Retired and Trippin

On Christmas day it was a balmy 62 degrees and I really wanted to ride but it was wet and rainy all day.  I didn't want to ride bad enough to get the motorcycle all dirty.  This afternoon it reached 48 degrees with clear blue skies so I decided to head out for a quick fix. I headed out on one of my favorite routes when I have limited time.  Riding west on Holiday Drive west of Lake Quivira I passed another motorcyclist on a silver Goldwing going the opposite direction.  At Interstate 435 I headed north, passing a couple enjoying the opportunity to ride. When I exited at Kansas Highway 5 I was surprised to see good friend Larry pull up next to me. As it turns out, he was the rider on the silver Goldwing that I passed on Holiday Drive.  He had turned around, hauled ass and caught up with me.  After hearing where I was headed he said he'd tag along. We rode Highway 5 north to Lansing and Leavenworth, passing a minimum security prison and the Leavenworth National Cemeter

My brother, Carl, had been unable to ride for some time so when he invited us to ride to Olpe, KS for a chicken lunch we were eager to go. Even though it was a bit cool. The weather forecast was for a temperature in the 40's when we were to leave and the high was supposed to be 57. The forecast was accurate - for a change. When we left Shawnee at 9:40am it was sunny and 46. Carl led us on back roads through DeSoto, Eudora, Baldwin City and Centropolis before we stopped for a bathroom break at Casey's in Ponoma. Chris and Marge kibitzing in Casey's in Ponoma, KS We were off again through Quenemo (boyhood home to a good friend of mine), Reading (where Chris and I did some work after the tornado there in May of 2011) and Emporia to our destination, the Chicken House in Olpe. Along the way we rode about 4 miles of gravel ( due to some bad route advice I'd given Carl ) just west of the Eisenhower State Park. Chris, Marge & Carl taking off the cold weather cloth

I am finally blogging from my laptop this evening, which is so nice. Blogging from my iPhone was tedious. After a scrumptious breakfast at the Down Over B&B in Arrow Rock this morning Chris and I were off to explore the Arrow Rock State Historic Site (SHS) at about 9:30. It was 61 degrees and cloudy. We slowly cruised around the roads inside the SHS before visiting the visitor's center, which was impressive and informative. Turns out the Arrow Rock SHS has connections to the Boone's Lick SHS (across the Missouri River) that we visited the day before. At one time there was a salt water spring in Arrow Rock also. Arrow Rock was also on the Santa Fe Trail. downtown Arrow Rock, MO We then hiked from the visitor's center to the Missouri River. On the way we passed the old one-cell jail. The story goes that it was only used once and the prisoner yelled so loud the residents in Arrow Rock could not sleep . . . . . so they let him go. Arrow Rock's old one-cell

Carl and Marge took off for home this morning so Chris and I were on our own again. At breakfast in the motel I found Scott Shane, a former Shawnee Rotary Club member. It was good talking to him, about important matters like Goldwings and Can-Ams. We left our motel at 9:00 under clear skies with a temperature of 66. It was another beautiful day. We started riding north on Highway 179, a beautiful route with many hills and curves. Just past I-70 we took Highway 98 into Boonville. In Boonville we walked over the Missouri River on the highway bridge and then on the KATY Bridge, which was formerly a railroad bridge. Highway 87 took us north out of Boonville and over the river. This route to Glasgow, MO was another winner with hills and twisties, especially the northern half. Along the way we checked out the  Boone's Lick State Historic site. Daniel. Boone discovered salt water springs and creeks here, which his sons turned into a business harvesting and selling salt. Glasgow, MO

 It was a tour day today with Carl and Marge. The weather was beautiful with clear skies and a high in the low 80s. I put a whopping 68 miles on the motorcycle while Chris rode with Carl and Marge in their car.  Our morning tour was of the Warm Springs Ranch near Boonville, Missouri. This is where they breed and raise Clydesdale horses. To see pictures from the tour click on this link:  Clydesdales  Our afternoon tour was at the old Missouri State penitentiary in Jefferson City, Missouri. When it closed in 2004 it was the oldest continuously operating prison west of the Mississippi River.  To see pictures from the tour click on this link.  Prison We found a motel in Jefferson City, checked in and then went to Oscar's Classic Diner for some dinner. It was LARAPIN good. Another great day under our belts. Life is good.

