PART 1:
hey yaalll .
i'm so clueless with e-mail. this is the only
way to send out this story of mayhem & adventure.
A WEEKEND OF REINDEER & TORNADOS
wade & i met at a closed never to be mentioned
agian.we searched all around mid-town for a coffee
fix. a hateful coffee chain was found open. so we
stopped & pillaged all their coffee cake. wade tried
to drink all their coffee, but he was unsuccesful.
we rolled out of town in a mind altering haze . the
coffee & sugar had kicked in now we were waiting on
the adrenaline & other mood enhancing substances to
take over . the road out of town was clear. the roads
were perfect. just outside bonner springs we hit the
most beautiful gravel road. they flowed like a river
to tonganoxie. mmmmm goodsence ( damn good) our first
stop& my first time at a goodsence. the road out of
tonganoxie led us up a big ass hill & on to some sexy
& hilly gravel. butt creek road, iwas sure wade said
it , butt creek road. the sign said buck creek road,
thank god i thought i was heading intosome wacked out
county in kansas. buck creek road turned into one
georgeous winding gravel, 4 miles of sweet lovin.
wade is pizza man ,2 slices of pizza for the next 40
miles that's bad ass.a word of warning... don't listen
to joel when he gets super excited about a goofy idea.
don't listen or follow.no more on this subject will
ever be spoken. just don't listen to joel. don't try
fishing at lake perry . lake perry will forever be
known as that damn lake.
we were led to valley falls by winding roads & a
sexy gravel offshoot that leads to a good fishing
spot.
i'm such a slow typer
keep the rubber side down, joel
PART 2:
man i stink at this computer stuff.
when i left off with the story.
we had left the fishing spot in valley falls.
wade was leading us out of valley falls at a
paris-roubaix winning pace & it hit me. we've had a
strong tailwind for the last 80 miles.pray for the
wind to change or tomorrow will be a death march. the
last stretch of gravel was sooo smooth we missed our
left turn so we went into holton ona rolling road. the
hills were like waves building & pushing us back.i
became sure they wanted us to turn around. after the
longest 6 miles of my life we rolled into town. the
only forboding fact of this town was the sausage
factory on our way in. we went buy the first caseys
( our lifeblood)& asked about a good dinner. they sent
usto the town square to a out of place looking
sandwich place. how many times has a strange woman
bought you dinner???? if you anser never , wade & i
are one up on you. these people outside of kc are nice
really nice!!! & slow , we waited 40 minutes for 2
sandwiches.
after dinner we went fishing. wade is the master
fisherman. 2nd cast & he lands a respectable bass.
i loose a $ 4 spinner on my first cast , shit, shit
shit!!!!! i cast about for a hour & catch nothing but
moss. not a bad hour. we find showers at the city
lake.
its really cold water a really cold shower. the only
good part is getting out & warming up. we settled on a
picknick shelter for our camp site. since all day
we've heard about storms moving in at night. a bivy
sack a sheet, & all the clothes we were carrying. was
barely enough to keep you warm at 47 deg. i was not
quite warm enough all night , but we stayed dry
sleeping on picknick tables under the shelter.
to get out of my bivy. its misty & overcast. my legs
creak all 2 miles to a good lookin cafe. we took 1
hour to eat breakfast, biscuits & gravy,
eggs,sausage,hashbrowns,toast, coffee, juice. when we
left it was rainy out& i was ready for a nap.we had to
get going 100 miles to go & storms coming around 5 pm.
we had a stiff 15-20 mph headwind from the southeast.
so we decided to ride mainly road back home.
misty cool rain shrouded us for the first stretch to
valley falls. it was peacful & cool. slowly the car
traffic picked up around church time.
& bacon on pizza i'm not convinced yet, it just
doesn't sound right. our fishing spot in valley falls
is our first stop. someone was already there. 1 minute
after we showed up one guy caught a big catfish.
we rolled on towards oskaloosa, the gravel stretch
north of oskaloosa was sweet.then on to tonganoxie.
with the sun coming out& the wind picking up. before
we head south to tonganoxie. some guy in a car slows &
lets us know tornados have been sighted in tonganoxie.
wade comes up with the geinus idea of going straight
east & missing tonganoxie . we look on the map & see
we are 20 miles west of k.c. ks. . we head in passing
X-large bulls, & reindeer( they have really long legs)
on the way to basheor. at caseys we figure on going
the last stretch on leavenworth road. as we
leave caseys the tornado siren comes on. we ride a
little faster looking around the skys for trouble. the
rain starts lightly. the clouds build to our south
east then dissapear 3 or 4 times. something big is
building up there. we go under 435 & hail starts . i
think about going into a nearby church. then think
lets get the heck home. so we pass the woodlands in a
hard rain. leavenworth rd is a hilly road & not the
best after 80 miles with a headwind & 20 lbs on the
bike. we are getting passed by lots of cars offering
rides & storm sirens going off. i would say i was
getting worried & wade was looking for a gluuy [ed. gully] or a
really big tree to hold onto. the sky was getting
darker behind us & the rain coming down harder. at
aout 75th & leavenworth rd we looked back & saw it .
big , dark ,& moving fast sounding like 20 freight
trains. it was moving towards us from 10 blocks away .
we decided to go south , a right angle from the path
of the tornado sounded smart. we beat tracks out of
there , or at least rode slowly. the storm stayed on a
west to east & slightly north track. for the next 45
minutes riding thru kc ks . we could see the huge
clouds feeding the tornado & small tails trying to
come down. to say the least i was tense.we rode out of
it releaved, we missed the worst of it. we rolled home
worn out &happy to be alive.
keep the rubber side down, joEL
