Walking, Reading & Thinking (maybe not simultaneously)

It was a good day to walk. Maybe a bit chilly, but not bad. And you know what happens when I am walking. I usually do some thinking. And today I was even thinking about Reading (while walking).

The sun had just risen making for an extra long shadow.

Remember Pirsig?  Sure you do

Well I ran across a news article about him recently. Here's the link.

http://www.partiallyexaminedlife.com/2012/11/29/robert-pirsig-and-montana-state-university/


Seems that Pirsig (now 84 years old) is due to receive an honorary doctorate from Montana State University. I think that's pretty nice. Not sure what you might think of his famous book "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance", but it sure is an interesting read. To me, parts of the book are sort of strange, other parts absolutely fantastic.

It has been a couple of years since I have read the book. I know many people that say they read it every couple of years or so, just to remind themselves of .....  well, whatever important ideas they see in the book, which seems to vary from person to person. (Thinking I might need to pull it off the shelf and re-read it)

I've been reading a lot this year. Lots of longer books also. I re-read "The Hobbitt" and Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" trilogy. I had looked at a BBC top 100 list and picked out a few books from that list including Pullman's "His Dark Materials" (also a trilogy) and some others. I also looked at a Sci-Fi top 100 list and am currently reading "Ender's Game" by Orson Scott Card.

But a new reading task has presented itself to me, that being Jack Riepe's new Book "Conversations With a Motorcycle"

Picture borrowed (stolen)  from the "Twisted Roads" website. Think Jack will mind?

I feel a book report coming on soon. I received my copy over the last weekend and have read just a few pages so far. But, so far,  I like what I see very much and am anxious to read more. So look for a review to come up in this blog soon.

Ahhh, Technology. I used to have  a "Nook", that Barnes and Noble E-Reader. But it died a painful death a while back, so I have resorted to downloading the Barnes and Noble App to my iPhone and been reading some of my books on the iPhone. It's a little small, but very doable. I also recently received a Kindle book as a gift, so I downloaded the Kindle App to the iPhone and been reading from that App also.

Remember when books were books? Well, I haven't totally abandoned the print version. My copy of Tolkien is on paper. And Jack's new book is in paper form. I don't mind an actual book as opposed to an E-Reader. There's another book I have been wanting to read, but haven't yet simply because it doesn't come in an E-book format. I guess I will have to just buy the paper copy, or get it from the local library, but I doubt they will have it. Sometimes getting the book in E-book format is just really very easy. I probably haven't physically stepped into the local Barnes and Noble store in almost a year.

So anyway, that is some of what I was thinking about this morning as I walked. Last week I rode Max to work on 3 of the 5 days. This week, I'll get some riding in as well, but today I felt the urge to walk.
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Ride On and Carpe Diem, my friends.
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Chili and Sleeping at the Office.

Do you remember that comedian by the name of "Gallagher"? He was famous for smashing watermelons and other fruit and vegetables during his routines. Pretty funny guy. Haven't heard much about him lately, but assume he still might be around.

One thing I remember him talking about was "colors that only exist in yarn". He would go on about this for a few minutes and I would laugh my ass off.

Well, this weekend we rented a pickup truck that reminded me of Gallagher and his comments about colors.

How about mustard yellow for an F-150!! Pretty Cool Huh?


Well you might ask why we rented this baby and the reason is so I can take naps at the office. Let me explain.

With my heart condition, I have discovered the value of a nap in the afternoon, even if it is just for 15 to 30 minutes. So we moved a couch up to the office so I might be able to take a nap if I need one. And on some days I really need one.

After we moved the couch we decided to take in some of the Chili being offered up at the local "Chili Cook Off". As we walked down a few blocks to the area of downtown blocked off for the event we ran across this sign for a local theatre group for a play they were putting on.

We noticed that the price of admission seemed a bit high. Could it have been $19.00 instead of $1,900.00?

