A Little Jaunt Across Kansas

[Bruce Day]

What better to do in early summer than to take a little bike ride and smell the flowers. So several of us went on the Bike Across Kansas and went 543 miles across the state. We were 70, 62(me) and 58. The youngster is thinking about running for a state office and wanted to renew connections. There were 800 riders from the cities, small towns and farms of Kansas and from 38 states. The oldest were an 80 year old man, an 84 year old woman. The youngest rider of his own power was 11. A 5 year boy was towed by his 20something mom all the way across on a bike trailer with pedals. A grandfather rode across with his two year old granddaughter on a bike seat behind him.

We went through Syracuse, Garden City, St John, Jetmore, Halstead, Eureka, Humboldt and Paola.

I wanted to do an in person game bird survey. Its been a good winter without much winter loss. Everywhere I heard bobwhite quail and pheasants.

Photo 1, I think we are Colorado, but I don't see any mountains.

Photo 2, A weedy, brushy wheat field with a tree border. Maybe some birds in there.

Photo 3, We tent out and get our bags hauled for us. 800 riders, ages from 5 to 84, all shapes and sizes, about half men and half women.

Photo 4, we have fun gals who provide water and refreshments about every ten miles. They dress in different outfits every day.

Photo 5, the wheat is about ready for harvest.

[Bruce Day]

Photo 6, Great scenery....wheat fields. A fellow in his 70's and a bunch of 20somethings.

Photo 7, A pie stop. It doesn't get much better than Mennonite girls selling homemade pie. Strawberry-rhubarb, blueberry, cherry, peach, blackberry and coconut cream made with real cream. So hard to decide.

Then that night my friends and hunting buddies from Dodge City came up, picked us up and we drove to Dodge for steak.

A person burns 3000-5000 calories a day, depending on how big they are, just to power their way on an all day bike ride. So of course finding Mennonite pie ladies was a matter of necessity.

Photo 8, wheat is not the only thing in Kansas wheat fields.

Photo 9, did I mention Kansas wheat fields?

Photo 10, the three bad boys. Ken shoots a Beretta but has hunted with us before. Sun is hard on us white boys, so sunscreen slathered on is in order.

[Bruce Day]

Photo 11, Kansas hills and wheat. Maybe some pheasants too.

Photo 12, This was Alien/Outer Space day for the SAG ( support and gear) stop ladies. This lady is set up to receive her signals from outer space.

Photo 13, Now how about this for cute? Dad, Mom, two daughters, in matching outfits on a quad bike. The young girls had their I Pods and cell phones of course.

Photo 14, Jetmore Kansas at 6 AM. Heading out now because the temp was going to be upper 90's. In some areas where there is more yellow or buff brick, the streets are paved using that brick, hence " The Yellow Brick Road".

Photo 15, The next day turned colder, 55 degrees, but it was cheerleader day for the SAG ladies.

[Bruce Day]

Photo16, here we are passing by old Fort Larned. Charlie Herzog and I came by Larned on our way back from Dodge last fall, but I couldn't get Charlie to ride a bike. Maybe if Charlie sees all the cute ladies, he will change his mind and ride. We only do maybe 80 to 90 miles a day. I'm not like a lot of these 60 and 70 year olds who go out of their way to ride 100 miles per day.

Photo 17. Sometimes the days get long and the butt gets sore and the legs get tired, so you feel a whine coming on. But then you see one of these fellows. A disabled vet, paraplegic, peddling with his hands all the way across. We had three of them, accompanied by a van pulling an air conditioned cargo trailer for one of them. That fellow lost all nerve senses from his chest down and couldn't sweat, so he overheated easily, and the girl van driver kept him cool and then he would go again.

Photo 18, besides wheat, Kansas has big CRP fields of big bluestem. Rumor has it that pheasants like CRP. Big bluestem gets 5 to 6 ft tall. In the old days, it used to be as tall as a man on a horse.

Photo 19, four senior citizens, all in their 70's.

Photo 20, in Kansas, even when its hot and you have to wear shorts, a well dressed man wears a western hat.

[Bruce Day]

Photo 21, here's our sweetheart SAG lady again. Now if Doc Van Blaricum had been home instead of off at an Elderhostel in Colorado, he could have come up and fixed this poor lady's teeth.

Photo 22, here they are on cavewoman day. I don't think those cavemen had it so bad.

