September 18, 2005 ... Seventeen riders gathered from four states to make this ride: Mark Sampson - Mt. Vernon, IL - KTM LC8, Tom Montgomery - Tulsa, OK - DR650, Kenneth Meyer - Goddard - DRZ-400, Robert Smith - Winfield - DRZ-400, Kevin Ware - Smithville, MO - XR650L, Stephen Burden - Haysville - XR650L, Daniel Holloway - Newalla, OK - Honda XRL350, Jeff Jelinek - Danville - Triumph Tiger, and Tony Adams - Udall - Triumph Tiger. KLR650 riders included: Chris Owens - Garden Plain, Kyle Wolf - Wichita, Troy Wolf - KCMO, Randy Snyder - Belle Plaine, Larry Ostrom - Concordia, John Hickman - Joplin, MO, Tom Sawyer - Tulsa, OK, and Roger Baugh - Wichita. We started off the morning with a rendezvous breakfast in Mulvane, KS at the always enjoyable Laurie's Kitchen. After "carbing-up", we rolled east and south to Cedar Vale via secondary highways ... but not without a short stop to befriend a tarantula out for a morning stroll. Daniel had a lot of faith in the thickness of his gloves .... but he did act a little nervous when the large arachnid scampered up his pant leg after being released back into the wild! We followed the Caney River valley from Cedar Vale down to Hewins and Elgin. Many of the old building shots were taken in Elgin. Lightly inhabited, Elgin is an amazingly well kept and groomed "ghost town". With a couple of bikes starting to run low on fuel, we proceeded east to the town of Caney. Once refueled, we turned north, then west and rode tarmac to the town of Sedan. From Sedan, we rode north off-highway into the hills, eventually arriving in the town of Elk Falls to see the old iron bridge overlooking the falls. With this large of a group and the dust encountered, we did experience a group separation or two. Fortunately, the times we did get separated were brief. We did not have any mechanical problems. One rider did have an embarassing "boo-boo" at the start, but we figured he was just too excited about getting to go on the ride! It was a great day, and we got to see close to 270 miles of prime southern Kansas hill country. The camaraderie couldn't have been better, either! 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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