When you arrive at the chili feast you pay $5.00 and get a wristband. Then you sample each vendor's chili and later vote for your favorite with a bean that you place in their jar at their table. Each vendor has a booth and table along with litle cups and a spoon.

 The first chili we tried looked like this. It was a vegetarian chili that just seems to defy all the logic of what chili should be. But my daughter and I actually liked this one very much. It had very good flavor despite the lack of animal proteins. Not too bad for our first taste.

 A lot of the vendors identify themselves with a funny team name like this one, the "Chilionaires".

 Here's another catchy team called "Low Bid Chili", not bad, not bad.

 At one of the booths, you could decorate your chili with cheese and some jalapeno peppers, which I did, and I enjoyed this one very much.

 Wichita even has a hockey team, yes you heard me right, hockey, and the team mascot was here to help promote their booth. Go Thunder Dog!

 At one booth there was a warning about the contents of their chili. Oddly enough, this chili was sponsored by a local bank. (One that didn't need a bailout)

 Even the mayor of the city was here, well at least a cardboard cut out of him was. Apparently you could throw beanbags through him and win a prize.

Why, I don't know.

 There was a little sideshow from the players at Old Cowtown as well. Here a banjo player was accompanying a guy trying to swallow some sort of a balloon.

Again, why, I don't know.
 
Apparently this group later in the day tried to beat a Guinness World Record for fire eating by enlisting a lot of audience participitation. They weren't successful. But, Hey, You only live once.
 

 The only evil thing going on this lovely afternoon was a preponderance of "strollers". Yes, "Strollers". More evil than V-Stroms. More feared than K-Bikes. Inviting more dread than Bonnevilles. Some of these devices are huge, encapsulating entire city blocks and carrying more children than the ball roomplayhouse at McDonalds.

And this one didn't even have a child in it. They all walked along the side with Mumsy and Daddy, all carrying their little chili cups and spoons. Oh, the humanuity of it all.

 Here's the booth for our favorite, "Code 3 Chili". This booth was offered up by a local firefighter's union and their chili was delicious.

 After growing a bit tired of fighting the crowd, we went our way back to our mustard pickup. You know, the one with the color that only exists in yarn. But on the way, we spied this Harley trike parked along the street. It was only barely bigger than some of the strollers we saw that day.

 As we walked along we went by an antique store and had to stop and peruse the goodies. Out front was some early ATGATT merchandise for sale. Still looked usable.

And inside I found this picture that looked like it may have been off of an old pinball machine. The guy remionded me of many of my fellow bloggers. You know, those that have this kind of swagger and that always have women hanging off them.

Not!

Motorcycles Not Allowed

IronDad made a request for any kind of 2 wheeled content from this blog even if not motorcycle or scooter related. So here you go Dude!

Saturday Morning Shadow on the mountain bike

Been riding a bit lately, just not on the scooter. During the week I had a yearning to explore an old railroad line that had been converted to a bicycle and jogging trail. The rails are gone and replaced with some gravel. Not exactly fantastic for running or road bicycles, but pretty fun on a mountain bike.

The converted rail trail looking west. This was actually a very small bridge over a creek.



The rail line had not been in use for maybe 15 or 20 years. About 5-7 years ago, they improved it for trail use. The trail only goes for a few miles, but is nice and relatively pretty. There are lots of abandoned rail lines in Kansas. A national organization called the Rails to Trails Conservancy has been active in converting old rail lines to recreational pathways across the country. They have met a lot of resistance in Kansas for some reason. There is now a trail that goes from east to west across the entire state of Missouri. No such luck here in Kansas.

Looking east on the trail. Not much traffic today.

I encountered a couple with a small dog not far from here. I had to laugh as the couple was sort of jogging and walking along and the little guy looked like he was having a great time although he was struggling a bit to keep up with the humans. But you know how dogs are, they'll do anything to make their masters happy.

