Set your alarm clock. We're going to try to beat the heat. We'll be leaving at 8:00 from the Sleep Inn on South 9th just past Water Well Rd. At least I hope that's where it is.
TIME....................9:00
Here it is.............. Hungry Mann's
220 E Highway 56
Galva, Kansas
(620) 654-3500
Facebook page........https://www.facebook.com/Hungry-Manns-C ... 6/?fref=ts
Web Page.............
Map site.............http://bit.ly/1uLkbOc
6:00 came early with my furry alarm clock standing on my head wondering why I'm still in bed. Remembering that we had a breakfast ride today I realized that I'd better get up and get things ready. I had been fighting with some pesky loose kickstand springs on my bike. This usually resulted in the springs falling off whenever I put the stand down. As one could imagine that become rather annoying in short order. I had to come up with a way to keep more tension on the springs to prevent this inconvenience. So yesterday I put the bike on the lift to weigh my options. I could shorten the springs, but spring wire is too hard to work with. I could make a new spring plate or re-drill the holes in the plate to effectively shorten the plate and keep some tension on the springs. That might be enough, but it seemed like a lot of work for a maybe. The other and last option was to bend the stud that the spring plate hooks to back about a quarter inch to keep the errant springs tight. I chose the later. Crude but effective. Upon re-installing the stand I found it did keep the springs tight enough to keep them in place. I replaced the ugly cover and the job was done. Guzzi, much like the Japanese these days, has taken a page from the Harley play book. If you have something on the bike that's ugly, throw a chrome cover over it. Things like brake master cylinders, ignition coils and the like. Instead of stylizing the part they just throw an inexpensive stamped steel chrome cover over it. Or maybe a molded plastic one that will break within a week after the warranty expires. Much like the ones over the throttle linkage on my Guzzi's. New ones are available but will require a second mortgage. Be that as it may. By the time I finished my pressure gauge was indicating that I was pretty well out of steam, and I used what little energy I had left to push the stray bikes in my driveway back into the garage and left the Goose on the lift.
Back to this morning. As I stumbled through my morning routine and time rapidly slipped away the realization hit me that I still needed to get the bike off the lift. By this time Leo is starting to put things together and is getting animated while staying squarely under foot. I managed to put myself together enough to go out to the garage and shuffle bikes around to get the Goose off the lift and set it up for Leo. Loaded the carrier, water and dish, leash, spectacles, testicles, watch and wallet. All present and accounted for. Back in the house, tooth, camera, sign in book, Come On Leo, Lets ride. We mount up, fire up and launch for the Sleep Inn. Then, there it is. The nagging little demon in the back of my brain poking me, saying “You're forgetting something”. Within sight of the Sleep Inn it hits me. I don't have extra batteries for the camera. Oh well. I'll shoot til it gives out. Fortunately the camera said the batteries were well charged. I shot rather sparingly in Salina saving the batteries for Galva.
When I got there I found that I was the first one there, save for the lawn care crew. Soon the others started to roll in. I tried to get as many group angles as I could, to ensure I got everyone in. I counted 16 gathered at the Sleep Inn, but some chose an alternate route so I think the group amounted to 14 or 15. I saw Terry Powell mount up so I dashed to my bike and gave a few quick blasts on my horn to announce that it was departure time, and loaded Leo up. Bikes started pulling out and I found myself 7th or 8th in line as we headed south. We didn't take the route that my road trip planner chose but that wasn't an issue. We headed down K4 to Gypsum and south through Canton. Then west to Galva. It didn't take long to settle into a relaxing ride early enough to avoid the major heat. Leaving Canton our group was separated by traffic and I was once again cloaked with the mantel of leadership. Fortunately I remembered what I saw on the map and the only real question was which side of the road was the restaurant on. Much to my relief, about 5 miles down the road I picked up the sight of gleaming chrome and the tell tale bright ROMEO shirts. Pulling in I saw that it was going to be another big turnout. I found a place in the shade to park and got Leo settled so I could get the outside shots. Inside I found the place pretty well packed with a few confused looking locals. As usual I was the last to get my order in and after the shots were all taken I sat down to enjoy a particularly delicious ham and cheese omelet with hash browns and a glass of orange juice that really hit the spot.
After a good meal and some good conversation I went out to find that my bike was the only one left in the lot and Leo had tangled his leash around both wheels denying him access to his water dish. I rescued him and got him to his water. Loading him up on the bike I decided to try to go back the way my road trip planner laid out. I found that Main St. in Galva went straight north out of town. That looked familiar so off I went. After several miles I encountered an ominous sign saying “Pavement Ends”. It sure did. Right at Pawnee road. Fortunately Pawnee heading west was paved and it felt like I had gone far enough north to match the plan. So off to the west I go. After several more miles I came to an intersection of a major road. Dilemma! Straight or right. None of the scenery looked familiar but this could be the road to Lindsborg. Again is seemed like I and gone far enough west. So north I go and is wasn't long before I got to more familiar territory. Lindsborg HO! Now I know where I am and the rest of the ride was stress free. Arriving home at 11:45 I think we did well at beating the heat.
We had an exceptionally good turnout with a head count of 52 signed in and 47 bikes. From Salina, Hutchenson, Manhattan, Moundridge, Enterprise, Culver, Hesston, Minneapolis, Culver, McPherson, Lindsborg, and Canton.
We were riding Honda, Harley, Yamaha, Suzuki, BMW, Kawasaki, Kymco, CanAm, Cushman, Custom Trike, and Moto Guzzi.
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