Day 5 – 2013-07-13, Saturday – Wilson State Park, KS to Gothenburg, NE

Day 4 – 2013-07-12, Friday – Wilson State Park, KS

Today was an interesting day. No new injuries, so that’s good! I got up pretty early, a rather cool morning (ok, probably 80 degrees, but with the winds here, it feels a LOT cooler). A mite windy here, 22 mph winds, with gusts up to 37. No wonder they have so many windmills everywhere!

Ok, I did ride part of the trail (Switchgrass Trail, at Wilson State Park), and it was pretty darned nice – ok, not the “black diamond” part, I should have bypassed that one, but the rest of what I rode was good. Not much shade (as in less than 1% of the ride has shade!), but with the breeze, it’s very enjoyable, at least in the morning. Later in the day it got to 102, and that was NOT a good time to be outside.

Being so hot, and Barri being injured still, we went into town to get some supplies. “Went into town” means driving almost 60 miles to Hays, where there’s a Walmart Supercenter. Fun stuff! While “in town” we ate at “Carlos O’Kelly’s Mexican Cafe”. Ok, I know what you’re thinking, and you’d be right. Mexican food in Kansas? At a place called Carlos O’Kelly’s? Well, I like to try places, sometimes for how BAD they are. This was actually fairly good! I had the “Tacos en Fuego” (Tacos on Fire), and it was fairly good-tasting (so much for the tacoS part – I only got one), and spicier than I expected, almost too hot to be enjoyable. I liked it. Would I do it again? I didn’t like it THAT much, so probably not. Barri had Tacos de Monterrey, which were chicken tacos with some kind of sauce. Again, not bad, but probably would not return, as it wasn’t that good. A place has to be better than just ok to get me back, unless everything else is worse, and around here, that IS a possibility.

Oh yeah, another thing we saw here – oil people. LOTS of oil people, and lots of pump-jacks, something we used to see in Texas a lot back in the 80s, but pretty rare today. They all moved to Kansas, I guess. Again, photos when I get some wi-fi later in the week (as in, hopefully tomorrow!)

Ok, as promised, here are some photos!

In some parts near the park, they use these stones as fence posts. It’s pretty cool!

The park itself from a distance looks like this:

Parts along the trail look like this:

And this:

And at dusk, like this:

The park itself looks like this:

VERY nice place – definitely going back soon!

Day 3 – 2013-07-11, Thursday – Lake McMurtry, OK to Wilson State Park, KS

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Well, today was a travel day. Got up pretty early, and headed out, back to I-35 for the continuing trek North, but stopping somewhere for breakfast before we got too far. Then, we took a wrong turn somewhere. Hmmm. Never fear, we’ll wing it and go somewhere ELSE for breakfast, instead of the great place the park manager told us about. Isn’t that how great adventures come about? Well, usually, unless you end up at the Bates Motel, or some such.

We got lucky! We ended up in Perry, OK, and found the Kumback restaurant. Oldest restaurant in Oklahoma still at its original location, since 1926! And the food was GREAT! And you all know I KNOW about food! I’ll post photos later, when I can get them from my camera.

Took off from there after breakfast, and earnestly on the road now. I love these 75 mph speed limits! Stopped in Wichita, KS, at a Best Buy, to get a charger for my Kindle, though not until after getting directions from a VERY surly tollbooth attendant. Everyone else has been REAL friendly, what’s wrong with her? Oh, well, we got our stuff and continued.

Further up the road, we saw a few cars, all tangled up, and actually, one of them WAS blue, though I imagine by that point, everyone was a little blue. Didja catch it? My Dylan reference?

Kansas, my friends, has hills! And windmills! At least central Kansas does, and we are smack dab in the middle of the state, probably within just a few miles of the actual geographic middle. The scenery is outstanding! I’ll try to get some pictures, and I’ll try to make them do this place justice. Amazing. The cool part is that I know the scenery is only going to get better from here!

Found the park (Wilson State Park), got our slot, and made spaghetti. Yum. Tomorrow, we ride the trail!

Day 2 – 2013-07-10, Wednesday – Lake McMurtry, OK

Day 1 – 2013-07-09, Tuesday – Plano, TX to Lake McMurtry, OK

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Ah! Finally, the trip begins!

Well, ok, not first thing in the morning, though. Not even second thing in the morning. Actually, not in the morning at all!

Early afternoon, we hit the road! What a grand adventure! The sun overhead, the wind in our faces … ok, windshield … you get the point. The ADVENTURE has begun!

This is going to be SO cool! We’re flying down the highway, not a care in the world! We have places to go, trails to ride! What could be better? What could go wrong? (I hate when I ask myself this, it usually leads to an answer I don’t like). What’s that noise every time we pass someone? Why did that guy almost go off the shoulder when we passed him? Is the trailer really leaning to starboard? Maybe we should investigate … pull over NOW!

Yup. Not fifty miles into the trip, and we’ve not only flatted, we’ve vaporized the tire, and thoroughly ruined a rim. Cool!

The good part (yes, I was trying to look at a bright side, though it did not shine much at all) is that we were only five miles from Gainesville. Aren’t smart phones wonderful? And there was a Discount Tire on the way! Ok, not a REAL “Discount Tire”, this one was “Discount Tire and Lube”, and they did not have a rim … or the right size, or even kind, of tire. No, we don’t need the square ones, we need the trailer ones, they’re still round, but they’re built better than car tires, to take more abuse. So he points us to T&T Trailer, where we talk to Bubba … but they don’t sell tires, nor do they have a rim … WAIT … they DO have a rim! So sell it to me, and who might have the tires we need? Well, CBJ Tire will, and they do! Not two hours later, we are “on the road again”. Sing it, Willie! Ok, we weren’t really playing it, but I do have it on my phone. I was too rushed to put a soundtrack to it.

Alright, our first (and I hope last) mechanical. The truck has new tires, and now the trailer has new tires, and a new spare. We are good to go, and go we do. Following the GPS directions. Ok, so FINALLY, we get to Oklahoma, and we need to get to Lake McMurtry. And nobody at the Welcome Center has ever heard of it. “You mean Lake Murray?” No. McMurtry. “Lake Murray you say?” NO! McMURTRY! “Never heard of it”. It’s RIGHT HERE ON THIS MAP. “Oh”. Thanks.

Anyway – follow the GPS right? Wrong. You know how people turn left into oncoming trains? Well, we didn’t do THAT, but we did go up a dirt road that ended in a locked gate. Not fun turning around trying not to knock down a fence, hit the gate, or end up in one of two ditches (or, god forbid, BOTH ditches!) Took about ten or fifteen minutes, but we “got ‘er done!”. Whew!

Then we get to the campground, FINALLY (a right-arrow actually meant “turn left”, I’ll spare you the details), and set up the pop-up. And Barri promptly took a header off the railroad ties that are boundaries for our site, knocking her back and right arm on the neighboring site’s railroad ties. Arm swells up all night, and hurts like the dickens. Watch your step, Bear! I’m ok, though, so we’re good!

Here is what the site looks like: