Day Fourteen: Lincoln, Kansas to Plainville, Kansas

September 25, 2022

I was slow getting things together this cool Sunday morning. As I was getting ready to ride away, I couldn't find my sunglasses. Fortunately, the motel/restaurant owner, Dil, had them in the motel office, where I'd left them yesterday. As I rode away, he wished me a "joyful ride."

Traffic on K-18 this morning was light. Scenery, including a few "folk art" pieces near Lincoln, was nice.

I stopped once and examined the stone fenceposts I'd seen lately. These date back from when there were no trees in the area, and limestone, which is plentiful, was used to make the posts.

After sixteen miles, I took a one mile detour to the town of Sylvan Grove, population 291.

A small store was open, and I went in and bought a few snacks. Three women were in the store, and seemed a little bleary-eyed on this Sunday morning - too much partying last night? I eavesdropped as one of them mentioned a friend who'd ordered $93 of Domino's Pizza from the larger town of McPherson last night, and then forgot to pick up her order.

I just checked, and McPherson is 90 miles from Sylvan Grove. I can't imagine wanting Domino's so much that I'd drive over an hour each way to obtain it.

This seems like an comically enormous range of amounts. For what it's worth, I've seen virtually no trash on the side of Kansas roads. I can say that about virtually no other state.

I finally tore myself away from Sylvan Grove, after removing my wool undershirt. It was hotter now, and the sky was cloudless.

It was twelve miles to the next town, Lucas. I seemed to be dragging this morning, possibly because I'd eaten only snacks for breakfast. A lot of the scenery was pretty unvarying between the towns on K-18, but I did notice this sign, attached to a fencepost for no apparent reason:

I arrived on the outskirts of Lucas, population 393, and "The Grassroots Arts Capital of Kansas."

Among other things, Lucas contains The World's Largest Souvenir Travel Plate. Obviously I stopped and took a picture of it.

I went into a gas station to buy a few snacks and a Diet Pepsi. The woman working there handed me a few Lucas brochures, and insisted that I ride downtown and visit The Garden of Eden.

I was amused by the juxtaposition of these two signs for some reason.

I arrived at the Garden of Eden to find a truly strange and baffling work of folk art. My few photographs here really don't do justice to this thing, the work of an eccentric (to say the very least) man named S.P. Dinsmoor (1843 - 1932.)

I paid my $9, took the self-guided tour, and talked to the women working there. In the unlikely event you find yourself in Lucas, Kansas, definitely check this out.

Back on K-18. I was getting tired. I stopped in Luray, population 166, where nothing was open, and there wasn't even a pop machine.

I had a nagging headwind which made the next several miles slightly challenging. I realize now that I should have eaten more today, but I never seem to figure that out in time. In my defense, after Lucas there was absolutely no source of food until my destination for the day.

I had high hopes for Natoma, population 302, but nothing was open on Sunday.

There was, however, a working pop machine in front of a closed gas station, from which I obtained an ice-cold can of Diet Pepsi.

While I drank it, a local man drove up and engaged me in a wildly varying, mostly one-side conversation in which he told me many, many things, most of which I cannot remember, focused as I was on my ice cold soda pop. After I finished and looked around for a trash can into which to deposit my empty can, he eagerly took it from me - "I'm going to start an aluminum smelter. It's pretty easy!"

I finally had to tear myself away and get back on the road.

I arrived in the aptly-named Plainville, checked into the cheap motel, then walked a block to the Dairy Queen for a dinner of french fries and a large chocolate milkshake, then went to bed at my usual early hour.

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Today's ride: 73 miles (117 km)
Total: 966 miles (1,555 km)

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