We rode away from the Queen Wilhelmina State Park Lodge at 8 o'clock. It was 61° with mostly clear skies. Our route took us a little bit east and then south down Rich mountain to Highway 59, which ran back west into Oklahoma. Along this route we saw some pretty roadside foliage. We went north through Poteau (OK) and Fort Smith (AR) to I-49 northbound. The Boston Mountains displayed some of the best fall colors we've seen on this trip. In southern Missouri we encountered fog but not so much that it slowed us down.  At Nevada, MO we left the four-laner and rode east and north to Boonville, MO. While enroute we stopped along Highway 83 to photograph some pretty trees on the bank of Truman Reservoir. After 422 miles we arrived at our motel in Boonville Missouri. Carl and Marge had just arrived and were already checking in. We had dinner with them at the Palace Restaurant in downtown Booneville before calling it a night. It was another enjoyable day with a high temperature of 72

 The motorcycle remained parked and covered today while Chris and I hiked, rested and relaxed.   After breakfast in the Lodge we started today with a 4 mile hike on the Ouachita Trail to the Pioneer Cemetery.  Afterwards we recuperated by resting, reading and rocking in chairs on the porch of the lodge.   In the afternoon we hiked the Lover's Leap Trail to a platform with a beautiful view of the valley.  Following that we scored a little nap.  We concluded the day with a buffet dinner at the lodge while we watched it rain outside.  Now we are watching the second game of the World Series. Life is good! To see all of the photos taken today click on this link:  Day 3 Pics

Last night when I was done blogging I figured it would be a good time to charge my laptop. Except I failed to bring the charging cord. So now I'm blogging from my iPhone. Things may not look just right. We blasted away from our motel in Siloam Springs, AR at 8:30 this morning under clear skies. It was 59 degrees. A short distance west we were in Oklahoma and traveling south on 59 Highway. Riding through Salisaw, OK we saw a sign that reminded us of nephew Rob. In Poteau, OK we stopped for a great lunch at Warehouse Willy's before hopping on Highway 271 and riding south and west to the Talimena Scenic Byway. This is a beautiful ride along the ridge of the Winding Stair Mountain in Oklahoma (Hwy 1) and Rich Mountain in Arkansas (Hwy 88). We saw some autumn color but we're just a little early for prime leaf viewing. So we rode east on the Talimena Byway into Arkansas to our lodging for the next two nights at the Queen Wilhelmina Lodge in the Queen Wilhelmina State Park.

We left home this morning at 10:00. It was 57 degrees and we had blue clear skies. Our route was Hwy 7 south to Beagle, KS (it is on the map but Google maps does not recognize it), where we went south on county road 1077 along which, we went through Parker, KS. I was surprised to see it was Kansas Governor Sam Brownback's hometown and even more surprised to find that they claim him as a hometown boy. Further south, 1077 intersected with Hwy 31 at Blue Mound where we ate a very good lunch at The Feed Lot Cafe. Hwy 3 took us south to Hwy 47 east and then Hwy 7 south. There was a detour due to construction on Hwy 7 which added an additional 14 miles to our trip but we ended up on Hwy 69 south riding into Oklahoma. We made a quick stop in Commerce, OK, the hometown of Mickey Mantle. He graduated from high school there in 1949. The high school baseball field is called Mickey Mantle Field and there is a statue of Mickey erected beyond the home run fence next to Hwy 69. I love h

We watched Carl take off westbound at about 7:40 this morning. Chris and I did not leave until 9:10. It was 59 degrees and sunny but the sun did not last long. A short distance east the blue skies were gone. As we entered Cawker City, KS there were a bunch of old junk cars and trucks lined up in a lot at the edge of town. I had to take some pictures. And, of course, Cawker City is home to the world's largest ball of sisal twine. Next stop was Beloit, KS, a place near and dear to our near and dear neighbor, Beth. Leonardville, KS is home to Nelson's Landing, a restaurant run by family of Jordy Nelson, former K-State football player and current Green Bay Packer. It was a cool place to visit and they had LARRAPIN good food too. We stopped on the campus of Kansas State University to do some walking. It was an adventure parking in the new parking garage south of the student union. As we pulled up to grab a ticket and enter the garage a woman came running out tell

It rained quite a bit last night but this morning the sun was out and it was 54 degrees when we took off eastbound on I-80 at 8:20 (mountain time). We rode I-80 all the way to Ogallala, NE (exit 126) and went south and east through Imperial, and McCook, NE into Kansas, through Oberlin and stopped for the evening in Norton, KS at 4:45 (central time). Along the way we stopped at Happy Jack's C Store in Brule, NE (made us smile, thinking of Grandson Jack) and at Tequila's Mexican Grill in Imperial, NE for lunch. We rode 342 miles today and the Goldwing rolled over 62,000 miles. Our high temperature was 89 as we were rolling into Norton. At about 5:30 brother Carl rolled into the motel. He's headed west to the area of the Medicine Bow National Forest in south Wyoming. We enjoyed dinner and swapped some B.S. with him before calling it a night. To see the few pics taken today click on the following link: Day 13 pics

