August 2, Manhattan, KS to Clayton, NM - 510 miles

I started out early from my brother Del's in Manhattan, Kansas, with Del riding with me for a ways.  At the start, the weather was delightful, temperatures in the mid 70's, and the scenery beautiful.  The "Flint Hills" just south of Manhattan are really pretty when green, as they were today.  They are fairly sharp rolling hills, with 150-200 ft. from top to bottom, and grassy, used exclusively for cattle ranching.  (I don't know whether Flint Hills means there is a lot of Flint to be found there, or they are hard as flint.  Anyway, no farming is done on them, just ranching.)  Now I see why Del and his motorcycle group like to ride in them.

Kansas people are proud of their history, and there are lots of unique old buildings preserved or restored.  This big stone house was built in 1881, by a big rancher in the Flint Hills.  It is now a part of the 11,000 acre "Long-Grass Prairie National Reserve".  Apparently the prairie owned by the rancher was never plowed, just used for cattle ranching from the time of the first settlement, so it represents how the prairie once was.

And how about this Bank, built in the 1880's in the town of Council Bluffs.  

There were so many beautiful and interesting old buildings in the various little Kansas towns, that I can't show all of them here.

As I arrived in Dodge City for lunch, it was 99^o F.  I went into the "Long Branch Saloon" (a.k.a. McDonalds, on Wyatt Earp Blvd., across from Boot Hill Cemetery) for a Sarsaparilla, and who should I see but Matt, Doc, and Kitty, having a cool one.  Where Festus was, I don't know - maybe out riding his mule somewhere.

Dodge City is still a cattle town, with many, many cattle trucks bringing in loads of cattle to the "Eagle Cattle Processing Plant".  I had to ride behind some of these trucks on the way to Dodge, and my nose could easily tell that these trucks are full of cattle.  Believe me, I passed as soon as I could!

As I rode West, the landscape of Kansas got progressively flatter, drier, and browner.  Browner because fields had already been harvested, with just stubble left, or plowed up after harvesting.  It was very clear that the western part of Kansas, and then into Oklahoma, got significantly less rainfall than the eastern part.  Then I got into the sprinkler-irrigated fields over the Ogallala Basin, and fields were green again.  All in all, the day's ride was very pretty.

Coming into New Mexico, the landscape turns into dry rolling hills and prairie.  This is cattle country, and has been for more than a hundred years.  Clayton is a cattle town, and has names of business to prove it, like a realty company whose name is "Cattle Town Realty Co.".

Last but not least, the young lady owner of the "Clayton Motel" let me park my Gold Wing in her owner's garage, because of a coming rain storm.  How about that?  (She knows about the "Guy Thing" of keeping motorcycles clean, because she has a boyfriend who keeps his ultra- clean.)  Rain storms can be quick and heavy in northern New Mexico and in the Clayton area in particular.  (It did rain, but not too bad, and I just beat the rain in getting the motorcycle inside.)

Tomorrow will be a nice ride home to Albuquerque, through areas I know and like in northeastern New Mexico.

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