Bike Blessing in Junction City, KS

In February of 2010 I was lamenting the cold weather and reading the GL1800 forum online. A post in the Kansas section caught my eye. It was a bike blessing at the First United Methodist Church in Junction City, KS on April 11th. My spousal unit and I talked it over and decided we would do it, weather permitting.

April 10th arrived bringing excellent weather - sunshine and temperatures in the 70's. The same was promised for the next day so that afternoon we took off for Junction City, KS. We rode Hwy 24 west from the Kansas City area to Wamego, KS, where we turned south on Hwy 99 and then west again on Hwy 18 to Manhattan, Kansas. We had dinner in Manhattan and then rode on into Junction City on Hwy 18. We found lodging for the night in a Super 8 motel.

On April 11th we rode to the First United Methodist Church at 8th and Jefferson (http://www.jc1stumc.org/index.html). The parking lot on the west side of the church was reserved for motorcycles and parking was being managed by the Manhattan chapter of the Christian Motorcyclists Association.

We attended the 10:45 am service officiated by the Rev. Dr. Kenton Van, a Goldwing rider himself. He, actually, was the person who made the post on the GL1800 forum which I'd seen earlier in the year.

We partook of the vittles and then had our motorcycle blessed. It was a well organized and enjoyable event. Following the bike blessing there was going to be a ride through the Flint Hills, but Chris and I decided to depart on our own and head homeward.

We rode south out of Junction City to Alta Vista, KS on Hwys 57, 177, and 4. We rode from Alta Vista to Alma, KS on Old K-10 Hwy which is now named the Skyline Mill Creek Scenic Drive. At Alma we caught Hwy 99 south and Hwy 4 west, which took us past Lake Wabaunsee, one of my favorite places in the Flint Hills. At Eskridge, KS we stayed on Hwy 99 south to Hwy 31 east into Burlingame, Kansas. We parked in a city park and took a walk around town stopping at Casey's for a cold beverage.

From Burlingame we rode east on Hwy 56 to Hwy 7 north back home to Shawnee.

It was a great ride totaling 320 miles. For pictures of the ride click on the link below.

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