"Bruiser" at the waterfall

I proceeded eventually through a couple of residential neighborhoods, just sort of leisurely riding along. I got passed by a guy on an expensive road bike that looked like he was in a hurry. My initial thought was thet he was trying to be a jerk and just showing off. Then I decided I really didn't give a hoot. I was having too good of a time.

A very shady sidewalk.

My feeble attempt to make this bike ride look sort of look like "Scooter in the Sticks"

Many years ago when our kids were young, we had a trailer for our bicycles and our kids used to ride in the trailer and go along with us for bicycle rides. This neighborhood was a fun place to ride because of the scenery and lack of traffic. At one time we had a tandem bike and with the trailer hooked up to it, it was like riding a semi down the road.

Sidewalk Twisty"s?

It was a beautiful morning and a great ride. Only about a 10 mile ride, but that's really good for me for right now. Small moves, you know.

There's a Book Report Coming

You may just have to wait for it for a few days. I had told a few readers and friends that I hadn't been feeling very well for the past couple of months. I was pretty sure the problem was related to a drug I was taking to help me quit smoking. Chantix is a ridiculous creation of the drug companies, with all sorts of weird side effects, and only one benefit. It sometimes can help people quit the nicotine habit. I emphasize "sometimes" because I'm not convinced that the manufacturer knows exactly how it works. I'm just here to say that it makes you feel kind of shitty, and not even want to smoke. The good news is that the last cigarette I had was 2 days before Thanksgiving, and the last time I took the Chantix was about a week and a half ago. The bad news is that my symptoms of not feeling well were sort of masked by the effects of Chantix. There was another, more serious, set of symptoms involved that I mistook for the effects of the drug. I had a heart attack last Friday morning. I was incredibly lucky. The paramedics and ambulance arrived quickly. I got to ride "Hot" with sirens blaring in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. The people in the ER were waiting for me. The OR was ready. The cardiologist was "in the building". In a very short period of time, they had done a catherization and placed a stent in an artery supplying blood to me heart. A lot of very competent people saved my life. I was doing so well afterward that they released me on Sunday afternoon and I am back at home. No, I don't feel 100%, yet, but considering the circumstances, I can't do much better. I am taking a few days off of work, then gradually ease back into it a bit. With the time off I plan to finish up a book I have been reading on my Nook that will be the subject of a book report for the blog. I don't want to say what the book is yet, but I am enjoying the heck out of it and just need some to finish it up. I am doing fine and will try and finish the book this week. I do have a little extra time, now. There are even some possibly interesting parallels between the book and my own life that may get explored a bit. So, just hang tight and I'll be back soon with a book report.

Blogger Stats

After about a year and a half of blogging, I admit that I had hardly ever looked at the Google Stats in the blogger program. I was amazed. First surprise: One of my posts last year around Thanksgiving, regarding Native American Spirituality, is the most viewed, by far, of the more than 100 posts I have done. And that post is not even about scootering, the primary theme of my blog. Second surprise: Where the viewers are coming from. The USA and Canada does not surprise me. The United Kingdom is a distant third, but many of the other countries surprised me. Oh, it's just a few from other countries, but was interesting. Russia? ..... Really? South Korea? VietNam? A few european countries were represented. Spain, The Netherlands, Germany. I found the statistics on page hits to be very interesting. I guess that I always assumed that the number of comments received was a good indicator of how much my blog was read. And I guess I always knew that some people read it, but didn't leave comments. I faithfully read a lot of blogs, but do not always leave comments. But now I realize, even more so, that number of comments is not really very indicative of readership. I love comments on my blog. Sometimes they are just as much fun as the post itself. And I like to pester people by commenting on their blogs. But sometimes it just becomes a matter of available time, not enough of it. Then another question is raised. How many if those page hits are my own? I frequently look at my own blog to check for comments. Some days I will do this many times, other days not at all. I guess I could click on my blog more often and artificially increase my own hits, but what's the point of that. Back to that Native American Spirituality post, though. I suspect that a reference or link in Google Images might have something to do with the number of hits to my blog. I had 'borrowed' a few images from there to use in the post. I am guessing that somewhere in Google Images that there may be a link to my blog. I really have no idea how this might work, and don't really care, but to me it is the only possible reason why that post has had so many hits. It certainly can't be from motorcycle or scooter enthusiasts. The number of hits is more than 4 times the number on the next highest post. Go figure. What this all means? I haven't a clue! I had a very excellent Statistics professor in college that said on the first day of class, "You can make statistics say anything you want them to if you just play around with the numbers long enough." I have never forgotten what he said and I think about that statement a lot, particularly when looking at television or other advertisements. Sometimes numbers can be very misleading. So maybe the Blogger Stats aren't that important. There may be certain interesting results, but in the long run I don't think it will change whatever modus operandi I have for the blog. I just enjoy blogging.

