May 5, 2007

I got up late. I seem to need to sleep in a lot these days. It has a lot to do with stress.

After looking at the maps last night and running the weather to check for rain and storms I decided to move over to the Missouri Lewis and Clark State Park. There were a lot of sites vacant, probably due to the rains that are due in tonight.

There is no way that I am going to be able to entirely miss the rain, but by planning my moves, I can try to minimize it. Here’s to hoping that I can outsmart or outrun the weather. Running the weather on the Internet helps, but a lot depends upon how savvy I am about reading how the clouds work and where the road heads into the clouds. Fogg Toggs rain gear is great.

The ride over to Lewis and Clark was short and kind of funny. I tried to follow my map. I got off at the exit that it showed would lead to an access road that would lead to my destination. No, really, I do know how to read a map.

When I first got off, there was a restaurant that had a couple of nice ass Harleys sitting right by the door. I hoped to meet them and talk as it looked like a couple. They happened to come out just as I was going in. We started to talk and I found out that they didn’t do much traveling but hoped to do more in the future.

There are a lot of people who buy a Harley and do some weekend riding. Right now I am glad that I have decided to travel even if it means being on a cheaper bike. I like my Vulcan. It rides and moves out great. It is easy to handle. I do wish that I had a bit more room on it. <grin>

I went in the restaurant to eat, came out, strapped on my helmet, eyed the road, thought about asking for directions--then said to myself, the map shows a road that goes through.

Well, the road did go through, but not to where (and how) it said. The pavement ended and I ended up on gravel. The scenery was spectacular, but I don’t really like to ride on gravel. I have had a couple of bad experiences with it while doing bicycle riding. Gravel is how I broke my teeth in the third grade. LOL

I carefully rode through the gravel (beautiful day isn't it?)for a mile or two, found another blacktop road, looked around and thought, well this does head in the general direction that I wish to go, put the bike in first and took off.

Went through the town that the park is supposed to be near and didn’t find anything. Now, in a small, rural town, I can easily be the thrill of the day. It is spitting a bit of rain, but not enough that I want to don my rain gear so I get my fair share of allotted, she must be totally nuts looks.

I grab my map, head in the wrong direction and have to turn around and head back again. (Why didn’t I buy that gosh darn bulky WalMart atlas?) I find the sign and the road. Pull in and pick the site.

After I put up my tent and sign in to the campsite I smile and head on over to (front shot of the Lewis and Clark garden by the Museum)

the Museum in Atchison, Kansas. Amelia Earhart grew up in Atchison. Somehow I think that Amelia and I would enjoy each other. She seems to be a really neat person. I don’t get over to her birthplace, but hope to do so in the morning.

In the museum was a great printing press. I would like to have a printing press at some point in my life, one kind of like this one.

There was a neat post about the stuffing of a ballot box in one of the elections. I tried to take a pic of the post, but the exposure in the museum was really terrible. There was a glare from every angle. The post said something that something like over half of the votes cast were illegal votes. That is a lot.

The other thing to do in Atchison has to do with trains, as in the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe railroad,

I love trains. I enjoy riding them and watching them. My dad had Lionel Trains when I was growing up. We often had a track that we could run them on. In fact, when I left home, the family home gained a train room.

At five, I headed back to the campground, and tried to light a campfire, the wood was damp and it took forever and every skill that I had to start the darn fire. Now smelling like smoke and stinking to high heaven, I cooked some meat on a stick, had some salad and stretched out by the fire.

The noise in the background wasn’t a train, around nine it started to pour, thunder and lightning crashed, and I started to hope that I would stay dry. Let me put it this way- it was a heck of a lot better experience than the one that I had on the Trace. I got some sleep and read a book when it was too loud for me to sleep. I didn’t get soaked, but a lot of my stuff got damp.

Happy Trails, Marty