Day 41 - Hobart to Clinton - Two Far 2021 - Sooo... Far

May 19, 2021

Day 41 - Hobart to Clinton

History lessons

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Kerry here... Today was another example of why we love cycle touring. Jeanna will fill you in on the details. -

We began our day with a visit to the Kiowa County Museum. This is an excellent local museum. The town of Hobart was founded overnight on August 6, 1901 with a land sale by the US government on property taken when the resident Native American Kiowa, Apache and Comanche people were "relocated" to other reservations. The land lottery drew 13,ooo prospective buyers for 2500 parcels. Many recent European immigrants were among the new town residents.

The former Hobart train depot houses the museum.

The artifacts are primarily from the first half of the 20th century.

There was a 1925 Ford truck

and an early gas pump.

Some entertainment choices from the time

These guys found a way to make sure the rural residents got their Sunday paper on time.

From local businesses

Butter churn from a local produce and dairy company

A different type of advertising calendar give away

And, after all the museums we've visited, something I don't recall ever seeing.

There were the expected displays of domestic life. I enjoyed looking at the vintage clothing.

After an enjoyable time touring the museum, we mounted up and hit the road. It was noon when we got to the tiny town of Rocky. There was a restaurant advertising BBQ and chicken fried meatballs. With a name like "Tall Paul's Meatball Co. and Bakery", we had to give it a try.

We ended up with an assortment of BBQ brisket, sausage and fried catfish, along with some sides. It was the best BBQ we've had (and for our Citrus County readers, the catfish rivaled Stumpknocker's). The family that owns the restaurant went out of their way to make sure we were happy with everything.

This is Jerri, Tall Paul and their sons Nikoma and Wyatt. Thank y'all for a great lunch!

Kerry here again.. I can't guess how Paul got his nickname.

Just past Tall Paul's, we were slowed by a guy directing traffic. He was stopping cars to allow these vehicles to get on the road.

They had several staged there waiting to get on the road.

We saw a number of other trucks transporting wind turbine parts today.

The area we are riding through is almost all wheat farms. The wheat is nearing harvest.

Kerry... We saw 2 convoys of custom harvesters headed south today. Besides the harvesters, there were other support vehicles as well as several pickups towing 5th wheels for the crews. A couple of days ago, we learned that very few farmers in the area harvest their own wheat - almost all harvesting is contracted out to traveling harvest crews.

We took a detour through the town of New Cordell. It seemed more prosperous than many of the towns we've been through recently. It has a classic town square with a central county courthouse and surrounding businesses. It looked like a very nice town.

Farther north, we detoured off of Hwy 183 to see the little village of Bessie. The main thing in Bessie is this large elevator. Train cars were lined up to be loaded.

The Farmers Cooperative Exchange grain elevators in Bessie. The smaller elevator on the right of the photo was once also used as a fall-out shelter.

There were two commercial blocks and a few homes. Here is the fire station.

We rode the last few miles to Clinton and took a last rest break before the last four miles to the hotel. We sat and had a pleasant visit with some locals until one of the men said it was raining. That was a real surprise since no rain was in the forecast. It was just a light rain, so we went ahead and got on the bike. The rain only lasted about ten minutes and by the time we got to the hotel, we were almost dry.

Tomorrow is a rest day and there is a Route 66 museum we plan to visit. More museum pictures coming :).

Today's ride: 42 miles (68 km)
Total: 1,794 miles (2,887 km)

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Ken GassI'd say that a museum of turn of the 20th century stuff from folks who displaced the indigenous people only shows a part of the story. It is a touchy topic up here in the PNW where first the Spanish, then British , and finally wagon trains of settlers from the east coast "discovered" and took over the lands of the Coast Salish people.

We also noticed on the Southern Tier Ride the collapse of so many little towns and roadside businesses in the west as railroads shut down or Interstate highways took away their traffic. No great insight.
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