ROMEOS

Guys - I always love it when suggestions come in from the membership. It tells me that you guys are really into helping these little places we focus our support on. This particular place comes courtesy of Emory Witt of Salina and it happens to be a little place we have not been to before. Can you believe that! Thanks Emory!
This place is out West a ways and they have suggested that we arrive at 11:ooam to prevent overtaxing their facility. Maybe they heard of the turnout we had at Marion. They said noon was by far their busiest time so they suggested we come an hour earlier just to be on the safe side. Naturally I agreed even though it will mean I will have to get up way early and probably not get in my full dose of beauty sleep.

Here's the time.................................................11:00 am

Here's the place................................................JD's Diner
201 N. Main
Susank, Kansas 67544
620-653-4007
Dixie Clark - Owner

I spoke with the owner a few moments ago and she informed me that Wednesday is chicken fried steak special day and it comes with smashed potatoes, gravy and green beans for 7.50. Drinks are 1.00 and pie is 2.50. Similar to what we had this week, huh! I do hope they have air conditioning though but who knows, we may not need it!
http://mapq.st/1FGty7L
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Guys - I was overwhelmed by the fact that this little place has excaped my radar for this long. Equally overwhelming was how efficiently the cook/wait staff took care of us. Consider this.......what other place have we ever been to where we exceeded the entire population of the town. Oops, I now recall St. Joe! OK, other than that one!
There haven't been many!
The ride West out of town on hwy 4 is one of my favorite rides. It passes the motorcycle mecca of Kansas (Marquette) and curves and turns and has its up and downs and in the summertime as it was today, we have side winds. For those of us that reside in the flatlands, it's the closest we come to ever using up the side rubber on the tread. Once on the way to lunch and then again on the way back home for the other side of the tire.
After passing Marquette a few more miles you pass the south entrance road to the Kanopolis Dam. It's always good for an evening 50 mile loop on a calm nightime ride. But a few miles further west down hwy 4 is one of my favorite spots. It's just this side of the turnoff to go to Little River. It's nothing but a farm but the thing is they raise mules. Yep....good ole fashioned Borax Wagon train mules. Dang if their not the cutest things around. I love watching 'em. I'm sure the old farmer that raises 'em thinks i'm the craziest guy around. I just love looking at 'em!
Then, it's back on hwy 4 again for twenty or so miles and there's Geneseo. It's listed as a city on the State map but I always wondered why it's listed and Carneiro just West of Salina on 140 isn't.....strange.
Then it's past the 4-way Lions/Ellsworth intersection and onto the dry boring part. I usually just close my eyes and hope it passes uneventfully but I always seem to wake up by the time I get to the Holyrood turnoff and wonder what happened to our two ROMEOs from there that were so faithful a couple years ago. Then it's Claflin and lo and behold there's our Salina guys standing around taking a break at a corner store. They had all passed me a while back when I was daydreaming at
55. I motored on and was soon at Hoisington and the Dairy Queen store location currently temporarily closed for remodel. Directly across the street is a green street sign that says....Susank Road, and I turn. A few miles up the road and I see more headlights in my rearview. It's the Salina guys finally catching up to us enroute to lunch. What a joyful ride this has been!

Say, I changed the headings on the sign in sheet and then I notice I failed to report anything about it. It's the old timers thing, I'm sure of it! This week instead of asking about the bike you chose to ride this week, I asked for the county of the city you reside in. It gave me a larger picture of the scope of the area we serve and six different counties were represented on the street of Susank. Saline county reported the largest number with 16 followed by McPherson county with 10, 7 from Reno and one each from Russell, Barton and Ottawa counties. As interesting as these numbers are, just think of the potential number of ROMEO's that don't know anything about us! That says RECRUIT! We shouldn't use up all the fun...let's share it with some others.
Now...for a word of announcement...next week will be a regular ROMEO lunch to somewhere but the following wednesday will be the week of the Arkansas ROMEO Rendezvious so if you plan on going, be making your reservation soon. Rooms are going fast and the Hub is filling up. If you've never attended...plan on it this year. The roads are, well, awesome, the scenery is gorgeous and the memories will last a lifetime and the foods not bad either.
Now I know that everyone won't be able to make it so for those not able to go to Arkansas, we have a special lunch planned just for you guys. It will be a joint lunch with our friends from the South Central group and they are coming up our way this year. The place has been picked and reserved and I think you will like it. Be watching.....I'll post it in the near future prior to Joyce and I going to the Hub.
Thanks everyone for coming today and being part of Kim Altvaters 65th birthday.

chrono adjust

That Dairy Queen was doing business as usual at Hoisington as I stopped and had icecream on the way home.The work was on the exterior.