Before I get started on today, I need to provide a couple tid-bits of information that I neglected to share about yesterday. (1) We saw two deer in downtown Cody, WY. That was weird.  We saw our first antelope of this trip just north of Thermopolis. (2) When I was making reservations for last nights stay at the Elk Antler Inn in Thermopolis the lady I was talking to said she recognized the area code of my phone number as being from Kansas City. I told her I was from Shawnee, KS. She said she graduated from SMNW High School in 1975 (four years after me). It is a small world. Outside our motel this morning I saw a perfect demonstration between the difference between Harley riders and Goldwing riders. Harleys are towed and Wings are ridden. We departed Thermopolis at 8:50 this morning. We had to wait awhile for a light rain to end. After it did, the sun came out. It was 55 degrees, much better than the last couple of mornings. Highway 20 took us south and we immediately found

The weather gremlins threw another monkey wrench into our plans this morning. We planned to ride through a portion of Yellowstone National Park to check out a couple waterfalls. There was a regional winter weather advisory yesterday and last night and Yellowstone got some snow. I checked their road conditions this morning to find that several were closed, due to either snow or fire. It is good we're flexible. So our route and motel reservations had to be changed, which took some time this morning. We didn't leave until 9:30 and even then it was cloudy and 43 degrees. I-90 took us east 75 miles to exit 408 (Columbus, MT), where we took off east and south. Before entering Wyoming we stopped for lunch at the Blue Rooster Cafe in Belfry, MT. The soup and grilled ham & cheese sandwich were excellent. It was 50 degrees. We thought it was pretty cool that we crossed the Clark Fork Yellowstone River a few times. As we rode south on Highway 120 in Wyoming we could see the

Chris and I rode away from our motel at 8:45 this morning. The sun had just come out and it was 46 degrees. We didn't go far, however, because our first stop was two and a half miles away at the Montana capitol building. We walked around the grounds and took a few pictures. From the capitol we stopped at the Walmart in Helena for a little shopping and then we were off eastbound and southbound on Highways 12 and 287 towards Three Forks. At one point along this route the temperature rose to 50. We stopped to take a photo of white crosses posted along the highway. We've seen these all over the state. I did some research and found out the Montana American Legion ( white crosses ) posts and maintains them and have been doing so for 50 years ( BillingsGazette ). Two crosses represent two fatalities . We rolled into Three Forks and enjoyed some hot soup for lunch at the "3-4KS Cafe".  The Missouri Headwaters State Park is located just north and east of

We awoke this morning in our lodging at the Riverstone Family Lodge (Eureka, MT: ) to find wild turkeys in our back yard. I've never seen this many in one place. Today is the 8th birthday for our grandson, Jack.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY JACK! Back on day 6 of this trip we decided not to venture into Glacier National Park because of the weather forecast, which was cold and rain. Instead we rode north into Canada and to Banff National Park. Our plan was to hit Glacier NP today, but, again, the weather forecast scared us off. We were not anxious to experience the rain changing to snow and the sub-zero temperatures. So we took off south for Helena, MT. If you've been following this blog you'll notice that the title of this post was changed to reflect the removal of Glacier NP from our itinerary. We departed at 8:40 when it was 57 degrees. Highway 93 took us south through Eureka and Kalispell and along the way the temperature dropped briefly to 52. Highway 82 took us towards the

Today was a Kootenay kind of day. We left Banff at 9:00 and it was cloudy and 55 degrees. As we rode west and north on Highway 1 the temperature dropped to 48 and then we experienced some very light and intermittent rain. This condition persisted for a while after we exited 1 onto Highway 93 that took us west and south to Eureka, MT and our lodging for the night, the Riverstone Family Lodge. Back to our Kootenay day. Highway 93 passes through the Kootenay National Park. While riding south on 93 we stopped at a rest area along a river that we found out was the Kootenay River. A pretty place it was. Highway 93 must parallel the Kootenay because as we continued southbound we crossed the Kootenay five times and when we stopped later in the day at the Wasa Rest Area we were again by the Kootenay. There was a huge organized bicycle ride on Highway 93. There were a butt-load of them riding into a fairly strong head wind. They had to be hard core. We had lunch at the