The Hat's Off Department Vol. 1

The Scooter Cannonball Run

This event comprised 10 Days and over 3,000 miles from Vancouver BC to Portland ME.

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No easy task.

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It started September 9 and ended September 18, 2010

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The event is held every 2 years. The 2008 event actually went through Wichita although I didn't see them pass by.

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But what an amzing feat!

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My hat is off to all the participants!

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Here's a link to the official website: http://scootercannonball.com/

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The scooters are grouped into 3 classes, a manual 200 class, an automatic 190 class, and an automatic 250 class. Maxi scoots apparently not allowed.

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In 2008, rid.ers on SYM HD-200's like mine placed 1st and 3rd in the automatic 190 class. Alas, didn't find any SYM's in the same class for 2010.

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Some interesting tidbits:

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A 1966 Lambretta won the manual 200 class this year. Pretty Cool!

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A Vespa LX 150 won the automatic 190 class

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A Piaggio MP3 won the automatic 250 class. There were 2 SYM's that placed in this class this year.

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Many riders modify their machines a bit to make the run. The primary modification seems to allow for extra fuel to enable them to go longer between stops. They must check in at various places on the route and are awarded points for each day based upon time in the saddle and miles covered.

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Here's some links to some blogs of some of the riders. Some have written more than others, but there is some interesting reading about their preparations and their rides.

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http://cannonball08.blogspot.com/

http://bagelsscooterblog.blogspot.com/

http://bklwashere.wordpress.com/

http://cbr10.blogspot.com/

http://lambrettaodysseys.blogspot.com/

http://vespacrosscountry.wordpress.com/

http://kickstartkaren.blogspot.com/

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Here's a toast to all the participants!

Max Gets to Cavort with the "Leading Ladies"

or the alternate title

What Happens in Lincoln, Stays in Lincoln

Max at the border

Look at how much worse the road gets when you cross over the line

Do you ever get those wild hair ideas?

A few days before this trip, my wife looks at me with a very skeptical look on her face and says: "OK, you're telling me you want to ride your scooter to somewhere in Nebraska, you don't even know exactly where, or when, and meet up with a guy (from England) you don't even know who says he is touring the USA on a Harley Davidson?"

I say: "Yup!"

She says: "How can I believe this? You could be going anywhere to meet anybody and I would never know."

She had a point there.

She asked where I was going. I said either Lincoln or Grand Island Nebraska depending on where Gary wanted to stop for the night. They were both about the same distance, both almost straight north of Wichita, Lincoln a bit to the east. Grand Island a bit to the west.

I said I will leave either Thursday, Friday or Saturday depending on when Gary made it to Nebraska and what city he decides to stop at. I will ride back the next day.

She didn't say it, but the look on her face was like "You Gotta be Fuckin' Kidding Me"

I never kid! (LOL)

She said: "It's Too Hot"

We had just had 6 days in a row of 100 degree temperatures. I really didn't want to spend 7-8 hours on the road with that kind of heat. Two days before I left the rain forecast also looked bad, the only benefit to that was that it was supposed to cool off a bit. Highs in the low 90's never sounded so good.

