Into America's Mid-West Heartland

Monday, August-06

An early start to the day.

Well before breakfast-time Unc Phil escorts me, through some twisty countryside roads, beyond Nashville's city limits to a convenient road junction that sets me up nicely onto my westward course, and he into his city-based workplace.

So now I'm on my own again.

The last three whole days and four nights at the Holler have been blissful and enlightening. Thanks you so very much Phil and Sharyn for all your time and good company. See you one day again .. soon, I hope.

Along my way the contrasting peace-and-quiet is very noticeable. Light traffic and sunny countryside; me and the Pan's FM radio ... life doesn't get much better than this .. :o)

I'm starting to lose count of the number - and the names - of US states that I've passed through since early July. So to remedy the situation, as I leave western Tennessee, I decide to start and maintain a pictorial record .. starting with Kentucky.

Just twelve miles into Fried Chicken dreamland and I encounter the great Mississippi River. I'm then obliged to wait 30-40 minutes for the arrival of the Dorena, Missouri -to- Hickman, Kentucky (my side of the River) Toll Ferry.

This is one of the few remaining ferries in the United States and the only operating ferry crossing the Mississippi between the states of Missouri and Kentucky.

Just the Pan + me, and one other touring RV + family, embark upon the ferry's deck. No wonder there's only one remaining hereabouts! My co-passenger(s) and I do the honours of taking each other's respective photo poses.

Soon I'm whispering 'Hello Missouri' to myself, on the western bank of the River

I stop for five minutes, switch-off the STeed's engine and take-in a breath of [eh-hem] fresh air. There's noooobody around .. just the sound of stillness. This is SUCH a contrast from the busy US east coast region.

My time in Missouri lasted for as long as it takes to travel 62 miles (100 km) .. after which I enter Arkansas; the home and natural territory of Former Pres Bill Clinton.

You remember Bill Don'tcha? - he was the guy that once said, "I did not have sexual relations with that woman ..."

Yeah Right

As I travel swiftly westwards through the upland region of Arkansas - The Ozarks – I pass field after field after field of healthy crops. Just what do the Merrycans do with all this produce that they’re growing?

Here's a bargain lying in a rare fallow patch of roadside land. One for Peter Hooper I reckon, my uncle back in Cornwall, who's in the road transport/haulage business!

Moving on further westwards the next day, as I ride through the township of Cherokee Village, the ambient gets up to 101ºF (38ºC) - with a heat index - 'feels like' - factor of 110ºF (43ºC)

'Phew Wot a Scorcher!' as the Sun Newspaper would no doubt quote as its front page headline

The Ozarks is a pretty region of America, and of course Arkansas in particular. I wish now that I had taken some more pictures of the region's mountainous area(s) and great twisty road network. But sadly these few photos are all the memories that I managed to capture. The above and below pics are of Beaver Dam ...



.. and a lazy barn 'somewhere' else that time has simply forgotten.

Oklahoma is the next state west of Arkansas, it's a difficult one to avoid!

"I was only twenty four hours from Tulsa"*

Well, so what? .. everybody is, depending on your mode of transport!

But not right now. Here's the Tulsa Skyline from US Interstate-244.

*Gene Pitney - end of 1963/beginning of 1964
Also recorded by: Dusty Springfield

I'm now firmly into the Heartland of America .. The Great Plains region. The landscape's flatter than the proverbial pancake

As I finish the day's (Wed, Aug-08) travelling at around 5:30pm in the township of Enid, OK, the ambient temperature is still up there at a whopping 107ºF (42ºC)

Thursday, August-09
The original plan was to move on from Enid straight to Dodge City in Kansas. But after an exchange of e-mails and a telephone conversation with fellow STer, Joe Burke, who lives up in the Kansas City area, I change my plans and take a dog-leg diversion up north to Wichita City, KS, where Joe and I plan to meet-up sometime during the early evening of the following day, Fri-Aug-09.

To have most of Friday all to myself gives me time to catch-up on my laundry; and get a haircut - my first American hairdresser does quite a decent job. I also start editing my next movie from the video footage I shot at the NJSTOC meeting that took place way back during the weekend of July 20-22.

But right on time, at 7:30pm Joe turns up at my motel, and ropes-in Wichita-based Roger Smith ("Roginoz") - another ST1300 rider, into the bargain. A good night follows.

Saturday, August-11
The three of us meet-up again at around 09:30am and head for the Old Mill Tasty Shop, which has been around for donkeys' years.

