Day 7 - ending at Admire, KS - Diversion into Kansas

August 20, 2016

Day 7 - ending at Admire, KS

Posted via email Sun Aug 21 07:32:03 2016 PDT

A while after midnight, I bailed rain water out of the tent, using an old medicine bottle. Worked on report until 2:30am, then fell asleep until 4:35am. Ate some ginger snaps for breakfast.

I was not surprised, but a little disappointed, that it was a cloudy start to the day. There was a little breeze from the northwest, helping dry things.

An early morning phone call from my friend Jim was a surprise. He'd heard that there was flooding in parts of Kansas, and wondered if that affected me any. I told him goathead thorns were affecting me. He suggested that using the spare tires and two new tubes I have with me might be the way to get going again. (I was thinking more towards fixing up the current ones).

Check-out time here at Crossroads RV Park is 11:00am. I wasn't going to make that, but at least I could have the tent down and everything ready to be loaded onto the bike. There was a nice concrete pad nearby, and placing everything there kept the gear out of the wet grass. Then I got started on the tires.

Using tweezers and my pocket knife, I pulled and pried broken-off thorns from the rear tire while it was still on the bike. The clouds had moved on now, and the bright sunlight was a big help in seeing them. All done, now time to get the tire off the rim. There were more thorns inside the tire. How could I have missed so many? And here are two that penetrated the tire liner! Thorn bits were sticking to the tube all over.

At noon - after three hours work - I had one tire ready! If I was going to leave today, a different plan was needed. So, I moved on to Jim's suggestion, and unwrapped my spare tires.

It felt good that I was finally getting somewhere. The front tire pumped up OK, but the second one was taking a lot more work to get to 45 psi. I finally realized that I was mis-reading my new digital pressure gauge. My old gauge displayed only in psi. The new one does that, plus bar and kPa. The zero-reset button on the old gauge is the range-select on this new one. Well, I was reading in the wrong units (and apparently not-seeing a decimal point). The tire was actually at 66 psi when I figured this out! I hate wasting hand-pumped air.

Now to fix another problem (which I half-way saw coming). This larger rear tire wasn't clearing the back of the fender. Back home, when I'd put the new chain on, I'd made it longer than the old one. Anyway, now I needed to figure out a way to keep the rear fender back. Using tie-wraps did it.

The bike was roadworthy at 2:05pm, and I was leaving the campground office at 3:05pm. I'd stopped there to a see if I owed anything for missing the 11:00am departure deadline (I didn't), and to buy an ice cream sandwich.

That's it for me and the Flint Hills Nature Trail. It's roads from now on. A right turn from the campground put me on US-75. From here I could see the bridge that I didn't quite get to yesterday. Then a right turn at the circle interchange had me on my way to Admire.

I reached the city limits of Osage City at 3:59pm. The highway I was on (KS-31) went right to a Sonic Drive-In. I stopped, and enjoyed my second visit to one of these.

I left Sonic at 4:45pm, riding west through town. After a turn north, I passed a place that manufactures concrete LEGOs! North of town I turned west onto US-56. The clouds were awesome this evening, and along with the hills, trees, and open countryside, I couldn't think of a better place to be.

Passed an old one-room school house, still being maintained. The playground equipment was old but functional. So was the outhouse.

Just past the Kansas turnpike intersection, there was a hill. The view at the top had a lot less trees.

At 7:18pm, I turned south onto KS-99, for the last mile to Admire. I arrived at their city limits at 7:23pm. Rode by their old high school, which is now their community center and city offices. There were kids out riding bikes I had to pass to get to the park, which is on the northwest side of town.

There are unlocked bathrooms here, and some RV slots. I called phone numbers for the mayor and city council president, but had no luck contacting anyone. I would have made arrangements ahead of time, but I just don't know for sure when I'll be where. I should have been here last night.

The tent was up, with gear inside, at 8:18pm. I ate for supper the crackers I had left over from my Braum's visit a few days ago. They were still fresh, dry, and, for the most part, uncracked.

There's a friendly cat here, keeping me company from time to time. I did picture sorting, then went to bed before Camp Cat did.

Jeff

Spent: $1.61 (ice cream sandwich) + $8.71 plus $2 (lunch) = $12.32.

Day 7 - Lyndon, KS to Admire, KS

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+ plus signs indicate pictures added after returning home from the trip +