Day 32 - June 4 - Centralia, KS to Washington, KS - Two Old Guys Take On A Continent

June 4, 2023

Day 32 - June 4 - Centralia, KS to Washington, KS

Auntie Em! Auntie Em!

John’s Story

We were short changed on the hills today. My ride with GPS prediction called for about 2800 feet of climbing today. I didn’t even make it to 2100 feet. Whom do I sue!? Once we got to 2100 feet of climbing in the hills more or less leveled out and were very gentle for the most part. After about noon the tail wind from the east kicked in, which was a great help, and it even shifted to the southeast about the time we headed north toward Washington.

Oh, some things I forgot to report yesterday. Both of these incidents occurred while churning up long hills, so there is no photographic evidence. 1) At one point I saw a large dog on the roof of a two-story house barking at us as we went by. Ed did not notice it, and I’m pretty sure I was not hallucinating. 2) There was a fence line along the road, and on top of each fence post was a bowling ball. I swear.

I’m pretty sure we found Uncle Henry and Auntie Em’s farm out on the prairie today. It doesn’t look like they’ve been keeping things up since Dorothy came home from Oz.

I’d like to share with you some of what my earworm was spinning up today. You’ve all heard the first. Some of you have heard the second. I’ll wager few of you have heard the third. These three songs rattled about in my head all day long.

Tin Man

Matthew

Magdalene Lane

This one’s for Haley. I think it’s the cousin of the last dinosaur I sent a picture of.

Tell Haley I know where the unicorns live now. I have their address

A few times today we came up over a rise and it seemed that we could see all of Kansas in the distance. We need to remind ourselves that since we crossed the Missouri River at Atchison we’ll be going uphill all the way to the Continental Divide. Here in Washington we’re at about 1300 feet of elevation. Nine riding days from now will be at Fort Collins, Colorado, at over 4900 feet. That means that on average we will gain 400 feet of elevation every day we ride from now until then. Fewer downhills than uphills from here to there. From Fort Collins we’ll ride in two or three days up to about 10,300 feet.

We met a very interesting fellow in Blue Rapids today. Michael spent 15 years in American Samoa working on coral reef restoration. When the funding for the project ran out he moved back to the mainland, but after living for 15 years in a small island village be could not return to Grand Rapids, Michigan. So he found a place in rural America where he could be comfortable, and that is right here.

Michael claims to be the great great grandson of Tsar Alexander II, Emperor of Russia, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Finland from 1855 until his assassination in 1881. Michael says that DNA testing has confirmed the connection.

I told Michael that in the family Bible my great grandparents brought from Germany in the late 1800s there is a notation that claims that through my great grandmother’s grandfather we can trace our line back to Emperor Maximilian I of the Holy Roman empire.

Michael and I decided that due to the rampant intermarriage of royal families in Europe over many hundreds of years that we are most likely related in some distant way. We shook hands as brothers and parted ways

Kansas is the Sunflower State, and it shows on the highway signs.

As we approached Washington we found a small replica of the Washington Monument as part of a memorial to veterans.

We’re camped tonight in the Washington city campground. We are the only ones here. The website says tent camping is free. The sign by the campground says each site costs $15 per night, and we should pay at the dropbox or at City Hall. We can’t find a dropbox, and we’re not going to wait till City Hall opens in the morning, so this may be a freebie. We have water and electric, but there are no toilets here. The municipal swimming pool about a block away has outside showers for use by campers. The blocks here are quite large so it’s a hike to get to the bathroom. One nice thing about our campsite is that we have a water feature just down the hill.

According to some picnickers at a shelter as we rode into town, the only bar in town closed recently. There is a brewery here, but it’s closed on Sundays. The only place to buy a beer is at the liquor store or at the convenience store.We made the best of it and bought a six pack of an old standard to drink in camp. We didn’t finish it, so we’ll be hauling beer in our panniers tomorrow.

The only restaurant in town open on Sunday has limited hours, from just 2 o’clock until 5 o’clock in the afternoon. Once we got into town we planned our itinerary to make sure we got to the restaurant before it closed at five. We got there at 4:30 PM. The sign on the door said that on Sunday afternoons the restaurant only sells ice cream. We were crestfallen. We went in anyway. We told the woman behind the ice cream counter our predicament, and she offered to make us some Mediterranean salads even though they don’t normally serve that sort of thing on Sundays. The salads were great. Afterwards we had ice cream of course.

