like now, you can see the rolling hills of green grass with cows grazing. On top of some of the hills you can see for 20 to 30 miles. I love the views. Next stop was home and when I fueled it was 8:02 PM just shy of 16 hours with driving time of 14.02 hours and average driving speed of 73.5mph.

The Russell Day long is a great seat. My butt did not get sore. My neck and shoulders sure hurt though. I really like the Aeroflow windshield and half faring. It keeps the wind from beating me to death. My odometer showed 1021 miles and the Garmin 1031 miles.

So I sent in the paperwork for the Iron Butt Saddlesore 1000 and hope to be added to the list of “Worlds Toughest Riders”. I don’t know how some of them can do this for 11 days though. Now they are Tough! Of course I am 66 so maybe in my younger years?

A very bug splattered windshield.


Everything seemed to be okay with the bike and the oil level was still full. I will need a new rear tire before heading to Alaska. I can do away with the MixIt and plug the ear buds direct to the Sirius radio and if I need direction I can plug the ear buds to the Garmin. So that is the way I will use it for now. It frees up a pocket in the Marsee tank bag for other things more important. I am glad I made the trip and will probably not try another 1000 miles trip unless I need to get somewhere quick.

Mimed

Mary had a harrowing experience while in Cozumel. I thought this bandito was going to take her out.

Carnival Ecstasy Cruise

I started planning for this cruise about 6 months ago and purchased tickets through Cruise Holidays of Topeka. This cruise was sponsored by 106.9 Country Legends radio in Topeka. We left Topeka January 4th at 5:30 AM by bus and it was very cold. Betty Engle, Junquers Travel, was in charge of the bus transportation and did a wonderful job. The trip down and back was well planned and comfortable. There were 100 persons that signed up for the trip so two busses were required. This posed some problems when stopping for lunch and bathroom breaks but the stops were made where adequate facilities were available.

Sunday night we stayed in Corsicana, TX and Mary and I had a suite in a newly opened hotel. After getting our luggage and freshening up the busses took us to a Sirloin Stockade that was expecting us. We ate a continental breakfast at the hotel before leaving the next morning.
We arrived in Galveston about 2 PM and boarded the Carnival Ecstasy along with 2,000 others.

We left port at 4 PM and headed for Progreso, Mexico. We purchased a tour of Merida City and shopping. The first area we went to was downtown and a very busy place. Many street vendors followed us around peddling fans and other trinkets. Their restrooms or Baños were terrible. The ones at the first location did not have seats and both men & women used the same one. Very dirty! We purchased two cans of Coke in this area. We visited a huge church built in the 1500’s with stones that once belonged to a Mayan pyramid and also toured the Government palace.

Later we went to an upscale mall area and I purchased some tequila and pure vanilla.

Merida is the capital city of the state of Yucatan. Known as "White City" because of the large use of white limestone and white paint this traditional city depicts much of the splendor of Colonial Mexico. This is by no means to say that Merida still exists in a time warp and the contrary could be said. There is old and new exhibited in everything from fashion to architecture.

The Spanish Conquistador Francisco de Montejo founded present day Merida in 1542. An insight into the horrendous pain and suffering of the people who were brutalized by the conquering conquistadors exists in magnificent paintings that are on display in the Governor's Palace located in downtown Merida.

Left in seclusion for many years because of the difficulty of traveling to Merida the people of this region have cultivated a distinct contemporary society that is unique in Mexico.
Merida is a safe place to visit and the people are warm and friendly. There is lots of traffic in Merida, especially downtown. Taking the local bus can be tricky if you do not speak Spanish. The majority of streets are one-way and the bus routes wind all over the place and if you are not on top of things you can end walking more than you expected.

Progreso, Merida's port city, is 30 kilometers north and is an interesting area to visit to see the salt-flats and flamingos.

We went back to the ship and headed for Cozumel Island where we took another tour of the area and more shopping. This was a beautiful area and the water so blue and clear. Cozumel is the largest island in the Mexican Caribbean. It is also the most populated island in Mexico with an estimated population of around 90,000.

