It was almost 9 AM as son Ben and I left the driveway... and about three miles North of here we were on the 435 beltway around the East side of the city... It was morning drive time traffic and I was shoved off of the road by a BMW driver with in the first mile... A continued exercise in letting it go...
But a interesting thing happened once we were 25 miles North of town... We have a fellow rider that is a farmer South of Olathe here that has a BMW touring bike... He is a senior member and an Octogenarian.... But only in his annual accumulation of birthdays.... as he caught up to Ben and I from behind and zoomed right past us beeping the horn and waving...
Of course I recognized him right off, but he seemed not to know me... So I picked up the speed a little bit to follow... and then a little more speed, but he was still leaving us....
We did manage to keep Leland in sight, but at times Ben said he was doing 90 on his speedo.... Motorcycle speedometers are notoriously wrong and usually register much faster than you are going...
We did manage to catch him, but only because a couple of semi's had the road blocked and he had to slow way down before he could get around... But he didn't wait to see what we wanted, as he sped off thru a small town after we got off the interstate... You don't follow Leland, you chase him.. He has over 700,000 miles riding BMW cycles and hopes to make a million before he gets too old...
As the morning progressed, I think there were about 80 of us in the cafe... The cash register tape that had the meal rings on it was rolled into a big ball... I'm fairly certain they hadn't had a day like that for quite a while...
| Gallatin is the county seat of Davies County |
Of course I recognized him right off, but he seemed not to know me... So I picked up the speed a little bit to follow... and then a little more speed, but he was still leaving us....
We did manage to keep Leland in sight, but at times Ben said he was doing 90 on his speedo.... Motorcycle speedometers are notoriously wrong and usually register much faster than you are going...
| Its on the Corner across from the court house... So what would you name it? |
| I'm in the darker green shirt.. Looking grumpy it would seem... |
| This time he had my attention, so I couldn't be a grouch.... |
When we left, Ben and I and Al, Hayes rode the two lane highway back down thru the center of Missouri... We crossed the river at Richmond, and then went thru Lexington on the South side of the bridge.... These towns were a million miles from each other back in the Civil War days before the bridge...
(On some research there was a pontoon bridge back in the 1800s but I couldn't get dates on it...) Now the towns are just 7 or 8 miles from each other...
Ben headed off back toward KC while Al and I continued on the two lane for another lazy hour going thru Odessa and ending up in Holden... By now it was 4 PM so we turned back toward KC... Stopping in Pleasant Hill for a McD's sundae. Well Al has one, I just have diet soda...
In all, we rode 242 miles... Ben said he was showing about 200 as he returned for his kids.... Romeo web post where I stole these photos.......
And unbeknownst to me, they came over an mowed my yard while Al and I were having that McD's break.... Caden, my 11 year old grandson really likes riding his grandpa's JD tractor... so he's game anytime.......... LOL
Today was pretty much recovery time, other than washing the load of bugs off of the bike.... That took a couple of hours this afternoon....
Retired Rod
Sounds like a great day! Haven't ridden a motorcycle in such a long time, maybe someday!
ReplyDeleteErik
No Rod, boring is not a motorcycle ride but it if definitely my days here in AJ. Glad you had such a great time.
ReplyDeleteNice to see you out on that Gold Wing putting some miles on that baby! I'll bet that restaurant cook sure had to take a break after all you guys left!
ReplyDeleteOkay - I followed your instructions so now I'm checking to see if it worked. Thanks for the help.
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