May 19, 2007 ... It was a good day to ride ..... Russ Smith - Wichita, KS - DR Z-400, and Roger Baugh - Wichita, KS - KLR650 left Wichita at near dawn and rode to Cassoday, KS. The first order of business was breakfast, and we dined on full "cowboy size" breakfast plates ranging from $5 to $6.25. Yum ... ! After our visceral embellishments, we rode south to the 777 Ranch, wild mustangs, and the ghost town of Ivanpah. There are a few shots of the mustang herds, but they never did let us get too close today. All in all, we probably saw well over a hundred equines. From Ivanpah, we rode east a few miles to see the old schoolhouse, then turned back north into the 777 open range. We then hooked up to Road D, and rode the route to Teterville. We continued north to Texaco Hill, then on to Sharps Creek Road. Many yearling cattle are out on open range this Spring, so it was slow going at times. From Bazaar, we rode on into Cottonwood Falls for refueling, then turned to the southwest. Near Homestead, we spied a couple of KLR650s out in the middle of nowhere ... so joined up and continued on with Bruce Knudsen and John Beckman out of Derby, KS. At Burns, we split up again .... with Russ and I zig-zagging the dirt roads to Wichita and home. For me, just shy of 240 miles in the saddle today. We had no incidents to speak of, no flats or breakdowns ... and saw plenty of wildlife. Had the wind been a little more cooperative, would have grabbed some wildflower shots ... but they were dancing like crazy in the stiff breezes. It is extremely colorful out there right now, with lupines in full bloom as well as another half dozen other varieties of wildflowers. ... rb Click on a thumbnail to view a larger image. Use your browser's "back" button, or the "left" arrow in the navigation bar to return to this page.

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