Cozumel is situated near the eastern tip of the Yucatan Peninsula in the State of Quintana Roo. The island is approximately 30 miles [48 km] long and 10 miles [16 km] wide. It is about 12 mi [20 km] from the mainland, and some 36 mi [60 km] south of Cancun. Isla Cozumel [or Cozumel Island] derives its name from the Mayans who once lived there and regarded the island as a sacred place. In Mayan, Cuzamil [Cozumel] translates to "land of the swallows," a reflection of the indigenous birds that inhabit the island.

The Mayans are believed to have settled the island over 2000 years ago harvesting the rich abundance of seafood for commercial use. Conch shells were collected as an ingredient for stucco, which was used extensively on the mainland. The ocean also supplied a large number of other valuable items such as shark teeth, stingray spines and seashells that were used for ritual purposes.

The Spanish explorer Juan de Grijalva first landed on the shores of Cozumel in 1518. The visit was proceeded a year later by the butcher Hernán Cortés. The conquistadors ruthlessly invaded the island destroying everything that lay in their path. Whether or not the Spanish knowingly imported smallpox on purpose is a matter of speculation; however to the ravaged Mayans the disease soon eclipsed their very being. Those who did not die a miserable death were shackled and sent to Cuba to live out their lives as slaves.

We visited a tequila distillery and sample several different kinds of tequila. Most of it was too expensive for me but I did purchase one bottle. We stopped downtown and shopped and ate Mexican food that was excellent. Of course we had a Corona beer. The weather was just great the whole cruise. The first day was rather windy though as the ship was heading into a strong south wind.

The service and food was excellent. I managed to just gain 2 pounds and Mary none, so we didn’t do too badly. The entire cruise and travel cost less than $2,000 for both of us which we thought was very reasonable. We had a great time and would consider another cruise in the future.

We arrived back in Galveston about 8 AM Saturday, January 10 and boarded the bus at 11 AM after we all went through customs. They didn’t even look at any luggage. We stayed in Dallas Saturday evening with both dinner and breakfast in the Hotel. Sunday we stopped in Oklahoma City at Hefner Lake & park for a wonderful lunch. It was too much food, but very good. We arrived back in Topeka at 6 PM.

Volunteer work at Chapman, KS

Friday, October 31, I traveled to Chapman, KS to assist the Sisters of St Joseph and others with volunteer work for tornado victims.
We signed in at volunteer headquarters at the Senior Center and were assigned work for the day.

On Friday there were only six of us and we went to a house to do outside painting. It was a beautiful day for painting considering it was the last day of October. We began by pulling flowers near the house and taking down the house numbers. We had to scrape the loose paint from the steel siding. The tornado didn’t do much damage to this house but the debris hitting it took some of the paint off. We went to the Senior Center for a coffee break Friday morning.

We started working on it about 9 AM and finished at 3 PM. Once we had an area scraped some started painting the primer on with a brush. When we had it all scraped then we started painting. There was some on the east peak that we needed to get on the roof to work and the lady, Betty, had ladders in the back of the house that we used. The east side was really in need of paint and at first she said we didn’t need to paint it. I think she thought we wouldn’t want to go that high but we convinced her it needed painting and she agreed. Once the primer was on we started back over with a roller and brushes applying the white paint. It was sure an improvement and made it look so clean. We only painted the front of the house as the rest was okay. When we were finished she was really thrilled.
I stayed with my sister Mary and Dave Anderson since they live in Chapman. Their home escaped the damage from the tornado. Dave drove me around and showed me where the tornado came into town and where it went out. It went right through the middle of town and wasn’t too wide. There was quite a lot of damage but nothing like Greensburg. Mary’s daughter Misty and her husband Joe came for the night also, as Dave and Joe were going pheasant hunting Saturday. We had a good dinner and breakfast and a chance to visit.

On Saturday we met again at the Senior Center and half the group sheet rocked and mudded at the Methodist Center and the group I went with cleaned debris from a house. We had about 5 people in each group. Ours was a very dirty job and we had to wear dust masks. This house had plaster and lathes and blown in insulation. Our job was to remove it and put it in a dumpster. We did this with 5 gallon buckets and heavy duty garbage bags. It was really hard work. By noon we had the downstairs finished and after lunch we finished the upstairs. This all had to be carried down the stairs and out to the dumpster. I did most of the carrying while the rest put it in bags and buckets. We finished about 1:30 PM.
Both days we ate lunch at a nearby house where two of the nuns prepared the food. The sheet rockers were still working but I headed back to Topeka about 2 PM. It gives me a lot of satisfaction when I help others who are in need.