Photo 23. here's my buddy, far left. But I took this picture for the fellow in the distance a bit, light blue shirt, caught him just as he was bending over. He is over 6 ft 4, maybe even 6ft 6, and well over 300 lbs, a giant of a man. Had a bike with a large seat and bigger tires, and peddled all the way across. Wasn't very fast , but he got there every day and went the distance. I know some folks say that they are too big to ride a bike, but this man probably could have towed several smaller bikers behind him all the way across. Mr Pink Shirt behind him wasn't a little fellow either, and nobody said a thing about his cute pink shirt.

Photo 24, the Flint Hills in eastern Kansas. Full of cattle and quail in the draws. Ranches here come large, 10,000 to 20,000 acres.

Photo 25, just a couple fellows admiring the scenery.

[Bruce Day]

Photo 26, now what could be cuter than a 12 year old Flint Hills Rodeo Princess with her hat, vest, big silver belt buckle, jeans and cowboy boots?

Photo 27, or two ladies with poodle skirts on lost in the 50's day?

Photo 28, and finally, clouds scudding low over the prairie. Looks to be a good year for gamebirds. Maybe some of you will come out here this year. The Mennonite ladies can bake more pies.

[David Dwyer]

Bruce
That must have been a blast! I ride about 30-40 miles a week but do not know if I would be up for that. What is your feeling for next seasons pheasants?
David

[Bruce Day]

David, at 30-40 miles per week, you would be in good shape to ride it without undue difficulty. Some people don't ride all the way and as usual the " I can't" is more mental than physical. What I mean is that some people only ride part of the way each day or they trade off with their spouse or buddy driving a support vehicle. You do what you can and its all better than doing nothing at all. I'm just happy to see these people in their late 70's and into their 80's getting out and doing. Its all good. There are also many riding who were once way overweight and want to turn their life around so they do, drop 100 or more pounds, get rid of the diabetes, get rid of the hip and knee problems, etc. Everyone is very encouraging for whatever miles they can do and pretty soon they are going the distance.


This year's wild pheasant crop should be one of the best. We didn't get any late freezes or broad hailstorms, its been wet enough for good insects for the broods, and there was good carryover. We hunted last Jan and still saw hundreds of pheasants.

[Bruce Day]

We spent the night in one small town in western Kansas that had an old, closed car dealership on the city square.

Several of us looked inside to see:

3 1957's Bellaire's, 2 were 2 door hardtops, one a four door sedan

1 68 or 69 Ford Torino, red, 2-door hardtop

1 67 or 68 Camaro Convt, beige

1 very nice mid to late 60's E Jag roadster, the pale yellow, split eliptical rear bumper barsdidn't see any rust, but E's are notorious for rust in the rockers, probably the triple carb 6. These have been called " the greatest crumpet catcher known to man" if any of you have the energy to catch crumpets.

about a 1960 Cadillac convt

assorted 1920's sedans , none I recognized as Model T's.

And finally, a cherry red, unflared, unabused 1966 Corvette roadster. Likely the small block 4 speed, maybe a respray. No side pipes, just a straight Vette. These things ride like buckboards with rocket engines attached to them, all roar and acceleration and head turning, and I'll bet this one is numbers matching without rebuilding.

All were original, decent, unmessed with condition, no fender flares, etc.
The major said the elderly owner was not doing well and his family would like to get them gone, and the city would like to take over the building.

Now I'm not saying they are for sure available, but these western Kansas cars are generally rust free and these I'll bet might be lower than eastern or Calif markets. I don't know if any of you care for old cars but here you go. I'd pursue one of the Chevy's myself but I still have my hands full with my old Ford woody and now an older SL and I am out of garage space. Besides, a friend has offered to build me a 69 Chevelle SS with a built small block.

[Bruce Day]

I was asked again about bird production. This year has been so favorable with the right amount of moisture and no bad hailstorms, floods, etc, that I wouldn't be surprised to see at least two hatches of both quail and pheasant. Its been wet and I have seen clouds of bugs, and the chicks feast on that high protein diet.
On the minus side, in recent years I have not seen enough country boys cruising the back roads in pickup trucks with .223 rifles or greyhound boxes in back. Those boys used to keep down the fox and coyote population because once the greyhounds start running a coyote, its as well as dead. And I don't see as many dead redtails and white legged hawks underneath the power lines as we used to see. If we can get better predator control, that would improve the gamebird population. We used to have bounties on those animals in more enlightened times.

