Day 63 Greg’s Pub & Grub

Fruit for Breakfast!

Don and Eric headed for Tucson, Arizona

Hay Baler - Check out the size of that chain...

Gregory's all puffed up by the wind and wearing his find of the day, a neon reflective vest.

CRAZY SOUTHERLY CROSSWIND!!

This hay baler stirred up a good size cloud of dirt for us to ride through.

Mary Lou and Les headed to La Crosse, Kansas on Highway 183

Greg's Pub & Grub in Rush Center, Kansas

Date: Sept. 20, 2009

From: Ness City, KS (Ness County)

To: La Crosse, KS

Route: Hwy. 96E/Hwy. 183N

Passes:

Miles Today: 39 miles

TOTAL MILES: 1,774 MILES

Top Speed on this trip: 54.1 mph

Weather: 80’s with CRAZY CROSSWIND from the South

License Plates Collected: 5 Montana plates, 8 Wyoming plates (2 motorcycle) and 1 Idaho plate (found in WY), 2 Colorado plates

We slept in and had breakfast at the restaurant attached to the Derrick Inn Motel and met up with our new acquaintances again in the morning. Eric and Don were off on their scooters westbound for Arizona and we had the pleasure of meeting up with Les and Mary Lou (east bounders from Portland, Oregon) throughout the day.

As a matter of fact we all stopped in Bazine at Elaine’s Bicycle Oasis to pay her a visit though we weren’t able to stay with her the previous night. We had a short visit; Gregory got to see her husband’s hay baler that he was hooking up to his tractor and Elaine sent us off with fresh tomatoes in a Ziploc in the handlebar bag.

We connected again at the rest stop in Alexander where we also met Katie and Rocky and Marco all eastbound cyclists headed for San Francisco. At around 3:30 P.M. we caught Les & Mary Lou at the end of their “lunch” at Greg’s Pub & Grub in Rush Center. We thought we’d never get there as we were fighting a crazy southerly crosswind. We were wiped out and happy to tank up on drinks and wolf down some enormous burgers. Gregory played pool with Les and we watched a bit of the Sunday football game.

We all happily turned off Highway 96E and headed north on Highway 183 where we took advantage of that southerly wind and flew the 4 miles into La Crosse for the night. The park looked nice with clean bathrooms but we promised Mary Lou she could use our computer so headed to the other end of town to their Green Acre Motel. They offered to share their laundry detergent and when Mike saw the rates and the nice clean newly remodeled motel he opted for a room rather than going back to the park. I told Gregory that his dad was getting soft. Gregory and I weren’t arguing though! It is always nice to have clean clothes and a bed. So full from lunch we opted to have a snack for dinner and fill up again in the morning at the café across the street. I’m sure Mike will have us up and out the door by 6 A.M. when the café opens. He had a miserable day fighting the wind and doesn’t want a repeat of today.

I’m blogging in the laundry room and I think the boys are watching the end of Star Wars Return of the Jedi. When I went back to the room a minute ago Mike jokingly said, “What’s for dinner?” I gave him the option of the café earlier when they were about to close and he declined so I guess he’ll have to figure it out. Casey’s General Store (basically a gas station and convenience store) is across the street. I’m always surprised that though we can eat a huge lunch at 4 P.M. we can still eat more by 8 P.M. if we wanted to. Me, I’m still full…