Retired and Trippin

It was a beautiful Saturday, and cooler than it has been, so my Peach said she wanted to go for a ride. She wanted to see water and thought Lake Perry was the ticket. Off we went. It was 82 degrees a little before noon. My route took us through Bonner Springs, Linwood, Tonganoxie, and Oskaloosa, where Highway 92 took us west over Lake Perry. Lake Perry viewed from the Hwy 92 bridge We turned south on W Lake Road, which took us to Highway 237 south, where we again crossed Lake Perry. Lake Perry viewed from the Hwy 237 bridge Then we found some roads that skirted the shore of the southwest portion of the Lake and we stopped for a rest and to take some pictures. We crossed the dam and stopped at a shelter where we watched lake activity while chugging some Gatorade. Lake Perry was in our rear view mirror and it was either go home and cook or eat lunch in Lawrence. We took the easy way out and chose to eat at the Ladybird Diner in Lawrence. As I was eating, there in t...

A group of retirees, of which I am  a member, were having lunch today at Tanner's in western Shawnee, KS. Three of the retirees are Goldwing riders. I was pleased this morning when I saw an email from Larry asking Bruce and I if we wanted to go on a ride this morning before lunch. It was a splendid idea! We met at Casey's in western Shawnee before taking off north on I-435 shortly after 8:00. Skies were clear and it was in the low 70's. We crossed the Kansas and Missouri rivers before exiting at 152 Highway in Missouri, where we caught county road N north to Platte City. A very short distance on Highways 92 and 273 took us  to 371, which we rode north to the south edge of St Joseph, MO. It was a pretty ride and we saw a lot of tall corn. After a break in St. Joe we took off southeast on 169 Highway all the way to Smithville. Highway 92 took us west almost to Leavenworth, KS, where we caught Highway 45 southbound. As I was riding on 45 it occurred to me that we just rode...

Chris and I have been to southeast Missouri multiple times and two of our favorite state parks in that area are Elephant Rocks and Johnson's Shut-Ins. Our son, Eric, and his family decided to take a four day weekend and visit these two parks. We were lucky enough to be invited along. Eric drove the family mini-van and Chris and I went on the Goldwing. Thursday; July 14, 2016 Chris and I wanted to leave at a good time to beat the summer heat. We departed at 7:00. It was already in the 70's and humid, partly due to dense fog in places. We rode into Missouri and through Lee's Summit, Sedalia, Jefferson City and Vienna on our way to St. James, where we stopped for lunch. We have been by this place multiple times but never stopped, so we decided to give it a try. If the number of cars and trucks in the parking lot was any indicator this would be a great place to eat - Country Bob's Cafe on the north side of St. James. We partook of the buffet they offered. Fried chi...

It was cloudy, a little foggy and 67 degrees when we left at 8:15 to check out a couple waterfalls mentioned in this link: KansasWaterfalls Both falls were in the Manhattan, KS area but, having been there numerous times, I wanted to get there by a different way. So we took a northern route through Tonganoxie, Oskaloosa, Valley Falls, Holton, Wheaton and Fostoria. We stopped in Holton for gas and a stroll around the town square. Highway 13 dropped us down to the south end of Tuttle Creek Reservoir, where we stopped at the Rocky Ford Fishing Area to check out Rocky Ford Falls. Water was running pretty good and we saw several people fishing, one with a bow and arrow. By this time it was around noon and we were hungry so we enjoyed a LARRAPIN good burger at Vista Hamburgers on the north side of Manhattan. I topped that off with a mint chocolate chip shake. Our next stop was Deep Creek Falls at Pillsbury Crossing south and east of Manhattan but I made two wrong turns. One was be...

I recently saw a Facebook post that referred to a web site on waterfalls in Kansas < KansasWaterfalls >. Yesterday, the first of July, Chris and I decided to find the waterfall in Olathe, Cedar Creek Falls. After a little more research I determined that the falls were located at 143rd (Dennis) and Cedar Creek on the north end of Lake Olathe. We rode west on Dennis and as we crossed Cedar Creek we could see the falls just south of the bridge. Actually, we could not see it when we were westbound but riding back eastbound we saw it. "No Parking" signs along Dennis make it difficult to park and view the falls but we parked illegally just long enough to get a few photos. The plan when we left home was to enjoy some ice cream at a Dairy Queen in Paola . . . . . . . but Chris was too hungry to wait that long. We rode west and south on back roads into Gardner, where we enjoyed some tots and ice cream at Sonic. With food in our bellies we rode south around Hillsdale...