I said: "If the weather doesn't cooperate, I'll take the famous Canadian Subaru"

She said: "Uh huh", again with that look on her face.

Bottom Line? I am going to owe her for a long time for this little stunt.

But, the weather cooled off, the rain didn't materialize and Thursday morning I left the house at 6:00 am headed north. I had close to 300 miles to go so I didn't stop too many times to take pictures.

Gary and I had been emailing eact other with plans for almost two weeks. I didn't want to mess up his plans, but he seemed very interested in the idea of meeting up with me. He had provided me with the name of the hotel where he was staying and the approximate location. He sent me a link to their website, but it didn't work on my phone. Nevertheless, I was sort of familiar with Lincoln having been there a few times before. And I changed my route a little bit as I came into town hoping I might just stumble on to the hotel. I looked up and there it was on my right.

Gary's bike was easy to identify. I wondered if his bike wouldn't mind sharing a space with a scooter.

Max was a little timid at first. He's just a little guy compared to the almost Amazonian size and configuration of the "Leading Ladies" (Gary's bike)

Max and I got to admiring the ladies themselves.

After leaving Max and the Leading Ladies together to get acquainted, I went to see if they had another room at the hotel. They did, and as I was paying up for the night, I saw this guy walk into the lobby and knew right away it was Gary.

More of the "Ladies" on Gary's Road King

I checked out my room. I thought I would be tired from the ride, but felt surprisingly energetic. I got cooled off a bit and went over to Gary's room. Lincoln is the capital city of Nebraska and the home of the university of Nebraska. He had some potential activities for us for the rest of the day (It still wasn't 3:00 yet). They all sounded good and we decided to get on the bikes and go to a museum that had race cars and "speed related" stuff.

Okay, now Max is really excited! He not only gets to meet the Leading Ladies, he now gets to go for a ride with them. Almost like a date! If he played his cards right...... then maybe later.......

The paint on this bike is beautiful

We took off for the nuseum. Gary has all the "gadgets" and he punched the address into the GPS and after a short struggle we found the museum. We discovered it was closed though and only available for guided tours, the last of which was at 2:00. Oh well. Then we decided to go look at the state capitol building and the university which are relatively close to each other. Gary punches new information into the GPS and we take off.

Max and his new friend sharing a space.

We find appropriate parking at the university after we had spent a few minutes at the capitol.

Gary was telling me about motorcycle parking in England. It's apparently usually free, but some people want to use the spaces for cars and charge for parking. A revolution is possible.

Gary was curious about fraternities and sororities. We talked about the differences in the education systems in England and the United States. He wanted to know what was good about the University of Nebraska, or what they specialized in. My answer was "They are good at Football". I was only partially kidding. Nebraska has a good school, but football is very very important to people "up" here.

There's an old joke about the Nebraska football helmets, which are white with a red letter"N" on the sides.

The question is, "What does the "N" stand for?

The answer is "Nollege" (Knowledge) We walked around he campus a bit and took a couple of pictures.

It's a nice looking campus

I had about a zillion questions for Gary. As we walked around Iasked questions like How he had organized the ride? How long he had been planning? What did his wife think of all this? I tried to get all my questions answered and Gary was very cooperative about answering them. I hoped I hadn't asked the same questions he had already answered before and repetitively, but probably so.

All in a British accent of course. I did forget to ask him whether he loved the Queen.

Gary waded into the center of this fountain

We walked and talked and eventually got a bit hungry. I had stopped in Fairbury Nebraska for a McDonalds Value Meal, only because it was quick and easy. The salt content seemed to be enough to clear the streets of Philadelphia from snow. I needed some good food and we located a noodle restaurant that turned out to be very good.

Isn't 7 a lucky number?

