ROMEOS

Guys - It's time to go East a way for this week. We haven't been to this place for quite some time and I had a hard time just finding it. It's been recently sold and under a new name so that's the reason it was hard to locate. The City was quite helpful in directing me to this place and seemed quite excited we would be rolling in next Wednesday.
The roads in and around this place are some of the best in Kansas so there should be no reason to hurry home after lunch. Just pick a direction and head off to explore some road you may have forgotten. That's what I think I'll do!
Oh, by the way, the kind lady that I spoke with indicated they have a special that day and thought it might be an open face roads beef sandwich with smashed potatos grvy and a vegetable of some sort. I forgot to ask how much!

Here's the time.............................................11:30 am

Here's the place.........................................Callaham's Grill
107 E. MacKenzie
White City, Kansas 66872
785-349-2017

As always..........................ride careful, ride safe and I'll see you in White City. Richard
http://mapq.st/1FGty7L
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Guys - What a day. If I have time I'll be back and give you a rundown of my day but in the meantime, I just got the pictures loaded so I think that will keep 'ya busy for a brief time while I mull around thinking of something to say. First I want to appologize for last week. I was just pooped after sagging for the BAK so I just folded my tent after lunch and went to bed to catch up on some much needed sleep. The thing I regret most was not giving ample congratulatory acknowledgement to Louie who rode a whoping 205 miles to lunch. I duly awarded him the coveted 'washer/dryer' at Duane's birthday.
Louie again said he had put in a full morning getting up at near sunup to beat the heat today. On my trip home, I discovered the wisdom of that move. I haven't ridden in heat like that for quite some time. Thank goodness for my 'barefoot willie' cup holder and the lady at the cafe in White City that filled it to the brim with ice. It made its own water along the way!
Oh yes, for those that keep track of such...we had a respectable 25 show up for lunch today. The heat I'm sure had something to do with the turnout being down from the 41 that showed up last week.
Well, here are some shots of the day-----

It started out as a beautiful day. I was looking forward to trying out my Guzzi Quota off the pavement. They used to be called “enduro bikes”, then someone changed to “dual sport”, and now they're “Adventure Touring Bikes”. And an adventure it was. After a fitful nights sleep I met the guys with dirt bikes at Terry Powell's house for a 8:30 am departure. The four of us set out with Terry in the lead. This is my first “dirt” bike so I'm still a little more than skittish when the earth gets loose beneath my wheels. After all it is a little disquieting when my front wheel does a left hander and looks back to see why the rear wheel doesn't follow suite. We quickly ran out of pavement and the bike seemed to behave well. WOW! This isn't too bad! The worst part so far was the road dust sticking to the sunscreen on my lips. With each turn the road got more challenging. I soon found most of my time being occupied by my eyes darting wildly around in a feeble attempt to find a track to follow that didn't feature a rut left by a covered wagon. It wasn't long before we found ourselves on a “road” featuring some tall prairie grass growing up from the middle of the road. I'm sure this road hasn't been used since the westward expansion. The further we rode the less road we had. Soon the grass began encroaching onto the tire tracks. By this time the only pavement we saw was on the increasingly rare bridge over the odd dry creek bed. Then, of course, there were the sandy washes. Again the front wheel turns around to see just why the rear wheel is going the way it is. At this point the road we were on , made the Oregon trail look like Interstate 70. Then we made an ominous turn. I saw the sign. MINIMUM MAINTENANCE , TRAVEL AT YOUR OWN RISK. I heard the booming voice in my head “YOU'VE BEEN WARNED!”. Suddenly the terrain changed from sandy rutted prairie to boulders roughly the size of Volkswagens. And those paved bridges? GONE! Now it's down into the abyss of the creek bed. At this point I just wanted to click my heels three times and say “there's no place like home”. Unfortunately there was an engine in the way preventing me from taking that desperate action. Somehow, being behind Terry I could still see the beaming smile on his face. He was having the time of his life. After what seemed like an eternity of what amounted to rock crawling we found ourselves back on the comfort of gravel. We came to a “T” intersecting on the left and continued straight. After about a block Terry stopped and advised me that we may be in someones driveway. Suddenly there was frantic gesturing from behind. Mike had blown a tire. Now I don't want to say we were in the middle of nowhere, but if I threw a rock in the right direction I'm sure it would have landed there. There we were, stuck. By this time I was convinced that some future generation would find four sun bleached skeletons beside the remains of four rusted out motorcycles. But Mike had a plug kit and Terry directed me back to pavement and our final destination of White City. I was early and only the fourth bike there. Soon more trickled in and a good crowd showed up. I was waiting for my lunch order when Terry and Ken stepped in. But Mike was conspicuous by his absence. I queried Terry about Mike, fearing he may have been eaten by wolves. Terry assured me that Mike was OK and was at the local gas station getting his tire fixed. I had intended to chaperon Mike back to Salina just in case any other misfortune were to befall him, but I missed him by about 15 minuets. I decided to follow Bud and another GW trike back on K4 and soon pulled into my driveway ever so grateful to soak up some of the air conditioning That I am paying so handsomely for.

Klem: I understand. The Quota is more like a battle wagon.