to Holton: A beautiful day in Kansas

August 24, 2017

“What a beautiful day for a bike ride through Kansas” Patrick says. The morning air is crisp, definitely the feeling of fall when we set off. Motel 6 is cheap, breakfast is not provided, only a cup of coffee. We supplement with a left-over muffin and some granola bars. Our bikes are fully loaded in the room, we roll-out of the side door and are off. One more time under I-70 and we are headed north.

Eastern Kansas is not flat, but the hills are not nearly as steep as what we found in Missouri. The day is just beautiful; a high of about 85 F, sunshine, low humidity and even a tailwind blowing from the southeast. Around us are rolling hills with pasture, some forests and lots of soy beans and corn. Barns, silos and farmhouses are everywhere.

About 30 kilometers into our ride we reach Oskaloosa, a nice little town with some beautiful old brick buildings, a watertower and a town square with a courthouse. Off the square is “Rose’s café” where we have a nice second breakfast. At the door we meet Barbara a retired teacher, and inside is Gloria our waitress. We have a nice conversation with a retired Army Ranger who was stationed in Belgium and likes his Belgium beers.

Another thirty kilometers down the rolling road is Valley Falls. We stop at the grocery store and have some cold drinks. Here we get to talking with Ann, another retired teacher who as an army brat lived in Germany, France and Japan. She explains how after all that traveling getting married and living in “small town America” took some getting used too. She is proud of some of her students who took her advice and traveled themselves.

We barely make it over the hill and out of town when Clark, a journalist of the local paper The Vindicator, waves us down from the roadside. Ann had called him and he did not waste any time tracking us down. Good thing we did not rob the back, no way you’d get away with it in Valley Falls. We have another nice conversation, pass on our blog’s information and Clark promises to email us a pdf of his article. (Edited: he did send us a link on two pages http://vfv.stparchive.com/Archive/VFV/VFV09072017p01.php?tags=patrick|hugens)

http://vfv.stparchive.com/Archive/VFV/VFV09072017p03.php?tags=patrick|hugens

Another 35 kilometers to Holton. Just as we crested one more hill a grey haired woman on an off-road motorcycle going the other way swings around, catches up, and tells us “this is the last hill before Holton; it flattens out after here”. She is partially right: it does flatten out for the next 10 kilometers or so, but the last 5k’s into town are tough again. We pass through the nice looking old downtown, head for the Walmart to get groceries, and continue another 3 kilometers west of town down route K16 to Banner Creek Reservoir. There is a very nice communal campground at this lake. Warm showers and nice sites for only $9 a night. For the self registration fee, Patrick didn’t have the correct amount. While we are cooking dinner, the campground host comes by with the dollar change.

We arrive at about 3pm, not bad for a hundred kilometer day. After some snacks and a shower we relax for a while, cook dinner and retire to the tent to read.

Old bank building and watertower in Oskaloosa.

Grain storage with a message for Rachel.

A reporter tracks us down just outside Valley Falls.

Old schoolhouse or church. Now abandoned and bound to collapse in a couple of years. A pity.

Reached 38,000 kilometers. Just a little bit more to Boise.

Another nice old bank building, this one in Holton.

Compare the bank building with our modern architecture. We don't usually shop at Walmart, but in the Midwest they have been convenient.

Today's ride: 100 km (62 miles)
Total: 38,015 km (23,607 miles)

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