Well time is getting short for my 2 week trip and I'm scrambling to get the bike ready for the ride. I did get the rear brake rotor replaced so it no longer feels like the proverbial mechanical bull every time I hit the rear brake.

Just a side note. There is one fly buzzing around here taunting me. A half can of Raid has proved to be ineffective since he seems to out fly the spray. I swear I can hear him laughing at me, and I think I even saw him stick his tongue out at me. It's starting to get personal. At this point and I'm not above considering high explosives!

Back to the bike. I've been needing new handle bar grips for a long time so I got on line and went shopping. I found a pair that included a throttle sleeve. So instead of just ordering them on line I called the order in. I wanted to be sure they were the right length and diameter. After a lengthy discussion that would have been well served by an interpreter I convinced them of what I needed and ordered them. It didn't take long for me to realize that I still needed to remove the grip from the throttle sleeve to change the friction lock over. So I called back to change the order. That's when I found that you have about a nanosecond to make the change before the order goes out. Well I ordered the right ones. again dealing with the language barrier, and now there are 2 sets of grips coming.

They came yesterday while I was on the ride, and despite all my best efforts they sent the wrong ones. At this point my head is about to explode like Vesuvius. Back on the phone and still no interpreter. When all was said and done they told me to send the first set back and I could keep the other set and still get a full refund. Fortunately returns are no problem and they even pick up the return shipping. It was getting near midnight and they couldn't get anyone in the order department, so I opted to call back in the morning and place my third order.

Morning comes and I start to pack the grips up for return. Now, where is my mailing tape? After riffling through every cupboard in both the kitchen and garage it is nowhere to be found. But I did find an old pair of grips and sleeves. Having that, I decided to just get the replacement foam covers and leave it at that. Well they're on the way and at least I know l they will fit this time.

Just a few more loose ends to tie up and the bike will be ready. First to Warsaw MO for my mom's 101st birthday. I don't dare miss that. Then to St Joseph Mo for a Guzzi rally, and then to Milwaukee for my daughters pet rescue poker run.

The ride to Susank started a little rough for me. Sleep was a little elusive for me and I was dragging a bit when we left. Suddenly I heard engines fire up and I scrambled to get Leo on board in time to hit the road. I was tail end Charlie bringing up the rear but I was on the road. About half way there I swept out the last of the cobwebs and settled into a very enjoyable ride. Leo was on high alert for those devious cattle and made sure they kept their distance. We pulled into Susank to find a quaint quiet town. However I was a little taken aback that the side streets weren't paved. But that just added to the rustic charm. Rolling up to the restaurant we were greeted by bikes scattered hither and yon. Parking was, shall we say, casual. I found a shady spot in front of an abandoned house and parked there with several other bikes. I got Leo settled and went about getting some shots. The first thing I noticed was the camera wasn't cooperating. NO POWER!! I was starting to get nervous. I replaced the Harbor Freight batteries with Energizers to no avail. It seemed that the rabbit had died also. They were old batteries and I wasn't sure they weren't dead. About this time panic is starting to set in. In desperation I tried the original batteries again and to my great relief the camera powered up and the batteries showed a good charge. The day was saved! The more I took pictures, the more I started to feel the quaint and homey atmosphere of this town that progress seems to have left behind. It's like it was no more a small but busy center of commerce, but more like a group of close friends who chose to stick together and share each others strength. There were a lot of abandoned houses, which is something I am attracted to. I love to look them over and imagine all the living that went on there. Also old abandoned companies and all the people who worked there and made a living there until whatever economic forces led to their demise. These places are filled with the spirits of the people who did their working and living there.

Once inside the restaurant I found we had pretty much filled the place. There were still a few stragglers rolling in. I did my best to get everyone in and was given a few suggestions for shots to make the series more pertinent. I enjoyed a meal of chicken fried steak and mashed potatoes and gravy. It wasn't until after we had eaten that I discovered that we had pretty much doubled the population of the town. I hope we brought a little economic boost to town. All too soon it was time to head back. Needing gas I decided to follow Emory to Bunker Hill. When we reached I70 most everyone got on the freeway, but I stopped to gas up. There I was met by a fellow customer who also owned a wiener dog and was amused to see one riding a bike. After a pleasant chat we hit the freeway back to Salina. By the time we got back home I just crumbled into a pile of rubble and was shot for the rest of the day. That was a great ride!