Because Teresa offered to provide us food for dinner on a day when she doesn’t normally do that sort of thing, she is granted today’s Road Angel Award.

Part of our plan was to visit the municipal swimming pool on our way back to camp from dinner, but just before 5 PM a passel of little kids and their parents came into the restaurant for ice cream. They have been chased out of the pool by a lightning strike and clap of thunder. It has been thundering occasionally ever since, and we’ve had a few raindrops. Suffice it to say we’re not getting to the pool today. Tomorrow we’re riding to Mankato, Kansas, which has a municipal swimming pool. Because we’re taking the next day off as a rest day we hope to take advantage of it there.

Ed’s Story

All together rode about 66 miles today. Had breakfast and was on the road by 7:15.

Made it out of Centralia and hit the road west. We went west all day long with a diversion south to be able to go through a smaller town and then it was back west.

I know I talked about hills yesterday and I know John talked about being cheated on climbing. One thing I noticed today is many of the hills have a 1 to 1-1/2% grade with up to a mile of climbing. I guess this will be good training for when we hit the pass to go over the Rockies.

This memorial was in someone’s yard shortly after we left town. It appears to reflect both World War II and Vietnam as a helicopter was used extensively in the Vietnam war.

I talked yesterday about silos and how they could be secret missile silos. We came across one today and was wondering whether our enemies can see through our disguise.

This is one of the best camouflage jobs I’ve seen in a long time.

Like a lot of states, Kansas goes on forever.

Although this is in a river bottom, from the top of a hill, you can almost see forever. Kansas goes on and on and on.

We stopped in a small town for a break, mainly an orange juice and a snack.

This sort of shows the importance of farming in this Kansas community.

Saw this sign. No other evidence of a school there.

I googled this to try to find some reference to the school. I found other Pleasant Valley schools in Kansas but not this one. I don’t have a picture but later on the road, we saw another sign that appeared related to a closed school.

Most of the towns we rode through today had little or no services. In many cases, the stores have been abandoned, or they were closed because it was Sunday. We were lucky to buy things at stores that were open.

As we approached Barnes, Kansas, we came across this historical marker. Apparently one of the members of the Donner party died in the vicinity. We know what eventually happened to them: frozen and eaten.

I’ve been told I need to be in more of the pictures I take. Otherwise it could just be something I downloaded and “I was never there“

We had previously bought lunch food and ate it in Barnes. From Barnes it was 17 miles to Washington, Kansas.

When we turned north for the final run to Washington, we came across the Washington County Veterans Memorial.

It was very impressive. In addition to what I’ve shown in the photos, there are scrolls that list the names and service dates of all members of Washington County who served in the military.

This is almost like a miniature Washington Monument.

We arrived in Washington, Kansas, and made it to the city campground. We are the only people camping here. After we set up our tents, we rode to the grocery store for supplies, and then to the convenience store to buy some beer which we drank back at the campsite. (See John’s photo above)

We showered and headed to a nearby diner for dinner. Unfortunately as John noted, they only served ice cream between 2 - 5 pm on Sundays. We told them we were really looking forward to some food and Teresa went out of her way to make us a quinoa salad. It was excellent.

She indicated to another customer that the black cherry ice cream was made out of oat milk. That was great. I was finally able to get some ice cream on this trip.

I figured I would just show some photos from around the campground we’re at.

As John noted above, and as you can see, we are the only ones here.

Here’s John making friends with the local wildlife.

Here’s the swimming pool we never got to swim in. Stupid thunder and lightning.

In keeping with the Wizard of Oz theme, the city of Washington welcomes you to ….Munchkinland.

I wonder if Laura Ingalls Wilder lived here.

Today was a good day. It was not as hot as yesterday, and we continued to have a tail wind almost the entire day. We also had our best riding speed average at 12.5 mph today. Our standard average speed is 10 to 11 mph. Is it because the wind helped us? Or have I gotten faster riding up the hills? I think it’s the latter.

Tomorrow we ride 63 miles to Mankato, KS. There are at least two great things about Mankato. First as John mentioned it’s a rest day…hotel living here we come. Second our sister Dorothy has mailed us a care package to General Delivery there. We are looking forward to whatever treats are in it. Thanks in advance, Dorothy.

Until tomorrow, happy biking!

Today's ride: 66 miles (106 km)
Total: 2,440 miles (3,927 km)

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