Today I signed up to go back around November 11 when Extreme Home Makeover will come to Chapman and build a home in a week. I volunteered to assist them.

Red Cross Deployment to San Antonio

On September 10, 2008 about 3:30 PM Wendy from the Topeka Red Cross called and wanted to know if I could deploy for Hurricane Ike. I said I could and she said she would be sending me some e-mails on the deployment. I was to travel to San Antonio, TX and so I called the number provided to arrange for airfare. I was to fly out the next morning at 10 AM but first had to stop by the Topeka Red Cross Chapter for a credit card and further instructions. I met Wendy there at 7:30 AM and then headed for the airport in Kansas City. I flew on Delta from Kansas City to Cincinnati, OH, and then to San Antonio arriving there about 3:30 PM.

Upon arrival I had a number to call for further instructions but it was talking about Dallas. So I made about ten phone calls before finally getting a rental car and heading to Kelly Field, USA which is by Lackland Air Force base. I made additional calls to try to determine where the Red Cross was located and finally found them. All Responders stayed in the same building which was a huge warehouse with 2,000 cots 2 feet apart. The building was equipped with huge coolers with four 18inch hoses coming off each cooler. In this building there was a least 16 coolers and the roar of these was something you never want to hear. They blew cold air over us and if that wasn’t enough there were large fans to blow some more and then exhaust fans to suck the hot air out. It felt good when you walked in from the 100 degree weather outside but night time sleeping would be another matter.

Shortly after I arrived the Salvation Army and Southern Baptists began serving us the evening meal. There were probably 400 for that meal. Those staying in this shelter consisted of Army National Guard, EMT’s, bus drivers, Police officers, Red Cross, Southern Baptists who were cooking the food and others. There were probably never more than 1,000 in this shelter. After I finished eating I went to the car and brought in items for an overnight stay. I picked out a spot without others around since there were not that many staying yet. This sleeting area was about the size of two football fields. I went to where they were giving out blankets and got one thin blanket. I went in the dining area and some were watching TV but IKE was not close to land yet. I decided to try and sleep. I was about 75 yards from the bathroom and I can never make it through the night without getting up a couple of times and it was a long trek to the bathroom. During the course of the night I added 3 more blankets and was still freezing. About 2:30 I had enough and went out to my rental car to sleep. Of course it was humid and hot out yet, but better than freezing. I slept some and woke when it grew light out.

I went in for breakfast and tried to find out what work I was to do but no one seemed to know. I did help serve the noon meal Friday and we were supposed to serve dinner but there was a last minute change and someone else was serving. I brought a book and read it Friday afternoon and Saturday morning. You get tired of watching the Weather Channel seeing the same thing. I walked around and took some pictures of all the ambulances, busses, and buildings. The building I was staying in was at least ¼ mile long as was the one where the evacuees were staying. I found out the busses were being paid $1,800 a day per bus to sit there and many never moved for 10 days. There were probably 400 busses there. There were portable showers and porta potties set up at each location.

By noon on Saturday I was very dejected wondering what I should do. At lunch I sat down by three Red Cross volunteers and must have looked forlorn as they started asking me questions about where I was working. Come to find out I needed to go to the Red Cross Chapter across town in San Antonio to process in. Dan & Jeannie Lutz from Michigan were very helpful to me and got me headed in the right direction. They took me across the street to where all the evacuees were coming in and where they were staying. I went down and processed in and was assigned to work in the mass feeding and reported back to Dan. He put me right to work in the drink area which is probably one of the most demanding with the amount of work and heavy lifting. We ice down water, soda, milk and juice. We had about 30 coolers, some of which were very large and heavy. They were bending over filling these coolers so one of the first changes I made was to get some tables in there to set the coolers on. It made it much easier on the backs. The first day we tired serving soda and water at the meals but with so many choices it slowed the line down too much. Sunday we decided to serve only water at meals and soda and water between meals. This worked much better except they complained about not having sodas. I suggested we serve water and one Diet soda at the next meal and that went over well. They do not like diet sodas but when that was the only choice they would drink it. We had several pallets of diet sodas.

