Almost everyone we spoke with said the most boring part of our trip would be in Kansas. “It’s flat … there’s nothing … it’s boring” they’d say. We began dreading the ride through this state, especially since it would be the longest state we’d be crossing on the way to California. Well so far it’s the most scenic state we’ve rode through. Sure there’s practically no civilization but the landscapes are just amazing. Skies bigger than anything I’ve seen.
When we were loading the bikes this morning all was looking good and getting into Colorado was looking good. Once again we would be ahead of schedule. Once again things didn’t work out so well. Our morning leg was delayed when Gomes’ motorcycle had some issues. We end up leaving Lawrence around 10:30am which is a late start.
It was a pretty cool morning and we stopped shortly after getting on the highway, or as they call it in Kansas, the interstate, so that we could throw on some layers. We get back on I70 headed west and the wind was strong. It was blowing from north and causing our bikes to swerve left so we had to drive with a lean. At times the wind would switch up on us and cause the bikes to swerve right so we’d have to rapidly adjust the lean to the left. It made it a bit difficult to ride but we had no choice.
While on the highway we pull off to a side road so that we could stretch and adjust our gear. We decide it was a good time to have a little photo shoot so Marco set up the tripod and set the camera on a timer. Fun time is over and it’s time to get back on the road.
Out of nowhere, Marco’s bike dies and as soon as he puts it in reserve it fires back up. The weird thing was we hadn’t even put 100 miles on the road. We pull into the next gas station to fill up and Marco does the math to about 20 mpg which for any kind of motorcycle is extremely low. His bike should be somewhere around 45 mpg so something is obviously not right. I’ve been getting between 45 to 50 mpg on my bike.
Back on the highway we get a few miles in when we come up to a field of wind turbines that looked cool and we pull over to the shoulder for a quick rest session and another round of photos. We decide we want to stop somewhere to eat since it’s already past 2 pm and up ahead about 20 miles down the road is a little town called Wilson. We agree to stop there.
Marco’s bike goes into reserve just as we pull off the highway but we ride the 2 miles south into town. Wilson is the typical small town you see in the movies, with a small downtown area. We cruise through the main street and find a place called Made From Scratch. We figure we walk in and give this a shot. How bad could it be. It already didn’t look like your typical restaurant when we walked in. We sit down and look over the menus. I ask for a recommendation and am told their loaded baked potato is good. I decide to get that with the pulled beef.
When the food finally comes it looked good. However, the food tasted great! It was so delicious. They had some pies out on display so we made sure to leave some room for a slice of pie. I ordered a pecan pie and that also was extremely delicious. I left in a food coma.
We roam around for a bit in town and then head down the local road to the next town over to fill up our tanks. After filling up we get back on the highway and try to get some miles behind us. About 100 miles later we have to stop again because Marco’s bike has gone into reserve. These stops are great for resting but terrible on time and on Marco’s pocket. We need to get this fixed. We look over the map and realize that we won’t make it to Colorado today, heck we won’t even make it to our 5th day checkpoint of Goodland, Kansas. We have now gone from being ahead of schedule to being behind schedule.
For now we pull into a motel in Oakley, Kansas to get some rest and will try to make up for lost time tomorrow.