ROMEOS

Here's a place that was suggested a while ago. They have rather limited seating, 36 capacity, and they usually have a good lunch crowd. So we're set up a little later than usual to give their lunch crowd time to clear out. The weather looks good albeit a little warm. Their menu is on their web site.

Once again we gathered to figure out the meaning of existence. We continually come to the same conclusion. We exist to ride motorcycles. Next we have to figure out where to ride to. This week it's Beloit. Then came the serious question of how do we know when we have arrived? Solution, look for the other bikes. For those of us leaving from Salina our best shot of success is if we leave from the Iron Skillet at 12:15 See you there.

TIME....................1:30

Here it is.............. Kettle
204 S Mill St
Beloit, KS 67420

(785) 534-1971

Facebook Page............http://www.kettlebeloit.com/

Web Page.............

Map site.............http://bit.ly/1uLkbOc

Today my inner Luddite reared his ugly head with a vengeance. Having spent my last few dollars at the Dollar Tree, I shot across the street to Dillon's to pick up few groceries to restock the cupboard. A cart full of Rice a Roni and 3 pounds of ground beef later I find myself in the “express” check out lane. There was only one elderly couple ahead of me so I unloaded my cart and waited. The sweet little old lady, for some reason, couldn't get her card to work in the reader. My frustration meter starts to come off of zero. After several tries, she gives up and decides to write a check. This too is rejected by the machine. Deep breaths and a heavy sigh keeps my frustration meter from rocketing off the scale. Now she is trying to gather the cash between herself and her husband. After several minutes of deliberation, she finally pulls a $100 bill from her pocket book. FINALLY! Light at the end of this interminable tunnel. She gathers her groceries and leaves. Now it's my turn. The cashier rings me up and I pull out my golden key to indentured servitude and debt beyond my wildest dreams. It has a chip. Something that I generally loathe. I insert it into the slot and the machine gives me the finger. “CHIP MALFUNCTION. USE MAGNETIC STRIP”. Frustration meter reaching mid scale now and I don't know if the pressure relief valve works. I slide the card through the strip reader, and again the machine flips me off. “MUST USE THE CHIP READER.” The meter is now dangerously close to the red! And running amok with a baseball bat is starting to seem like a viable option. Finally another clerk came over and was able to massage the digital beast into submission, and it read my card. Another shining example of the wonders of modern technology. The transaction now complete, I turn to the cashier and say “It was so much easier when we used cash.”

I actually managed to get Leo out to the bike before Fritz found out. I got him loaded up and got out to gas up on the way to Iron Skillet. I must have had another episode of old timers again since the bike took a whole 80 cents worth. Off to the Skillet and we were again the first arrivals. Soon a few more showed but we had a rather small showing. Eventually 5 showed up and we launched with Diesel Dave in the lead. Considering the great weather I was surprised that more didn't join us. We rolled into Beloit, which is a larger town than I expected, but Dave seemed to know the way so we just followed him til we saw more bikes. I found a shady place for Leo, handed the book off and went about getting the pictures. When I got inside the camera started to complain. The batteries were dying. No problem I have spares. Uh Oh! Problem. The replacement batteries are just as bad off as the others. I managed to coax out most of the indoor pictures. Then to the rescue came Mark Unruh who picked up the slack. When I checked out their menu on their web site I wasn't expecting too much. Boy was I surprised. Most of their menu consisted of cheese sandwiches. I had the special of the day, which was a cheese sandwich with sausage and mushrooms. It was really good and filling. And the other sandwiches looked just as good. Morey Flynn's burger was a little too much for him so he donated his leftovers for Leo so even he had a feast. All bellies full, tires kicked, and lies swapped we started filtering out. I was one of the last to leave and just backtracked back to Salina. Back in my recliner I slipped into a nice comfortable coma.

We had riders from Salina, Minneapolis, Sylvan Grove, Tipton. Culver, McPherson, Abilene, Hutchenson, Lindsborg, and Canton, with the long distance being a 4 way tie between Larry Smith, Bob Harman, Pat Shea, and Mark Unurh at 110 miles.

We were riding Honda, Harley, Yamaha, BMW, Kawasaki, and Moto Guzzi.