More of Kansas

On Tuesday we went to Wellsville, Kansas which is just South of Olathe about 30 miles... The KC newspaper was there to do a write up of our lunch ride activity for the Sunday paper... So we kept it close...

And as our leader Roger put it, the town of Wellsville kind of typifies our destinations, with its old wide brick main street and the restaurant that must have been a rooming house years ago... Wellsville is right along the Interstate 35. Has antique stores and is worth your stop even if you have to come by car.... LOL

I didn't count them myself, but it was rumored that there were 100 bikes present... and they are lined up in the next block North as you can see....   They not only warned the restaurant but also the local police guy...  And he sometimes rides with us to farther destinations, so he was more than proud to set some orange cones out it front of the restaurant...

On Wednesday the stated destination was Leavenworth, Kansas and a bar and grill named Ross's...   It was out in the suburbs to the west of Leavenworth...

 I got a kick out of this sign on the front about Husband Day Care.....   Well if ya have to be taken care of it may as well be a place with beer on tap and lots of TVs.....!!  Not to mention about 50 of your friends to boot..

The ride up there didn't quite turn out as planned...   We went North right up I 435 and took the East side of the river scenic road along the Missouri...  But!!  When we got to the bridge over said river going into Leavenworth, they had it blocked off...  That wasn't funny.....

So with nothing else left to do, we had to ride all the way up to Atchison and then back South to the restaurant...  And we were quite late..  Most of the folks were leaving, but several straggled in behind us, having been caught by the same issue...  That spread the crowd out, which kind of helped the restaurant crew keep up...

On the way home we ventured thru the back roads, including 3 miles of gravel when we made a wrong turn,  ending up in Tonganoxie and then Lawrence.. Finally stopping in De Soto at the McDonalds for our famous late coffee...

As I type this, I am down at the Lake house in Central Missouri....  But you didn't want a blog about scrubbing toilets and floors did you?  No I didn't think so...

Retired Rod

Out to the Lake, and in search of dog food...

I think there is some pent up need to go on a long motorcycle ride here with my friends in Kansas...  On Wednesday we met in the McDonalds in Gardner for our pre trip planning BS meeting...

There were 8 bikes and we took US 56 all the way out to hwy 75..  The lake to the West is called Melvern after the little town to its East...  And that was where the lunch was planned..  A small town cafe that was so overwhelmed by all of us people...  They didn't have an empty seat in the house....

The building next door is also part of the restaurant and the large group dining room...  Yep, we filled that up too...  I a funny story, the lady running the restaurant said that the local police almost never stop at her cafe for coffee or meals, but that with 50 or so motorcycles out front, they stopped in just to see what was happening and had some mid morning coffee....   Small community protection at its finest....

Then as we were leaving, our co rider Don announced that he needed to go to Parker for dog food....  This is a standing joke, as no one ever knows how to find Parker, Ks...  But they do have a farmer supply business there in town, and they do sell inexpensive dog food...

So we wandered across miles and miles of rural Kansas finally arriving in a little town that didn't even have signs announcing its name....  But yes it was Parker..  Don purchased two 50 pound sacks of no name plain brown wrapper dog food and strapped it into the passenger seat of his goldwing...  100 pounds $45..

Next we went to Paola, Kansas to get an ice cream cone at the Burger King, but as we were leisurely enjoying our snack and conversation,  it began to rain, so no time was wasted returning the last few miles back to the home town....

The map says it took 4 hours to travel this trip, but we left at 9 AM and came back around 4 in the afternoon........

Retired Rod

Checking in...

I should probably check in here and reassure everyone that I am still kicking...   Not much has happened around here other than a few rainy days and a few cool days...

I have been working away on my income taxes which requires going thru almost every envelope in the three months of mail that was waiting for me here at the house in Kansas City....  Oops there is another bill that I didn't remember when I was out in Arizona....  That always happens.. But so far nothing was really delinquent..

I'm still waiting on that contractor to come back and start on the deconstruction of my living room ceiling, but he called and told me he was really backed up...  Makes me wonder why he accepted the job if he couldn't work it into his schedule...

