Coast to coast in the US -third time!

[eades473]

Nice vacation! You mention a lot of stops and roads but no specific names so us curious folks can find them or ride them ourselves, If it's not a lot of trouble more info would be appreciated. thanks

[Fred Camper]

On our last drive from Michigan to San Diego, we had a hoot staying in. Hanna Missouri, the home of Tom Sawyer. It is likely behind you know but was a nice stay on our trip and right on the Mississippi River.

[Sagebrush]

On our last drive from Michigan to San Diego, we had a hoot staying in. Hanna Missouri, the home of Tom Sawyer. It is likely behind you know but was a nice stay on our trip and right on the Mississippi River.

I think you mean Hannible, MO home of Mark Twain.

[Fred Camper]

How soon we forget. You are still correct Dean.

[mrs west]

We’re way passed Hannibal now but I wish we knew! We could have totally swung that! I’ll let KG update specifics. Wild day today! And now we’re in a beautiful historic landmark

In terms of the roads, I can definitely give a play by play of every where we have been exactly. At the end of the trip we’ll post our map that we have drawn out all of the wing’s trips on. I’ll be more specific going forward about our whereabouts, and can try to go back at some point and edit previous posts with more details.

For a lot of the navigation, I just wing it with whatever looks the most windy on google maps, all while considering where the next free campsite and salad bar/buffet will be. I try to find fun roads on motorcycleroads.com but a lot of times they’re out of the way so I just look for the squiggliest line on google maps and hope it’s paved!

[Whiskerfish]

SNIP I try to find fun roads on motorcycleroads.com but a lot of times they’re out of the way so I just look for the squiggliest line on google maps and hope it’s paved!

There is an old joke about riding with Gord Jones (aka Rat) and the time he tried to find a road on his paper map that he was following. One of us with better eyes looked at the map and discovered that in fact it was not a road just a crease in the paper. He also likes to find goat trails to ride on.

[mr west]

Day 12, thursday 29

We woke up in Lexington, Missouri and then we started by going to get breakfast just outside Kansas City with and old friend of Amanda at "the Wooden Spoon". Great guy and good start. After that we took the advice from the forum here and stopped and got some more temperature appropriate gear at Cycle Gear. Its really hot now! And also we will need it last stretch through the Nevada desert.

[mr west]

We did our best to take nice roads but once you are i Kansas its not so easy.

We had chinese buffet in Junction City and then carried on to Topeka where we visited the Brown vs Board of Education lawsuit museum. Very interesting to get the background on how some states permited "de jure" segregation in schools and some even required it! And how the supreme court in the end found it unconstitutional and a change was possible to start.

As it was so hot, we had to go for another night in a motel with ac again. After some more driving we found one with a room with reasonable smell for reasonable rate and called it a day

[Fred Camper]

Do be careful with roads in Kansas. On our last trip through Kansas we were headed to Santa Fe and our route was a two lane with a huge methane cloud for 100 miles due to corporate ranching with few people visible even in mostly boarded up towns. A "no go" for a bike tour

[mrs west]

Really funny about the crease in the map! It reminds me of following a nonexistent country road in Idaho

We went along the Kansas River to get out of Kansas city, then along K4 to get out of Topeka. The museum was a cool stop for me cause I studied and wrote about the Brown v Board case in college and am an educator now. I wish we had a bit more room on the bike for some of the books they had in the store!

Also a really cool thing to note about Kansas, as a preschool teacher, the children I work with have inspired in me a love and fascination with large vehicles and construction equipment. Kansas is the capital of large farming vehicles! We’ve seem some of the largest vehicles I’ve ever encountered and I bet the kids I work with would love them! I just realized I didn’t get any pictures but there are some as big as a house, just driving down the road!

[mr west]

Day 13, Friday 30th

We started from the motel in Abeline in the morning and wanted to get as far as possible before bad weather was supposed to hit late afternoon.

We took KS15 to KS18 around the Waconda Lake. We decided to go to the Praire Dog National Park, but as I slowed down after just going straight and straight and started braking and turning to make a 90 degree onto the last mile of road to the park I LOST CONTROL OF THE BIKE!

For a fraction of a second the handlebar went full left full right and I thought things like "ok so this is when we crash", "did I go through oil?"

Luckily we already we already had slowed down alot and by just stopping to turn and coasting to a stop we were fine. Ok. Flat front tire. We are out in the sun and its really hot. As it is in the middle of nowhere in Kansas theres is not even phone service but just one second later a state trooper stops a car right behind us!

So he calls to check a towing service from Norton, just 4 miles bac and also suggests the Norton Sport Center that might do motorcycle maintainence. While Amanda is checking the situation with our AAA I have a chat with the trooper. Like so many people his family came about 150 years ago from Germany and now he is mostly enjoying the laid back and quite slow job as a state trooper in Kansas. Only drawback is that if there is trouble, there is no backup.

After getting the Norton Sport Center on the phone they just said "cancel the AAA, Craig is on his way to get ya". Of course everyone has a huge truck and a trailer in Kansas, and this family business were kind enough to come pick us up free of charge.

It was super nice to come there sit down, and have something to drink inside. I guess they have children pretty young in Kansas as they were at times free generations working on the bike, Craig, his father and his son. His wife were answering the phones and making appointments.

We found nothing wrong with the tire or any debris or anything inside, just the tube might have started leaking after getting pinched while being a bit flat in storage or something. Anyway Craig put in a new tube and also checked the rotors, they seem a tad warped both of them, but the bike is safe to ride. Just we had some problem to get the sufficient clearance from the caliper when reassemblying.

Question for you all: on earlier models you adjust clearance by pulling the left fork leg, is it same on the 79 even though things are a bit reversed with the speedometer on the left side?



After putting everything back together we were back on the road. We tried to go as far as possible but everytime we come over a hill the sky was a bit darker ahead. At one point the side winds were so strong that I realized that if any worse we will have another disaster, so we just had to do a 180 and go back and seek shelter.

The mexican restaurant/motel we were hoping for was closed so we had to find another place. Only other restaurant in town was "the re-load". Appearently there was a farmers market and band playing in the town center so we bought some cherries before heading to "the re-load" where they accidently put sauerkraut on my pizza! And it was good! The rain started and we decided to go for the hotel in the same building. And we were happy we did!

The Landmark Inn in Oberlin used to be a bank, but the owner Gary Anderson renovated this old building from 1887 and turned the teller room into a restaurant with hotel on top, and also added some structure in back with more room. its a really interesting place with lot of history in it. And also Gary Anderson is from a Swedish family and very nice to chat to. He lives in the building and is running the whole hotel, restaurant, and gift shop in a very quiet, effecient, caring and beautiful way. The basement even holds 19th century gym equipment and a swedish sauna!

[mr west]

He had many Frank Lloyd Wright inspired items in the hotel. Check out his life story and the happenings in the "Talysin"! Crazy stuff.

[mr west]

Pics

[mr west]

Pics

[hmax]

I'd love to see what 19th C gym equipment looks like!