It's Saturday morning and it's raining as we expected. We are glad we chose the motel over the campground. Packing up all the camping gear in the rain is not our idea of a good time. Today we want to go west across the top of Missouri on Highway 36 and then proceed south through Kansas on Highway 7 which is called the Amelia Earhart highway. But first we have coffee at the Hardees across the street. I also have some kind of breakfast platter. Next time I will pass on Hardees. It's not my kind of place. I actually like the fruit and oatmeal cup at McDonalds so I will do that when possible.
And so we are off in the rain and wind. We are heading west and the wind is from the northwest. The gas mileage indicator on the bike is telling me the bad news all the way across Missouri. The BMW is more affected by headwinds than our Goldwing was. But the rain only lasted for 25 miles so after that it was just cold instead of cold and wet. I think that the grey skies affect one mentally giving them the impression that it is colder than what the actual temperature indicates. About 15 miles before Chillicothe I see a sign for the Locust Creek covered bridge so we naturally take off down this dirt road in search of the bridge. After 1.5 miles we park the bike and take a 1/4 mile hike to the bridge. In the path is an animal curled up into a ball and it does not move when we pass it It appears to be a raccoon and we assume that it is either injured or sick as it never moves. The bridge is in very good shape, it seems that it has been restored. On a previous trip we had went to all of the famous covered "Bridges of Madison County" in Iowa which were made famous by the movie of the same name with Clint Eastwood and Meryl Streep.
We gas up in Chillicothe and continue west through all of the rolling hills and farmland. The farms are quite attractive but they also look like a lot of work. At St. Joseph we cross the Missouri River and into Kansas. Naturally I miss the Welcome to Kansas sign and have to turn around and go back and try again to get the picture. It is a good place for a hot chocolate. It's not that we are really cold as we have electric jackets and gloves. It is more the grey skies and wind that make us feel chilled. We find Highway 7 and head south. Highway 7 is listed as a scenic route in our map book and it is a very nice road until somewhere after Atchison when it gets congested and laden with signals. Riding through Atchison I realize that we have now been to all 3 cities of Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe of railroad fame. Who said that motorcycle riding is not a cultural experience? The GPS shows 2 BBQ restaurants in Leavenworth but it lies, they are both non-existent. But on the way out of town Linda spots a newly opened BBQ restaurant out of the corner of her eye. Mission accomplished, we have the photo of a BBQ place in Kansas. Now we do not have to go into downtown Kansas City. At 5 PM I decide to stop at the next inexpensive looking motel we see. There is a sign saying Economy Inn 3 miles to the right in Garnett so away we go. It is not as inexpensive as we would like but we are here so we take the offer and hole up for the night. I hope we can find gas in the morning as it will be Sunday. I had a bad experience crossing Kansas on a Sunday once. It seems that all of the business' were closed on Sunday. Wish us luck. Tomorrow we want to get to Bartlesville, Oklahoma to a tourist attraction there that I believe Linda will really like. It is supposed to be warmer there so maybe we can use the tent instead of the wallet for a place to stay.
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