Good food and more good conversation

After eating we wandered around a bit more and eventually decieded to ride some more to a couple of area parks. Gary punched the information into the GPS and we took off again. It was a comfortable evening.

Max and the Leading Ladies chatting it up by the lake

Gary and I talked about many things. Told many stories. Eventully we decided to go to another park. When we got there, we saw these two low riders and Gary wanted to get off and talk with the owners.

Low Riding Buick and Chevy

We had seen a 747 flying in the sky as we were riding. This park was directly south of the Lincoln airport. But then we noticed that the plane was "Air Force One". Gary got a better picture than I did.

The plane flew over us 4 times, maybe doing touch and go's at the airport

I had been very interested in Gary's trip since I first learned about it earlier this year. To me it would be like a "dream" trip to take. He's taking over 5 months to do this. Maybe traveling 150 miles a day. Stopping to see things along the way when he wants to or feels like it. He's generally not tied down to being certain places on specific dates. Can it get any better?

I asked him if he was really retired. He's only a couple of years older than me. He is fully retired, but I suspect he still stays a little "involved" in some things.

But can you imagine a better opportunity to see the country? Staying in the northern part of the nation during the summer, then visiting the southwest part of the USA in the fall. He has already seen many things I will probably never see in my life.

Me Jealous? Hell, Yes!

At times on his tour so far, he had other riders to ride with. Some are old friends and business associates. So not all of his travel has been solo, but a lot will be. He has already ridden with another blogger, Chris Luhman of Everyday Riding fame. He may also ride with yet another blogger after meeting me in Lincoln. I won't give it away who that might be for now.

Max and the Leading Ladies at Pioneer Park, near Lincoln

He mentioned to me after this shot that it might be getting close to "Beer O'Clock"! We rode back to the hotel and locked up the bikes and eventually headed across the street to a little bar to get a beer, or two, or three, or.....................

We talked a lot more about many things, generally harassed the waitresses, laughed and had a good time.

But it was getting to be 10:00 or so, I had had a long day, and we were both ready for a little "shut eye". So we went back across the street and went to bed. Not sure what Max and the Leading Ladies did that night as we slept, but "What happens in Lincoln, will stay in Lincoln". We met again for breakfast in the morning and had a decent breakfast. He was riding west and north with a relatively long day for him. In a few days he plans to be in Sturgis. They apparently have some sort of rally each year out there (grin). I was headed back south toward home.

I observed him packing up his bike and getting ready to travel. He is extremely organized. He'd have to be to attempt this trek of his. Max and I were getting ready to go too.

Gary is very proud of this ear of corn he picked up a day or two before Lincoln. You can see how well organized his bike is.

We only spent a few hours together, but the experience for me was very enjoyable. Maybe part of my reason for even trying to meet him was to somehow share in the dream that he is able to be "living out".

Gary, thanks for the opportunity to meet you. Take Care , Ride Safe, and Have a Blast.

I know a bunch of us will be following your blog and wondering what you might be up to, as well as wishing it could be us living the "dream".

Key West comes to Wichita

They say you should be very careful about meeting up with a person you have only known from some sort of internet relationship. You never know when they might be a serial killer, a Republican, or even a biker, God Forbid. My co-workers warned me about all the bad things that could happen. They say that bikers, especially those that ride machines without the modern day benefit of tachometers, are the worst. If that's the case, then you have to include me in the category of being "tachometerless". But after meeting a fellow tachometer challenged rider and blogger, I have discovered that not only do we not suffer from tachometer envy, but in fact we are totally normal, well adjusted individuals that are grounded in the knowledge that other people are secretly very jealous of our abilities to ride successfully without tachometers. At least that is what I think. Last Monday, Michael Beattie, his charming wife Layne and their famous dog, known as Cheyenne, came to Wichita and to our humble little home. I must further inform you that they had traveled in their Ford that day starting some place in Wyoming and driving through eastern Colorado and western Kansas (not known for beautiful scenery) on a 100 degree day. They were pretty tired from their effort that day, but that didn't stop them from meeting us at our home and bringing a bottle of wine from Oregon to share with us. We talked at length about almost everything under the sun. There was hardly ever any break in the conversation and I must say we hit it off very well. You would be hard pressed to find a more interesting couple. Michael has this sort of mischievous twinkle in his eye that I actually imagined he might have just from reading his blog. Layne is intelligent and quick witted, probably a requirement to keep up with the sometimes sarcastic and radical utterances from her husband. I say that in a good way.

