September 13, 2019
Day 6
This morning started out cool and very humid. There was very little wind at first, and it was nice cruising along without hearing the constant wind noise in my ears. All the vegetation was wet with "dew" from all the rain yesterday. I started out layered up with my vest, rain jacket and gloves. About 12 miles out, the gloves came off, at 25 miles, the rain jacket came off and the vest came off at the Rail Trail Trailhead. All of the ride today was on county roads. I had scouted this route last May/June, and was a bit dismayed much of the route had been freshly chip sealed since then. Chip seal is a process where fresh oil is sprayed on the old road surface, and then a thin layer of ground up rock is applied. Most of the loose stuff had been either washed off or blown off by the few semi tractor trailer rigs I saw.
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When I got to Lebo, I saw an old Skelly gas station building and stopped to get some pictures. While there, I met three folks from Emporia who were out for a morning ride on their "go-fast" bikes. They had all the "Lance Armstrong" stuff on their bikes. Of course, they were curious where I was coming from and where I was going.
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The road today was, without question, going downhill. Even with all the rollers (ups-n-downs) I still made decedent time. Gravity works. I say that, cuz going up the hills was a lot slower than going down. There were three or four down hills where the bike got up to 30 mph. All I did was sit there and watch the road. About the only time I had the chain on the big chain ring was first thing this morning. After the rollers started, I just left it in the middle chain ring, because I spent as much time shifting the front derailleur as the rear.
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When I got to the turn off to Waverly, I saw this old, falling down, rock wall building just west of the intersection. Don't know what is was, except maybe a gas station once upon a time.
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When I got into Franklin County, I saw some wind turbines again. The wind was out of the north when it finally got to stirring, so, I had a headwind for a while until I got to John Brown Road (named after John Brown of Harper's Ferry fame). John Brown lived in Osawatomie for a while. At any rate, I rode east on John Brown Road all the way to Osawatomie.
In Princeton, I stopped at a the Princeton Trailhead of the Prairie Spirit (Rail) Trail State Park that goes from Ottawa south to Iola, via Princeton, Richmond, Garnett and Colony. Nice trail, except it was going the wrong way for me.
I had been thru Osawatomie several times on the Missouri Pacific passenger train in the late 50's and early 60's when traveling to Kansas City to visit my grandparents. I never really saw the old depot, because the train went thru Osawatomie in the early hours of the morning, and I was no doubt asleep.
After getting checked in at the motel, I rode over to the John Brown Memorial Park and then stopped by the Osawatomie museum and took a look at the replica of the original station that was in use the times I was on the train. The museum closed at 4:00 pm, so I was obliged to leave.
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Stopped by Casey's and got another chocolate milk and some PayDay candy bars for road food tomorrow. Got back to my room at the motel, got my bike settled in for the evening and got both chargers hooked up and running. Going up all those hills gave the main batteries a serious workout. After seeing all the rollers between Emporia and Osawatomie, I am not so sure I want to tackle going all the way to Clinton from here, because I suspect there are more and bigger rollers between here and there. I may only go as far as Butler, MO. Will just have to wait and see. Tomorrow is supposed to be nice weather-wise.
Today's ride: 71 miles (114 km)
Total: 343 miles (552 km)
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