Jeremiah Watt

SO whats it like to have a day without the wind..................well stay tuned.

Up early, its a fall feeling day, crystal clear with no wind, the leaves are really trying to turn in a few places around Kansas. It is 6:15 and I will be leaving Emporia today, after I say my good byes at GRS and do a foloow up session at Library.

No coffee to start the day, just head strait to GRS since they are open at 7:30 I think it is. I get in and say good bye to my friend Otis, then have short but fun meeting with Kim Pember her title is Comptroller I believe. Anyways, the meeting was informative, and like DJ it was upbeat as well about engraving and the direction that it is going.

With that done, I head for the Library. Yes, I am Praying for a better attitude over this whole thing. Well,I am informed by a new lady that all work from yesterday will be gone...............and it was and that NO I cannot work on photos for the internet.........NO SO, I worked for 1 hour and could'nt stand it any longer and I was out of there.
Rode downtown and found a baber so I could get a trim job, my hair was looking sort'a unruly and the visit with the barber was good. He was born and raised in Emporia, and had a great understanding of the dynamics of the town and area.

I was finally heading south by southeast out of Emporia by 1:30 in the afternoon. I stopped and had a look through a great junk/antique store right at the edge of town. Nothing need, just looking is all. I hadn't road more than a couple of miles and I spotted a great looking old bridge to the right, unlike very many I had seen being entirely built of wood and of the arch type. I road south to a small town called Marion, and this was a neat little town that must have been quite the place during its busy years. Great old brick buildings, all the roads done in red brick..........just very pretty.


The country just gets hillier as you ride in the direction of southeast Kansas, and the valleys here are solid grass. We are riding thru a very famous piece of American geographical history here, since we are in the Flint Hills district. This particular area of USA had had more cattle on during the cattle drive days than any other area of USA. And riding thru it today, there are still alot of cattle, matter of fact two points. I seen more cattle out on the land here than any place................and I seen folks out amongst them on horseback as well. That made me feel good to see.

I would like to make a little of my intense knowledge of Horticulture known to you at this junture of my trip, it is a little piece of what makes Jeremiah who he is. I really do like trees and plants, but kow very little about them in fact. If any of you are readers of the true CLASSICS you are well aware of Hank the Cow-Dog and the reference to "BODARK" trees. That is a term that I have always wondered about. It was while passing they the corner of Canvas that it was all explained to me. The true name of the tree is of french origin and called Beau d'Ark and grows fairly common in Texas where they call it a BODARK.

The same tree in Oklahoma is well known as a Osage Orange, while in Kansas it has come to be called a "Hedge Apple". The Kansas state had a plan from back in about 1890 to encourage windrows and fencing. To bring this about, they would pay a farmer to plant the tiny trees closely, then two years after planting, the farmer would graft the trees into oneanother forming what was known as a living fence or windrow. It worked great, but they soon found out that nothing short of a nuclear holicaust would kill the little blighters off iether.

SO there "now you know the rest of the story", as that other great story teller would say at this point!

Once you pass thru the Flint Hill area, the country gets more trees on it, and the hills also get a little bigger. I ride on thru many little towns, but I don't stop at them all. By the little town of Gridley, I was looking to take a break and it was around 4:30pm. Very pretty little town, as so many are back here. I rode past a HIgh School, and was not really paying much attention, just looking at all the sites..............and thats when I heard this young kids yelling at me. But there was something a little different, these kids where happy and joyous. They caught me off guard, so I turned around and went back and took thier picture as a group.

Right after I took the pic, I got to thinking, man I better explain to somebody who I am. In this day and age, a stranger taking pics of some kids can get you in trouble.

I rode on another 15 miles and called her a day, I had 50.1 miles in with 3 hours of pedalling time............all becasue of no wind!!! I had a great supper and a cup of tea. My camp was next to a wind break, and a creek on the right side so, it made for a cool camp.

Good Night and God Bless