September 26, 2022
Day Fifteen: Plainville, Kansas to Norton, Kansas
I was riding out at my usual late-ish hour. Normally on a bicycle tour I get out as soon as it's light enough to ride. I don't know why I've gotten into this bad habit of late departures recently.
It was chilly, but I left without putting my wool undershirt on. I didn't want to bother with removing it in a few hours when the temperatures inevitably rose.
Back on KS-18. John Egan, bicycle routing guru, suggested this state highway several days ago, and with the exception of a few very short segments, it's been great. Today would be my last day riding it.
Scenery didn't seem that interesting this morning (and would be even less so in the afternoon), or maybe I was just a little tired of stopping and taking photos.
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Read about Quantrill's Raid on Lawrence in the Civil War.
Terrorism.
2 years ago
Last time I was in Lawrence (2021) we stayed in a hotel that had been burned during Quantrill's raid.
2 years ago
My phone dinged. I received a group of emailed error messages indicating there was an issue with the server that hosts the software I write. I decided I had to investigate this at once, so I pulled into the near-ghost-town of Zurich, population 89.
I sat at a picnic table in the modest town park, pulled out my laptop from its pannier, and spent 45 minutes working, including making an annoyed phone call to the web hosting company that had rebooted the server without asking my permission first. This kind of thing literally happens only once or twice at year. Unfortunately the first time it happened this year was when I was in the middle of nowhere in Kansas. At least I had a cell signal, which enabled me to get the problem semi-resolved.
I got back on the road. I had a semi-tailwind, but couldn't get very interested in the ride, distracted as I was by my work-related problems.
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2 years ago
Signs along KS-18 informed that I would be missing out on many wonderful things if I bypassed Palco, population 208, so I turned off the highway into town.
Palco was dominated by two massive grain elevators.
It was a tidy place. A store was open, and I went in even though I wasn't hungry and didn't need to buy anything. I sat a table next to a couple old old men who didn't acknowledge my presence as they discussed ancient history. There was a TV on, tuned to The Price is Right. For some reason I'm always surprised that that show, and a few soap operas, are still on the air. For me, The Price is Right is very redolent of my 1970s childhood, so when I occasionally see it on a TV in a public place, I'm transported back to that era, a not-especially-pleasant one for me.
I took a photo of a nice mural, then rode out of town.
Five miles later I exited KS-18 and took a short dirt road into Damar, population 112. Lately I haven't been looking ahead much on my map to see what's coming up - in keeping with the intended spontaneous nature of this trip where possible - and so Damar was a bit of a surprise.
The town was founded in 1888 by a community of French Canadians. Based on a few references to "frogs" I saw, I'm guessing that the current residents, who may or may not include descendants of the original founders, do not take this French heritage all that seriously.
There is an incredibly impressive Roman Catholic church in town, and for once I was very satisfied with my photo of a church on a bike tour.
Miles later, I left KS-18 for a paved local road, and then US-24, a reasonably empty highway, and stopped in Nicodemus (population 18 according to a woman I talked to there.)
I *did* know that Nicodemus was on today's route. It's a National Historic Site, and apparently the last surviving western town founded by African Americans during reconstruction.
I walked inside the visitor center and spent a half hour looking at the exhibits, and talked to the nice federal employee lady working there.
Back on the road. This was undoubtedly the least inspiring scenery of the entire trip. Lots of industrial stuff going on.
I arrived in Hill City, population 1,403. I was hot and thirsty, and spent a half hour in the shade of a pavilion in the city park. I didn't feel like looking around Hill City, and took exactly two photos as I rode out of town. I don't know who this guy is supposed to be, but it seems unlikely to be Benjamin Franklin, despite the resemblance:
It was 36 miles do my destination for the day: Norton, population 2,747. The route was entirely on US-283. I was concerned about so much riding on a potentially busy US highway, but it wasn't *that* busy, there was a decent small shoulder, and, most importantly, I had a massive tailwind.
Scenery on this section was boring, or maybe I was just not in the mood to appreciate it.
I arrived in Norton and got lost finding my cheap motel. For the second time on this tour I was reduced to calling my very patient wife for help.
Also for the second time, I later realized, my end-of-ride befuddlement was caused by a lack of calories, and for the second time the problem was resolved by eating 3/4 of a large pan cheese pizza from a nearby Pizza Hut.
The motel was old and worn out, but the price - $55 including tax - was definitely right. Before retiring early, I walked a couple of blocks to a Sonic, a place I'd never been to, and had the worst, insanely over-the-top-sweet chocolate milkshake ever. Gross. I actually couldn't even finish it, and threw some of it away before going to bed around 8:00.
Today's ride: 77 miles (124 km)
Total: 1,043 miles (1,679 km)
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2 years ago
2 years ago
I know that if I didn't have a tailwind (or, much worse, if I had a headwind) when riding the last 30-something miles to Norton, I would remember this as a tough, unpleasant day.
In any case: Thanks for reading!
2 years ago