Day 4 – Emporia, KS to Scott City, KS

Day 4 – Emporia, KS to Scott City, KS     08/24/10     Mileage: 266  

What a shock…it was raining this morning and a quick check of the radar showed it was not going to stop anytime soon. Wholly unmotivated to start out in a soaking rain, I decided to spend the time catching up on my email, blog and other chores. The weather finally broke around noon so I quickly packed up pointed the KLR due west. Having ridden virtually all interstate highway so far, I was looking forward to some back roads through the sparsely populated western Kansas. What I hadn’t counted on is a gusting 30 mph wind from the north hitting me on my right side. At times it was difficult to keep the bike in the lane….which becomes a real problem when there is a semi truck coming at you from the other direction! As any rider will tell you, riding in a strong cross wind can be tiring…especially on a relatively tall and lite bike like the KLR. I made a few more rest stops than normal, which gave me some time to dick around with the camera…  

Road to the horizon...

Not a curve in sight!

Heading west...

 In rural Western Kansas…you can drive sometimes for an hour and literally not see another vehicle on the road.  

No such thing as traffic here!

Despite the fact that there was no traffic in sight and the weather ended up being great save for the gusty wind, the late start did me in and darkness fell before I could reach my buddy Paul’s house in Colorado.