By Monday the shelter was really filling up and we hit a peak of around 6,000 persons at this shelter. This was the largest of the shelters in San Antonio and when they closed down a shelter due to fewer people the remaining ones were sent to our shelter at Building 1536. We had people coming and going at all times day and night. We worked 12 hour shifts with mine being from 7AM to 7 PM. By Sunday night I was coming down with a bad cold and it would continue to worsen as the week went by.

Now you try to imagine you are an evacuee from Galveston and it is 1 AM and you are brought to this shelter with your four small children with only the clothes on your back. You have been on the bus for several hours and as you come in the building you are searched, checked with metal detectors and wrist banded. You give all your information for you and your children and go through a line for water and food, if we had any. Then you have to go back in this room that is dark and filled with 6,000 cots and probably has 5,000 people staying there and you find a place for your family. What trauma!

We fed three meals a day and the Food Bank of San Antonio brought the cooked food. We never knew what we might get or when it would arrive. Sometimes it might be two hours late and people were standing in line the whole time. We had 8 serving lines for food and 2 drink lines. As they came in they were required to use hand sanitizer to clean their hands. We would go through 2 pallets of drinks per meal and another pallet between meals. I was really a lot of work to keep this all iced down and to keep the lines moving. We had many local San Antonio volunteers helping us as well as the National Guard. I made friends with many nice caring people. Most of the time we had coffee and we also served that. We could not let anyone serve themselves for fear of spreading disease. We struggled to keep enough milk for children and had to hide it to keep adults from drinking it. We received orange juice a few times. We did receive a lot of good fruit, apples, bananas, grapes, oranges, peaches, plums and strawberries. Between meals they would serve snacks so I imagine some of these people will go away weighing more than when the came.

The majority of the evacuees were Hispanic and blacks with a few whites. In the later days, as some were given hotel rooms, the ones that remained were the poorer ones and many were probably homeless before Hurricane Ike. Many were disabled either mentally or physically. Some could fly off the handle with just a touch or a look.

By Wednesday I was not feeling well at all. I had a sore throat, cough, cold and diarrhea and was becoming worn out. Many others were also sick. I stayed away from the food serving and we had hand sanitizer and wash stations to clean our hands. Everyone had to wear gloves and either hairnets or a cap. By Thursday I was able to get into a hotel, a Holiday Inn Select near the airport. I had a room mate and he worked nights and also we went to 8 hour shifts instead of 12 hours.

By Saturday we were down to 1,200 remaining in the shelter. Dan & Jeannie took the day off and I was getting sicker. I had diarrhea Saturday and was taking Sunday off. By Sunday morning I was still sick so I went to the Red Cross Chapter to see if I could process out and go home. I seen the nurse and was given some medication and I called to make flight arrangements. It took about two hours to process out. On Sunday I had a Snickers bar for the entire day. I drank some water. I flew out about 2 PM on American Airlines through Dallas and arrived in Kansas City about 6 PM.

Monday morning I was in the doctors office by 8 AM and seen the nurse about 9 AM. I was given some antibiotics and some tests ran to make sure it was nothing serious. I am writing this Wednesday morning and am starting to feel a little better. I sure sleep a lot though.

It was a great experience and even though I did not get to see the hurricane damage I seen what it does to the victims. Being a volunteer is not for the faint of heart and you have to be prepared to rough it. I am not sure if I will go again but we will see how I feel about that the next time a disaster comes. The Red Cross is a great group to work with and I have a much better opinion of them after my experience in San Antonio.

Rambling Roads

A book about my life happening's from early age to age 65. I first wrote my memories up to 1987, but then, new things began to happen every year so I wrote about that each year. In 2003, I rode my motorcycle on a 5 week trip to Alaska and kept a journal of it so I would always be able to recall the adventure. In 2006 I created a blog on the Internet to share my adventures with cyberspace.

My early memories include farming at Frankfort, KS, starting a family, Army life in Colorado, Kansas Highway Patrol adventures, life as a cowboy, Al's Sharpening and Small Engine Repair, Deputy Sheriff and unemployment.

Go to http://www.lulu.com/merrygee for this book and others edited by Mary Gerstner or just click on Rambling Roads above the picture.