We left around 7:30am and took Interstate 35 North from Emporia and stopped for a McDonalds breakfast at Ottawa about an hour up the road. What I have proven since coming to the USA is that McDonalds may be crap - but you can go to the other side of the world and find it is is still crap. You have to admire the franchise for that consistency.
As we pulled up in the carpark we saw a large gathering of about 100 Harleys and their riders in the neighbouring mall carpark. Most bikes had large Stars and Stripes flags fluttering from them. I walked over and asked one guy what the occasion was. He said that the local Deputy Police Chief had been killed in the line of duty and all the local bikers had come out to form a 'guard of honour' procession through the town. Most of the riders were part of the 'Patriot Guard' (ex-servicemen). As the rider told me "He died trying to protect us -so we can do this for him". It was very moving to watch.
We passed through Kansas City via it's freeway system and crossed the state line into Missouri. I can't say leaving Kansas had the same effect on me that leaving Colorado did. I could live in Colorado, I couldn't live in Kansas. While Dodge City and the Flint Hills area were highlights, my lasting impression of Kansas will be; flat rural country (lot's of cornfields), cruise control on long straight roads, dust blown off the land by hot winds, a lot of big rig trucks and road works. I am not sure if it is part of Barack Obama's economic stimulus package to provide funding for roading improvements and contracting jobs for people - but it seems as though every few miles in Kansas you are reducing speed for road works! I also noticed that it appeared there was a lot more traffic on 50 West leaving Kansas than on 50 East heading towards it - but I might be wrong.
After stopping for a short while at a rest area not far from Lawson, we continued up the 35. In the distance I could see clouds as black as the inside of a coal mine. Sure enough it started to rain. We pulled off the Interstate into a small shopping centre that had a cafe' and decided to have lunch and wait out the worst of it. Two 'good ole boys' in flannel shirts and baseball caps struck up a conversation about our trip, Harley's and the weather with understatements such as "It's damp out thar".
The rain showed no sign of letting up, so we decided to don our wet weather gear and ride to the next town and find some accommodation. While getting the gear out of the bike pannier, a kind shop owner invited us into her Hair Salon to get out of the rain while we put our gear on - much to the amusement of the old dears getting their hair rinses. It must have been a bit like watching a strip show in reverse!
It was only another 15 miles up the road to Bethany, where we found a motel. Hopefully the bad weather will pass through overnight.
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