So far the weather seems to be holding for the ride to Clay Center. Suzi is running on all four and the blinker switch is working like new. Today is looking like my time will be occupied by assessing the damage from the last storm, which left the entire west wall of my privacy fence lying on top of my deck.
OH! The joys of home ownership. It was so much easier when I could call the landlord and say "fix it". Now I'm just waiting for the next catastrophe. Be that as it may, it looks like we will launch from the Iron Skillet @ 11:30. TIME....................1:00
Here it is..............EMERALD CITY GRILL & BBQ
407 Lincoln Ave.,
Clay Center, KS
(785) 280-4430
Facebook Page............https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063484366033
Web Page.............
Map site..............https://tinyurl.com/wd4hsez
I woke to a rather disquieting sight out my kitchen window. Everything was wet and the sky was falling. DAMN!! I really didn't need this! I got on the confuser and looked up the weather radar. The only cell of weather was just west of
Salina and moving east.
The one ray of hope was that it seemed to be falling apart as it moved east. Throwing caution to the wind I prepped the bike for the ride. It was still a little early but I decided that since the rain was letting up I'd head out early and if it started to rain seriously I'd launch early and try to get ahead of it. I waited at the Iron Skillet for anyone else who might have had the guts to go, but no takers. By launch time the rain had stopped so I blasted out. When I got to K18 to Bennington I found Randy Gantvort waiting. We sat and made a plan of attack before venturing forth. We didn't get far when we were stopped by two sheriffs cars blocking K18 in Bennington. Apparently there was a class of grade school students going on a field trip and the cops blocked traffic so none of the little urchins would become a hood ornament. Pedestrian traffic cleared the cops left to do other cop things and we pressed on. We motored happily on until we turned toward Longford. This is when my recollection of the route became a little foggy. I knew we had to do a little zig zagging to get to 24. In the lead I motored on fat, dumb, and happy until I was taken by surprise by a sign that read "PAVEMENT ENDS". WELL!! I guess we better turn. As I made the turn I read the street sign which said "FRONTIER ROAD". I remembered that we needed to get on Frontier road so my confidence meter ticked up a notch. After some scenic twists and turns and hills we came to US24 and as I recalled Clay Center was to the right. Charging down 24 I was thinking, now that I've found the town I really don't know where the restaurant is. Rolling into town I saw a street that angled off to the right which I remembered from the map, so I took it. Clay center is a bit larger than the towns we usually hit so I was still a little on the ropes. As we got further into town I noticed some numbered streets and 4th street rang a bell. I took a right and a block later I spotted the chrome and color of a line of ROMEO bikes. WOW! That was almost like I knew where we were going. Randy and I got parked and I got Fritz settled and proceeded to do the photo thing. A little tire kicking and we all went in. The place looked strangely familiar, though I know we had never been here before. This place has a layout that is strikingly similar to another place we've been to. The name of which escapes me at the moment. I got the pictures taken and settled in for a meal. I settled on the mushroom and Swiss burger and fries. After the food arrived it became eerily quiet while we ate. Everyone must have been exceptionally hungry today. I was, since it had been a while since my hot dog and ibuprofen breakfast. I settled up with our host and exited to give Fritz the last bite of my burger. Randy and I decided to head back the way we came and against my better judgement I took the lead. Heading west on 24 I misjudged the distance to Frontier Road and blew past it with Randy dutifully in tow. After what seemed like too many miles I pulled over and asked Randy if we missed our turn and he thought not, so we pressed on. The sky looked deceptively friendly when it started to rain and the north wind kicked up. The rain wasn't bad but it did soak the road. The wind was the bigger problem causing Suzi to list a few degrees to starboard. Keeping an eye out for Frontier Road, the next sign I saw pointed up a dirt road to Aurora. Now I knew that we missed our turn. Not much further I spotted a sign US81 12 miles. I'm not turning back now! We pressed on toward 81 and soon the rain stopped but the wind showed no mercy. We turned onto the entrance ramp and I stopped to straighten out Fritz's seat which was getting a little sketchy by that time. Down 81 the tail wind helped a lot and Suzi was singing. We stopped off in Bennington to check out some fencing that Randy has that he's willing to part with, and then it was back home on old 81. The ibuprofen did it''s job and my back held out for most of the day. Another good day of riding, food and friends is in the books.
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