Well unfortunately I have officially crossed over into the septuagenarian generation. Bummer. But to prove I still have a few good years left, I decided to go on a sketching and biking trip across Kansas.
First stop was Colby. There aren't really any bike trails in Colby, but there is a shiny new Starbucks at the travel center and I had a birthday gift card from Bruce burning a hole in my pocket. The travel center is aptly named Oasis on the Plains (in other words, you'd better stop, because there isn't anything else for the next hundred miles).
I decided to make this my first sketch spot, so did a drawing of their playground and all the whimsical creatures inside it. Stuff like this is really easy to draw, but I ended up doing most of it looking out the window of Starbucks since it's hard to keep my paints from blowing away with the strong winds on the prairie.
Next stop was Hays. Unfortunately by this time it had started to rain, so no biking and no outdoor sketching, but I still managed to capture these buffalo in a sketch from the front seat of my car.
I spent the night in Hays at a brand new Best Western (another freebie with my mileage points). After eating my complimentary breakfast waffle, I saw a brochure for a bike trail in Lindsborg, KS just a few miles south of Salina. So since the rain had stopped and the temperature warmed up, I decided to take a detour off I-70 to check it out. The Valkommen Trail ran for about 4 miles through Lindsborg. It was totally paved so easy to ride on. It connected to the longer Meadowlark Trail, but that surface was hard-core gravel. After slipping and sliding for a hundred yards, I gave up and turned around.
Lindsborg is an old Swedish town - very quaint with lots of good sketch spots. I found a coffee shop in an old blacksmith shop in the downtown area. All the inside seats were filled with students from Bethany College, but it was warm enough to sit outside on their outdoor patio. It's strange to see alpine architecture in the middle of Kansas, but it makes for an interesting sketch.
Getting back on the freeway, I headed off to Ottawa. I had originally intended to ride the Prairie Spirit Trail in 2020, but then as we all know COVID shut everything down. So 3 years later, I finally made it. There is actually a second trail that runs through Ottawa perpendicular to the Prairie Spirit Trail - the Flint Hills Trail. The Flint Hills were beautiful like always, and the trail surface of both trails was really smooth (albeit, very dusty!).
I really enjoyed my bike ride in Ottawa, but after that there really wasn't a whole lot else to do, so I jumped back into the car and headed off to KC for a birthday dinner at Habanero's. It's still not quite as good as Mi Ranchito in St Louis, but my tamale was pretty tasty and they gave us some fried ice cream as a birthday treat. I've never had fried ice cream before. It was a bit weird having your ice cream wrapped up in a fried tortilla, but they smother the whole thing in honey so even a piece of cardboard would taste good.
Since Janet took the dinner photo, we grabbed her picture in the sign outside. I'm not sure why this restaurant has a bright yellow airplane on the roof or a slogan called, Home of the Flying Pepper. I would think this would be more apropos for Jose Pepper - the Mexican restaurant down the street.
I missed seeing Jamie by one day. He left that morning on his own adventure to go "riding" the Cliffhanger Trail in Moab, UT. Yikes! I can hardly stand to ride in Bruce's jeep on a gravel road let alone across these rocks.
The next day Janet, Teresa, and I went to the movies to see the new Judy Blume movie, Oh God, It's Me Margaret. I didn't necessarily read Judy Blume books when I was a kid, but I thought the movie was cute.
Afterwards, we went to Andy's and got jackhammers. A jackhammer is basically a frozen custard shake with pecans and Oreo cookie pieces. Then they drill through the center and fill it with hot fudge. Really yummy, but I think I still have to vote for a Cardinals Sin from Ted Drewes as being a little more decadent. Luckily I think I burned off the calories on my bike rides.
Before I headed back to Colorado, I found out that there is a brand new section of the Rock Island Rail Trail behind Janet's house, so I had to go for one last bike ride. One of these days this trail will connect up with the Katy Trail in Windsor, MO, but for now it only runs from Lee's Summit to the Chiefs Stadium (about 13 miles).
And where was Bruce during all this??? Back home ripping out sod, of course!
