This morning's think tank was quite informative. We extolled the virtues (and vices) of various farm tractors and drag racing bikes, and an airplane or two. We also touched on astronomy, discussing who would be the best candidate for the first trip to Mars. There was a quite interesting list of suggestions. I was surfing through that repository of all knowledge and wisdom, Facebook. I ran across an article about the Hubble telescope finding a cluster of three galaxies that are 600,000,000 light years away. That means those images are 600,000,000 years old. How can we be sure that it even exists any more?
If the whole thing self destructed 300,000,000 years ago, we won't know about it for another 300,000,000 years. 
Then I really got my geek on and pulled up my spread sheet and calculated that a snail could make 6,332,275 trips around the world in 600,000,000 years. 🤯 Of course it may not make quite that many trips owing to mountains and valleys impeding it's forward progress, but it could really get cooking on the flats, reaching speeds of up to .03 MPH. Then the conversation turned to a topic of far greater urgency. Where and when to gather for the ride to Durham. After seconds of intense debate and deliberation we agreed on meeting at the Roadway Inn for a 10:30 departure. It shouldn't take us 600,000,000 years to get there, even at a velocity substantially less than the speed of light.TIME........11:30
Here it is....Main Street Cafe
517 Douglas Ave.
Durham, Kansas 67438
620-732-2096
Facebook Page.....https://www.facebook.com/Main-Street-Ca ... 1303690465
Web Page..........
Map site..........https://tinyurl.com/wd4hsez
The weather man got my attention this morning with his conspicuous lack of sunshine. I was a little apprehensive so I called up the weather on Deep Thought. All looked good with the promise of sunshine for the trip home. I tried to stay low key as to not set off the fur missile to early. That, as usual, was an exercise in futility. Fritz put it together pretty early on. I chiseled most of the bugs off of my windshield and it was time to mount up. Fritz on board we fired up and headed down Centennial. All was gong well until I encountered a traffic jam of semis all trying to get into Schwans. I guess they were prepping for a run on pizzas during the next episode of the plandemic. That may also trigger a second run on toilet paper. Patients wearing thin I slalomed through the line and broke free of the chaos. Despite the delay I was still the first one to the Roadway Inn. Shortly thereafter Wayne Keeler rolled in and then several more. The tire kicking ran a little long and we left about 5 minutes late. I immediately fell into the zone and reveled in the music emanating from my pipes. We had briefly discussed the routing for the ride. Either K4 to K15, or through Roxbury to K15. I was expecting the latter when Kurt Keeler took the lead, but leaving Gypsum Kurt pressed on down K4. It didn't make any difference to me. It just caught me a little off guard. Pulling into Durham we were met by a substantial number of bikes already there and the street swarming with ROMEOs. Our old friend Richard Kurtz even made an appearance. It was good to see him in such good spirits. I got Fritz settled and went snap happy. I counted 28 bikes by the time I went inside. Once inside I zeroed in on the strawberry rhubarb pie just to make sure it was there. After getting all the indoor shots I settled in and placed my order. I squeezed in at a table with Steve Errebo, Gary Spriker, and Duane Zook. I was facing the window and as I waited to place my order I saw Big Jim Langford, and Randy Clark pull in. Several others also rolled in too. The stragglers ended up sitting in the front room as we had filled the back room. I got up to get shots of them to include in the portfolio for the week. Big Jim advised me that he had bought up all the strawberry rhubarb pie, but he was willing to sell me a piece. At a slight mark up of course. Since the price hadn't been set yet, I called his bluff and passed on the deal. However, when I got my order in I made sure to get my pie request in up front. I opted for my usual bacon cheese burger. Of course getting seated as late as I usually do I was pretty much the last one out. I did save a bite for Fritz, which he inhaled and likely never tasted. A little more tire kicking and things were starting to thin out. I loaded Fritz up and when I pulled out I found myself as the Guzzi sandwich between Big Jim and Randy Clark. Out three bike caravan motored north on K15 I decided that I really wasn't up to backtrack home so when I peeled off toward Roxbury, Jim and Randy motored on north. I thought I might meet up with them in Gypsum, but it wasn't to be. I continued on home and got the bike in the garage, freed Fritz from the pet carrier and went inside to collapse, totally spent from a great ride, great food and great friends.