Ride Report: 47 Miles, 2,491 Total Miles, 17.3 Avg. mph, 630 Ft. Climbing, 3,281 Calories, 1 frustrating end to the day...
As to yesterday's encouragement that readers skip yesterday's post if they weren't in the mood to hear me whine...
The reader will have to forgive my lugubrious mood. It’s difficult to draft this post because The Rig is once again having difficulties. It still runs, but it misses, idles poorly and has thrown codes (A little mechanic talk there - for obvious reasons I’ve picked it up as of late.) which set off the “check engine” light. Not wanting to find ourselves stranded in the middle of nowhere again, we got to Newton and decided to call it a day there. We’re currently in the Dillons parking lot at 12th and Main (right on the route, BTW) awaiting tomorrow's opening bell for the auto repair shop right across the street. I’ll make a prediction concerning the issue: when installed in Hays, the Discombobulator (an electronic part) decided not to play well with the other electronics on The Rig. We shall see. I really don’t imagine that this will be a huge issue to resolve since The Rig runs, even if it acts like the proverbial 96 pound weakling in doing so.
However, just to be on the safe side, I asked Susan to do some back-channel Teamster Talk with the Auto Mechanic's Guild (AMG) and see if she could move things along. She told me that there's no such thing as the AMG, just a bunch of independent shops with no organization to run the show. I know better, I saw one of 'em wearing a guild ring one day that looked sorta like a skull and bones society ring, this isn't it exactly, but it's close...
So we'll see. It may be that despite our 40 years of nuptial bliss, there are still some things she's not authorized to tell me. Or I suppose there's the off chance that she may be telling the truth.
Anyway, until then, the day was going relatively well, if a bit foreshortened by The Rig’s ambivalence concerning our trek thru Kansas. You would think that if it were gonna act up it would have chosen a foreign state like California - or maybe waited till we made it to the liberal bastions of the east coast. Then again, The Rig and I have never discussed politics, maybe she’s really a closet Democrat. I wonder if the secret squirrel boxes that mechanics have can pick up a code for that? I shall inquire.
As for the day, it started off much like yesterday - humidity aplenty. At one point early in the ride, Delta inquired as to why I had brought him out in “this crap” and suggested that I return him to The Rig, then swim to our destination. I’m gonna have to talk with Susan and see where he’s picking up this salty language.
But while a bit crude, his observation wasn't too far off base. It looked like this...
And this was after waiting 45 minutes for the fog to lift. However, just two miles down the road it hadn't lifted and was still quite foggy. I decided to pull off and wait a bit longer. Susan was right behind me in The Rig, so I retired to its comfortable interior to wait it out. I'm gonna guess it wasn't more than another 15 minutes and we were back on the road.
Beside which we observed this washed out part of a tilled field. While it looks like a river must run through here, there's only a 3-4 foot drainage tube under the road. This is a huge washout. And the reader is only looking at the left half of it. The rest is out of the cameras view to the right. There must have been a prodigious amount of water thru here earlier this spring. Given the small drainage tube and the size of the washout, I can only conclude that water ran over the roadway to cause this. And note the interesting pear shaped little "island" it left behind. I don't even know how the guy who owns this land will try and repair this - or if it can be done.
The wind was a factor again today. From this the reader should make two observations concerning the trees in this pic. One - I was glad to see 'em as they kept the wind off me for several miles. Two - we're back in that part of the Great State of Kansas with enough water to support actual trees instead of the shrubbery they call trees in western Kansas.
Then I tried to take this pic of a soybean field and Susan photo bombed me with The Rig. Some people will do anything to get in one of my posts...
But back to the soybean field... This part of the state also has enough water to support soybeans. Given the whole China embargo thing, I was surprised to so see many of these around. What with China putting tariffs on 'em, I thought the price was low enough that maybe not many would be planted. Guess I was wrong.
We also passed right by Buhler, Kansas today. It's quite well known in certain circles. Well, OK - I had never heard of it till Kelsy married Parker. Turns out he's from Buhler. Hey Parker - it's still there!
I know this is a screen shot, but I passed right by this place today and a pic from the road wouldn't do it justice. Whoever this guy is, he has tons of old (but not ancient) combines all parked in an orderly fashion and sorted by manufacturer. Some of the combines appear to have been partially disassembled. There are also row upon row of rims in one area. From this I was left to conclude that the owner of these wayward machines figured out that at a certain age one could buy up old machines and strip them for parts to keep other old machines running. Genius. This is what makes America great. That's right - combine graveyards. Hey - it's either that or this is where old combines go to die, sorta like that thing elephants do. "I dunno Earl, they just keep showin up. Lord only knows how they find the place."
So - given how the day turned out with The Rig and all, there was only one thing to do...
Go go dinner at Billy Sims BBQ with the prettiest girl I know, and eat a lotta meat. OK - that's three things, I was making a rhetorical point. Regardless, I felt better afterward. Whether it was the pretty girl or the meat I'll leave to the reader's discretion. I know where my vote is going.
Till next time.
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