31may2024; St. Joseph to Chillicothe, MO.

 Before leaving the hotel this morning I spoke to Lindsey and she asked if I could dedicate today’s ride to her friend Bonnie who passed away from breast cancer. Absolutely Lindsey, I’m sorry for your loss. I know it seems redundant but I’ll post it anyways. if you would like to donate to the cancer society you can do so on the following link.

American cancer society

Click donate, enter Fred kern in the box, hit search, then tap participant.

Today’s ride is heading out to Chillicothe and it started out this morning looking quite ominous and rain clouds and wet roads but the forecast is possibly that we might outrun the storm and it should turn out to be a nice day.  I have a couple pictures here; one of the weather another of reading the events for the day and then just some cool cloud pictures.

So, just to make sure that it’s not all about bicycling and I stop to enjoy the scenery, smell the flowers, you know enjoy the trip.  I have landscape pictures, driveway pictures and flower pictures.

These next two are really interesting one goes off on a gentle climb into the clouds and the other one is a ribbon of road going off in the distance, you can see each rise and fall of the road.

Every year the tour stops in the town of Maysville, Missouri and the town folk put out food for us. Cinnamon buns, and lemonade and they just come out and walk us through the town and show us the town right in front of the historical society so the next couple pictures are of the historical society and the welcome greeting that we got in Maysville, Missouri.

The next series of pictures are in the DeKalb County historical Society building. interesting stuff from a bygone era of many years ago.

Personally, I loved the military uniforms and the TV. After leaving Maysville we continued east and stopped in Lock Springs, Missouri for a SAG stop.

Enroute to Lock Springs at one point I just stopped. There was no traffic the birds were singing and there was a slight breeze and it was just enjoyable. I took a picture of this house and then across the street was the road, a  driveway and just some interesting scene pictures.

I did some off-road exploring, I parked the bike went for a walk and found this old fire engine/rescue vehicle and this old United Methodist Church. Then from there back on the road one more scenic picture and the day was done.

30 may2024 enroute to st. Joseph, MO.

 2 ride dedications today, One is for Stacy who has been cancer free for eight years and the other is for Connie.  Congrats Stacy!!

We left this morning at 7:30 and less than a mile from the hotel I saw an Amoco gas station with gas at $3.01 per gallon. I’m pretty sure over the course of the day I saw it as low as $ 2.97.

Another farmhouse with a winding road and then a brief stop at the sign to remind me of the SAG stop and only 9 miles to go. Woo hoo.

I’m pretty sure I have seen this yellow crop duster before but he happened to be coming in and give me a chance to stop and snap a picture of it. I noticed this field I’m not sure if you can see the topography or not but it’s set in levels apparently to keep the water from running off. And finally another “road to nowhere“.

The second SAG stop was at dairy queen and I noticed these rocks. The Rockwall is breaking away at the bottom and as it gets weaker then the top breaks loose. Kind of interesting.

After the rest stop in a mile is the bridge over the Missouri river and then the welcome to Missouri sign.

Going up the road from Kansas to Missouri I had to make a sharp left and it ran parallel to a mountain ridge on our right very lush very green and lots of trees. And of course a railroad track with an oncoming train.

After the train passed it was interesting how this road headed toward the mountain and then shifted to the left and followed the mountain range that you see.

Tomorrow we head to Chillicothe, Missouri the home of sliced bread and quite possibly a heavy rain day. I sincerely hope that I’m wrong.

29 may 2024; off to Topeka ks.

 I had no one to ride for today, I asked 5-6 people while in Emporia and no one knew anyone that ever had cancer. That being said I decided to ride for my deceased wife Linda who lost her battle with cancer in feb. 2015.  Lucky for me God introduced me to a fantastic lady and we are both throughly enjoying chapter II.  Linda was first diagnosed with breast cancer on her 40th birthday: chemo, radiation and surgery to remove the tumor was successful.  Perhaps 10 years after that she discovered another lump and it was removed.  A few years after that she was misdiagnosed with ovarian cancer, had a hysterectomy and treatment, the following year the misdiagnosis was discovered and they attempted to treat it but she said no, enough is enough and she passed away shortly before her 57th birthday. 

If you would like to help me fight cancer and help those dealing with it you can follow this link:

https://secure.acsevents.org/site/SPageServer?pagename=active_donate_now&FR_ID=106677&fr_id=106677

Click donate

Enter Fred kern, click search

Tap participant.

Today’s ride is about 70 miles and it’s promising great temps, low headwinds and a wonderful day.  I got to leave with the early crew this morning so if I play my cards right I should be able to ride with every person at  some point. Here’s the start:

The geography is definitely changing, we’re starting to get more grassy fields and trees, the soil is wetter and better quality for growing.  You’re also starting to see more lakes.

I loved this house, a long driveway, barn, and corral gate for the driveway.

Eventually we came to the town of admire, KS. Nothing special, just a small town and on the edge of town a house with an American flag flying and a placard reading “ farmall country”.  I got a kick out of that, we had a Farmall M on our farm.

 

Along the way we saw cows, horses, sheep and bison;  I snapped this photo and there were two very young calves in the herd. They’re  very light colored, almost tan.

After passing this we came to the SAG stop, I think about mile 36 and as I parked my bike I saw a boatload of berries on the ground: mulberries.   OH MAN!  I skipped the snacks and pigged out on berries. Introduced my fellow riders to them and they were polite but not as enthralled as I was with the discovery.

10 miles from the end we stopped at a pie shop, everyone went in and had pie except for me.   Pie is a little too heavy on my stomach when I have 10-12 miles to go but everyone else seemed to enjoy it.  Upon leaving I did see this barn and thought it a great looking structure.

And that’s all she wrote.  G’night folks!

27may, on to emporia, KS. Unbound gravel race.

 Today’s ride is dedicated to Anna strain, Tim, and Isaiah. Isaiah is a young child fighting brain cancer. If you feel like donating to the cancer society to help fight cancer and help the victims you can access it through this link.

Help fight cancer

Just click “donate” 

Enter Fred kern and hit search

Tap the participant block.

So if you are not familiar with Emporia and Unbound here’s a great link to learn about it. It’s a pretty cool race and I’m sure there will be plenty of videos about it on YouTube etc.

Unbound

So the morning started off with a pretty neat cloud picture. I also have a picture of a cemetery, I know kind of weird but, it’s labeled Lehigh which is a town and county in Pennsylvania I visit and it’s a Mennonite cemetery and it was very well-maintained.

The first sag stop is at Marion Reservoir and it was just very picturesque. Plus, I found a mulberry tree. The berries are in season but unfortunately the low branches have been cut making it difficult to get to the berries.  alas… where there’s a will there’s a way.

Of course you must have a life jacket to boat so they had some hanging that you could borrow….. ehhhhh I’m not sure I would rely on those.

Notice how the geography is changing; it’s much greener, more hills, more “tree patches” etc.

Along with the occasional “ road to nowhere” and a farmer out cutting his field.

The second SAG stop was in flint hills and it looks like we’re just a bit too early for the local rodeo.  Darn,  I love local rodeos, and I’m sorry I’ll miss it.

Finally, some pictures of barns and more landscape.

And lastly, this great picture of a schoolhouse, not sure if it’s a one room schoolhouse but it seems to be too small to have more than one room, it even has a hand pump for water toward the side.  Reminds me of the one near our farm in Briggsdale, Co.

Well that’s all I have to share. Tomorrow is a rest day so I’m pretty sure I won’t be posting. It will be a day of bike wash, nap, clothes wash, nap, eat, nap, eat again and at some point prep for Wednesday.