Breakfast is served on Saturday mornings from 8:00am to 12-Noon that I can now vouch is a must if you love western food. The wait staff are fantastic.

Pros: excellent service + 'proper' mid-West grub

Cons: nothing

Around a hour later, Rog + wife, Joe and I must say our farewells. Joe has a long'ish ride back north-eastwards to Kansas City, and I must continue on my seemingly never-ending westward journey ...

Rog offers some last minute route directions and alternative attractions to see on my way to Dodge City. I'm mindful, however, that if I really want to see all that the Boot Hill area of Dodge has to offer, then I prolly won't have time for any excursions en route

As I make progress along US-54 I just had to stop and take a pic of this train plus its trailing wagons. The whole deal has gotta be at least a half-mile in length, maybe nearer a whole mile long!

I turn around .. and the song: "I am a lineman for the county and I drive the main road ...
.. Searchin' in the sun for another overload"*

* Wichita Lineman by Glen Campbell. Date: 1968

Further along US-54 I start to pass through the recently devastated township of Greensburg. I couldn't believe my eyes. I just had to stop, turn around, and try to understand what hell-on-earth the townsfolk here must have endured during the late evening of May the 4th this year [2007].

With benefit of later research I discovered that at 9:45pm that fateful day Greensburg was hit and devastated by an EF5 [Enhanced Fujita Scale] tornado, which was estimated to be 1.7 miles in width and traveled for nearly 22 miles. Ninety-five percent of the city was confirmed to be destroyed, with the other five percent being severely damaged. The estimated winds of the tornado reached 205 mph.

This was the first tornado to ever be rated EF5 since the update of the Fujita scale, and also was the first "5" classification since May 3, 1999.

Incredible damage occurred here and ...

.. sadly ten people were killed during the incident.

My continuing journey along a rare overpass coincides with the passage of yet another mile-long train

My mid-afternoon arrival at Dodge City is again in oppressive heat - 40ºC (104ºF) - but oddly (for me) I am getting used to it all, and nowadays I seem able to ride through high temps like these without too much of a problem. Helped too, of course, by my new lightweight mesh jacket. What a great investment this has turned out to be .. :o)

Motel room reserved - a really good one too for the price of just USD $49.99 (£24.61) for the night - and I make my way to the Boot Hill Museum and Front Street.

At 6:00pm line-up for my Chuck Wagon dinner in the Occident Saloon.

Slow-roasted beef brisket, yummy taters and onions, corn in sweet cream & butter sauce, creamy coleslaw and fresh melt-in-yer-mouth hot biscuit [non-sweet scone] & honey! And I mustn’t fergit to mention Gradma Sally's apple crisp [pie-thingy]

Well that's how it was advertised to me! ...

.. and it was all really quite good too ... then, then .. at 7:00pm it's time fer ...

.. the Boot Hill Gunfighters.

Stop for a moment and imagine you are on Front Street during 1878, out from the Long Branch Saloon's swinging doors a cowboy is tossed out during a brawl. From the East end of the street, a group of rival cowboys, fresh off the Texas Trail, mosey into town and are confronted by the Marshall and his boys. "There are laws in Dodge City 'bout the carryin' of firearms"

The inevitable shoot-out ensues.

Well that's how it was advertised to me! ...

T'was all good honest fun .. er, really?!

7:30pm. I've filled me belly and witnessed a gunfight; so now it's time to soak-up the atmosphere of the Long Branch Saloon's interior, where Miss Kitty and Chalkey Beeson, owner of the Long Branch, will entertain me.

A couple of the hour-long show's 'turns' are sorta well, .. okay['ish] .. HOWEVER ...

The Can-Can girls were definitely very thoughtful and considerate. They had obviously heard that I had come all the way from Cornwall to see them.

So they show me a bidda leg ...

.. and arse.

Bliddy wonderful girls they are .. :o)

Sunday, August-12
Still further along US-54 and I pass a HUGE cattle ranch, with steers as far as the eye can see.

There's no sign saying what it is though - indeed, the owner doesn't need one ... cuz ya can smell the place from half-a-mile away!

I think that it's now definitely time to make like the shepherd .. and get the flock outta Kansas!

Still more miles of dead straight and flat highway

Dunno how many miles later, perhaps 35 (56 km) or so and - Hey look, there's a dip in the road!

Well, thanks for the offer fellas, but I probably won't come this way again.

(said the actress to the Bishop! .. ;o)

And so as I leave Kansas, I straightaway enter Colorado. This is one particular state that I have very much been looking forward to visiting. Stay tuned - the Rocky Mountains are now just over the horizon.