[Dave Fuller]

Great pic.s Bruce, thanks. A few comments:
1) I love the old wooden "Welcome to Colorful Colorado" signs. Many have been replaced with these God-awful purple things.
2) One of our family farms is right outside Jetmore on what used to be the Arkansas River. It is now a dry river bed as all the water gets used in Colorado.
3) I see you passed by Fort Larned, what a great place. My dad has a bunch of arrowheads that he collected as a child just outside the fort. Here's a photo of where he carved his name in it back in the 1930's (I would have had my hide tanned for doing that):

[Bruce Day]

David, here is the main street of Jetmore and another of the county courthouse.

Small world. My friend and hunting buddy from Dodge is married to Christine White( maiden name), who is the daughter and granddaughter of Jetmore town physicians. The Hornungs owned farm land north and south of Jetmore, lived in Dodge and would road farm equipment up there. Christie was the area gifted education coordinator for years for a lot of school districts.

Its so wet this year that the Arkansas has water in it, even by Syracuse. Kansas won a major Supreme Ct water rights case against Colorado for diverting all the Arkansas River water, so more comes now. You might remember that picture I posted of Charlie Herzog wading across the Arkansas at Ingalls, really only walking across the sand.

So Doc Drew, why not move back? A person could do a lot worse than live in Kansas. We have friends and hunting buddies, Darryl Miller by Scott City, who live in Kansas and spend Jan through April in Casa Grande to avoid the winter.

I know where the Hodgeman is. When I am in Dodge, we stay at the old cabin on Duck Creek north of town.

[Drew Hause]

This is the Hodgeman Wildlife Area, southeast of Jetmore courtesy of Maynard Reece Byrd

http://pic20.picturetrail.com:80/VOL1373/6511424/20611291/335770680.jpg

More neat Kansas stuff here http://www.picturetrail.com/sfx/album/view/20611291

[Dave Fuller]

I love it out there, often wonder what it would be like to live there again. We have some other land north of Larned as well. I try to get back at least once a year.

[Larry Frey]

Dave your last photo defines the term "flatlander". Heck around here if you can see a mile in any direction the town wants to charge you a view tax.:cuss:

[Dave Fuller]

It sure makes walkin' up pheasants easy! That grove of trees was FULL of bobwhites last year too!

[Bruce Day]

Dave, you know a nice house in town or on an acreage on the outskirts might cost you as much as $100,000. And there is unlimited hunting and fishing, they are putting in that new Horse Thief Canyon Reservior just outside town, and I don't think anybody locks their doors or takes the keys out the ignition. On the downside, you have to drive to Wichita or Denver for an outlet mall.

[Dave Fuller]

Bruce - You are absolutely right, I have thought of that many times. For a once-a-year trip on which my wife will never go its hard to justify. If I start factoring in some KU football or basketball, that changes the equation too. The guy who farms for us always has good intel. on birds in the Pawnee/Hodgeman area, when I get his assessment I'll post it. Keep the Kansas reports coming, it will always be home for me. - Dave

[Bruce Day]

Last Tuesday was KU-K State day where people wore their hats or t shirts, about half and half. We'll probably get KU football season tickets this year. Remember Band Day and the KU band coming down Campenille Hill? . Got the youngest son living in Lawrence, graduated this last year and wants to work a year then go on to KU law school. He's been working, hanging out at Clinton Lake and the Free State Opera House. Go Hawks.

And by the way,Pawnee Creek was full and flowing.

[Dave Fuller]

Sadly my daughter took Southern California over Kansas... But I don't mind visiting so much since I found this place. It is right on Mission Beach in San Diego (by Life Guard Stand 19), serves Scooners just Louise's in Lawrence, the walls festooned with KU memorabilia, and the TVs are always showing KU sports. I'd still rather be in Jetmore.

[Bruce Day]

I know some of you exercise, some don't and if you don't like this, just pass on by. But here it is in winter and some are starting to dream of warmer weather and getting out.

So here are some blue skies and green fields from 4 years ago. See if you like this unarmed reconnaissance for pheasant and quail.

[calvin humburg]

Great to see this ol state green. Road ditch hey is really tall been a while.

[paul stafford jr]

my son and i have not been to kansas sinse 1989. i loved the rolling parries.today we went and shot afew rounds of skeet, 18 degrees with a gentle wind out of the north. still two more months till the weather starts to break. the old guns take the cold better than we do.the summers here in michigan are beautiful but the winters can be tough