Do you know what the best alarm clock is in a tent? Did you say a beautiful Kansan sunrise? No... The smell of bacon from the next campsite? No... A thunderstorm when you don't have on your rain fly? Ding ! Ding! Ding! We started off day 3 with thunder. Luckily we were able to quickly and easily put on the rain fly, it snapped right on before it started raining. We saw on the radar that more was coming so we hunkered down and slept a couple more hours until it had just passed. We haphazardly folded up our tent and I tried to wash off the mud that had to be made out of glue and went down to mushroom rock state park. Well, not before Devin bought a cup of coffee, with a lid that didn't fit, so I held it until he could get going on the road. Have you ever tried to hold a cup of coffee with a mis-fit lid out the window while traveling down the interstate? Doesn't work. Don't try it. It doesn't work. The coffee flew all over my hand. I'm yelling, he's yelling pour some out, as I pour some out I yell again at the scorching coffee on my hand so.... He grabs it from me and throws it behind us. Except it hit the trailer and splattered all over the trailer top. It kinda made for a nice 'paint job' and, at the very least a funny story. We made it to Mushroom Rock after a beautiful ride and short jaunt down some country gravel road. It was neat seeing the formations. Then we took a nice long ride towards the west...
And it got hotter and hotter. I genuinely felt like bacon. We got away late and were riding into the sun. It was windy. Not the good kind that cools you off, the kind that beats you up. Think hair blow dryer. We were headed to castle rock...another feature of Kansas. The heat was just too much and we finally had to stop in a little town called Ransom and went into a bar and grill called the Garage where we sat for an hour. They brought us a pitcher of water, we split an excellent cheeseburger, and talked with the waitress who hailed from England. And there was a dog, a german shepard, that I swear was as big as a lion. You meet a lot of great people along the way...
My husband if amazing. Really. Castle rock is not off the beaten path, it's beyond that. See, out here it's farms. Enormous farms. Cattle and wheat. There are paved roads, but mostly only the highways. We followed mapquest down a country road...not really gravel as much as dust. If you've ever ridden a motorcycle you know that these types of roads and bikes do not really like each other. After ending up in a cow pasture, almost dropping the bike, and finding ourselves in a precarious spot in the road, we hiked to the top only to find that Castle Rock was...at the bottom. We just took pictures from there:
Our trip to Castle Rock included: an impromptu use of 'natures facilities' and, of course, seeing the only car on the road at the same time (Devin has no shame). an unexpected travel over a cattle grate at 25 mph...which put us in the field and on the wrong road. A wave to a passing farmer that made us nearly lose control and eat dirt...literally.
We begrudgingly drove the 20 miles back to the paved road in the scorching sun. Finally we made it to a gas station right as they closed to refill our water and gas tank. After about another hour we ended up at the turn to go to Mic & Carols...another 13 miles of dirt road.
We made it just fine, just REALLY dusty. The kind of dusty where it's in your mouth ears and every crevice of the bike. We had a really wonderful hearty dinner and took a quick tour of the farm complete with old dog Jess and the fancy tractor & camper. It was wonderful to talk with Mic & Carol...lots of good stories about Devin's family.
Getting a good shower was wonderful. Sleeping in a bed was wonderful. Breakfast was delightful. We quickly packed up and headed off...
To get to Tribune and all our 'adventures' we traveled 324 miles for a total of 1035.4 miles across America.
Interesting facts: Mushroom Rock State Park is the smallest park in Kansas at 5 acres. Kansas has a barbed wire museum (we missed it although Devin really wanted to go).
My husband if amazing. Really. Castle rock is not off the beaten path, it's beyond that. See, out here it's farms. Enormous farms. Cattle and wheat. There are paved roads, but mostly only the highways. We followed mapquest down a country road...not really gravel as much as dust. If you've ever ridden a motorcycle you know that these types of roads and bikes do not really like each other. After ending up in a cow pasture, almost dropping the bike, and finding ourselves in a precarious spot in the road, we hiked to the top only to find that Castle Rock was...at the bottom. We just took pictures from there:
Our trip to Castle Rock included: an impromptu use of 'natures facilities' and, of course, seeing the only car on the road at the same time (Devin has no shame). an unexpected travel over a cattle grate at 25 mph...which put us in the field and on the wrong road. A wave to a passing farmer that made us nearly lose control and eat dirt...literally.
We begrudgingly drove the 20 miles back to the paved road in the scorching sun. Finally we made it to a gas station right as they closed to refill our water and gas tank. After about another hour we ended up at the turn to go to Mic & Carols...another 13 miles of dirt road.
We made it just fine, just REALLY dusty. The kind of dusty where it's in your mouth ears and every crevice of the bike. We had a really wonderful hearty dinner and took a quick tour of the farm complete with old dog Jess and the fancy tractor & camper. It was wonderful to talk with Mic & Carol...lots of good stories about Devin's family.
Getting a good shower was wonderful. Sleeping in a bed was wonderful. Breakfast was delightful. We quickly packed up and headed off...
To get to Tribune and all our 'adventures' we traveled 324 miles for a total of 1035.4 miles across America.
Interesting facts: Mushroom Rock State Park is the smallest park in Kansas at 5 acres. Kansas has a barbed wire museum (we missed it although Devin really wanted to go).
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