Layne here is obviously stunned by something uttered by Michael. My wife Jayna on the left looks on in some disbelief also.

It was even a little strange because even though I felt somewhat acquainted with Michael, through reading his blog, and probably vice versa, there were still many things I didn't know about him. So even though it felt like seeing an old friend, it was like meeting a new friend at the same time.

To our wives, it must have been even stranger, not knowing very much about the other couple except for that information which could possibly be extricated from the husband bloggers, which we all know is probably incomplete and untrustworthy. But there was never any unease and I have to say that Jayna and I had a very enjoyable time. Michael even wanted to see my scooter so I had the opportunity to show off Max.

The delicacies for that day, just for Bobskoot. The breaded okra is a very welcome new item on the menu at this restaurant. You could also get fries or potato salad. But the meat is what is famous here. The owners display all sorts of ribbons earned at cooking contests throughout the midwest.

Michael and Layne eventually went back to their hotel to crash and we made tentative plans to get together for lunch the next day before they left on the next leg of their journey.

The next morning Jayna and I went to work. Michael and Layne probably slept in a bit and Michael said he wanted to work on the computer a bit. I suspect that he has a couple weeks of posts all scheduled up. Sort of disgusting, if you ask me. I am not near that organized nor as frequent a poster. Key West Diary is an amazing and fun blog to read. They came downtown to our office building and we took them to one of our favorite BBQ places for lunch. Michael didn't seem entirely sure as to what to order so he said: "I'll have whatever Jim has!" which was a brisket sandwich, hot link on the side with breaded okra. Layne had no indecision as to what to order and got some spare ribs. Jayna opted for the club sandwich. All of which was delicious.

The restaurant we went to was west of the river in what is known as the "Delano" district. This part of town back in the cattle rush days of the 1870's and 1880's was known to be a little "wild" at times. Taverns and houses of ill repute were notorious as the cowboys needed a place to vent their frustrations. The east side of the river was where the financial and shopping districts took hold. The restaurant has a number of interesting old pictures of older times.

We talked and laughed some more. We told stories about our lives and how we ended up doing what we do for a living. We heard about the blogger meeting in Oregon near the BMW MOA rally and other tales of their trip. We made fun of other bloggers behind their backs (Jack and Bobskoot in particular, of course). I will not discuss on this blog what we said in order to protect those unable to defend themselves.

Eventually we were the only people left in the place. The waitresses had all of the other tables all cleaned off and stared menacingly at us as we continued to talk and laugh through the early afternoon. We didn't leave until close to 3:00.

The Arkansas River from the west side a long time ago. Remember, we don't pronounce it "Arkansaw", here in Kansas.

I didn't even get many pictures partly because my batteries crapped out, but mostly because we were having such a good time talking.

They invited us to Key West. We said we would try, and we meant it.

Jayna and I feel very honored that they arranged their trip to come through Wichita.

Michael said he always wanted to see Kansas. I responded with "Bull$hit", but he may have really meant it.

Happy Trails Michael and Layne! (And Cheyenne)

Until we meet again!

And somehow I have a feeling we will!

We get to meet Cheyenne

In their epic quest across the country by Ford, Michael, Layne and Cheyenne graced our presence last night.

What a Great Dog!

We were honored that their cross country route was through Kansas on a 100 degree day.

A meeting with the infamous Conchscooter of Key West Diary fame is not near complete without a picture of footwear.

More to come...........