Tonight as I was stopping at the local Wendy's in front of Wal Mart, I noticed that we had a three alarm fire going on across the divided street in front of the store...  It was up on the corner and facing away from the street Wendy's is on but there were fire trucks all over the place with their lights flashing in the night, so you couldn't miss it...

As I sat in the Jeep in the parking lot eating my double stacker, the entire strip mall burned to the ground...  A mexican restaurant and a KFC along with a cell phone shop and a salon..  It was over two hours while it burned...

The Salon was being remodelled and the tweets on twiter said that it started in the roof area over the salon... 

Hope those contractors had their liability insurance paid  up.. It seemed to burn on forever, while two hook and ladder trucks had elevated hoses running continuously.  Also several other ground based crews had additional hoses, but they weren't even slowing the inferno down...

Tomorrow is Romeo Luncheon, so if it isn't raining too hard, we will be out and about on the Goldwing...  See you later....

Retired Rod

Happenings while being gone in the winter....

Happy Easter!!

Back in the third week of March, my son Ben called me to explain that we had had a mishap here in the Kansas home...   It seems that an upstairs toilet had given up the ghost and began leaking out of the bottom of the tank....

It was only about 12 hours since they had been in the house until his wife stopped by to pick up some old towels to use bathing their new doggie.....  Augie...  And it was raining in my living room...  Right over the console piano...

The piano was acting like a sponge and soaking up most of the water swelling in the process....   So as I was returning home this was on my mind...  I really didn't even want to come in here..  The piano has been in our family since 1984 and my kids took lessons on it....

The house is damaged in the drywall and ceiling of the living room and the carpet is stained brown from the wood stain in the piano...  In the finished basement several tiles of the suspended ceiling are damaged and one wall appears to have been wet..  

The piano is considered too old to be worth much but they are sending a check for $1, 000 to cover it..   It is a Baldwin from before that company went bankrupt and was made in Ohio back in the day...  It is no longer made anywhere in the world...   Baldwin is now a line of the Fender instrument company...   As in Fender Guitars..  One of which I currently own..

The modern pianos are uprights not consoles, and grands that are room filling monsters...  They are now made in China!!!   And the uprights cost $9,600..

But wait I asked the insurance adjuster, don't I have replacement coverage?   And yes I do, but things are only worth what they are worth used.....  If I go ahead and find a replacement of like kind, I can apply for the value it takes to replace it...

Kind of like they threw down a gauntlet...  Why heck yes I'll replace it just to make them have to pay up....!  So some internet research found a 1980 model Baldwin that looks almost identical and I purchased it on the spot without even seeing it...  It was in Mahattan, Kansas...

They had a truck coming this way and it is now in my living room...   Cost $2,500..   And the adjuster just said send me the bill...  We'll see how much they decide to pay...

So on Monday I have an appointment to have the living room ceiling and walls deconstructed along with all the other damage we find as we tear into things...  The new to me piano will be covered up in the formal dining room along with the other pieces of furniture from the living area of our house....

Again, Loyce would have freaked out over this one.....  Her sofa's are white, and the living area was hallowed ground....   So I have spent the last few days removing the insides out of the 9 year old toilets, replacing all of the mechanicals starting at the wall shut offs...

The fixtures didn't freeze, as we keep heat in the home all winter, but the gasket at the bottom of the float valve that seals it with the porcelain tank had become hard and shriveled allowing it to give up and leak...  The bathroom is between the children bedrooms that Loyce used as sewing rooms and wasn't used that often..  So perhaps it had leaked slowly without attracting attention until the dam broke...

So if I am not blogging every moment, just understand I am dealing with construction folks and the fact that my home isn't my own for a few weeks....  Maybe I should just move into the motorhome over in the storage lot...  But no electricity over there....

But since it is now Easter morning, "The Lord Has Risen.....!"

Retired Rod

Poor Jan...... !

Please read Greg and Jan Whites blog for today as they went to the organ stop pizza place in Mesa...  Greg took a lot of photos inside the main hall where the organ is....  And at the end poor Jan Took a Bath of cold Ice Water.....   But go read and have him tell you.....


At least it wasn't Beer!!


Retired Rod