May, 2019

The idea was to ride down to Oklahoma City for a bit of maintenance (that I didn't feel like doing myself) and then return via Cedar Vale and the annual Guzzi get-together.

Oklahoma

As is evident by the trace on the map, I didn't take a very efficient route. Instead, I made a wide detour to the west to avoid the worst of flooding that had the Kansas Turnpike shut down as well as several other roads. It never reached fifty degrees and the wind was very strong (but pushing me).

I'll leave the bike at Motiv Cycleworks and in the capable hands of Don Moomaw for: brake and clutch fluid replacement, swingarm-pivot grease, rear shock linkage grease, steering-head grease, replacement of the alternator belt and re-torque the top-end engine attach bolts.

As it happened, the swingarm-pivot was in real need of grease and one of the top-end engine attach bolts had dropped out. The shock links and steering head looked fine. The engine bolts had been torqued before, so that's something to keep an eye on (and hope blue Loctite does the trick). All this had been done, before, so it's not as if the factory skipped a step.

I've been to a number of Oklahoma City places, but never the American Banjo Museum. Wow! Two floors of exhibits and more banjos than you can imagine. The whole history is here, from very old handmade, fretless banjos with a heritage from Africa to some pretty exotic electric banjos. I also learned that 4-string players do not always see eye-to-eye with 5-string players...

Now, on the return ride, through Perkins, Oklahoma where I had lunch at a surprisingly good Italian cafe.

Pawnee County, Oklahoma. You'd be hard-pressed to put a shovel into the ground without striking rock.

The Arkansas River near Ralston, Oklahoma. All that flooding is draining into this river. It's running very high.

This is the new bridge...

...and, this is the old bridge (note the same Ralston water-tower in both photographs.

The steel truss bridges of Oklahoma are now over a hundred years old and are being replaced or removed. There are not many left.

Shidler, Oklahoma.

Kansas

KS-15 making an east/west adjustment in Cowley County.

Paved roads will sometimes make these unexpected turns while following meridian lines--nothing to do with the terrain.

I'm not bringing food, but cattle are always hopeful.

Cedar Vale, Kansas.

The cold weather (and rain) probably kept some away, but there was a nice turnout. I'd be moving on before too long as I do not like riding at night.

Cooks at work.

Coffeyville, Kansas. This is the weather that everybody wanted, yesterday. In 1892, the Dalton gang thought they'd rob two banks at once, and do it brazenly in broad daylight. The town thought otherwise.

Independence, Kansas.

Elk City, Kansas.

Longton, Kansas.

US-160 runs from Missouri to Arizona (crossing Kansas, Colorado and New Mexico) and is one of the better routes across Kansas (I-70 being the undeniable worst).

This ridge is fairly abrupt and extends pretty much north-south across Kansas. It would have been a challenge (or at least an annoyance) when the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway built the railroad through here. The long-gone town site of Grand Summit isn't far from here.