06/12/00 Hoxie, KS to Stockton, KS

This morning BAK provided a breakfast in the school cafeteria. After eating, Mark and I left town at 6:47. Rode due east all day with a light south wind - another good day for riding. Several times I stopped to take pictures with one of the picture stops at a outcropping of limestone between the highway and the fence. It was a strange place to find this tiny mesalike rock, but for whatever reason, the highway construction didn’t destroy it. After we stopped, another pair of cyclists stopped and had their picture taken also.

A few miles west of Hill City, I spotted a wooden boxcar setting in a field adjacent to the highway with a road by it. I rode my bike very slowly across the cattle guard (pipes) and lay my bike down on the road. Walking over to the car to peer inside, I changed my mind when I saw the size of droppings outside of it. Someone later said that it might be bobcat or I suppose a coyote. Either way, I decided to leave the contents of the car alone. I wanted to get a picture of me, my mechanicus steedus, and the car so this took some arranging. At first I considered the idea of carrying my bike to the top of the car, but prudence won out and I poised it at the end of the car. Using my gloves and helmet I placed my camera on them, triggered the timer and ran for the car arriving in time to be included in the picture. Later when I caught up with Mark in town, he said he didn’t even see the car, but probably would have stopped since his hobby is railroad photography.

Stopped in Hill City at a QT for something to drink and a candy bar. On the way out of town I stopped at the post office to buy stamps and mail some cards. 13 miles out of Hill City we came to the small town of Nicodemus. This is on the National Historic Register by being the sole surviving town in Kansas started by former slaves after the Civil War. At its height, it was a thriving mini-metropolis (at least for this part of the state), but has gradually withered away like many of the small farming communities. There was a SAG stop there with the sags dressed up like characters from Alice in Wonderland. Since they were carrying, on I got into the act also and had my picture taken with them. Wonder what Pam will make of this photo??? I heard there was a museum there also, but failed to check it out. I found out later it would have been worth the time to check out and go through.

Riding much of the day with Mark I pushed more than I normally would and my average speed showed - 15 mph+. I started the day with lots of energy, but began to fizzle out about half way through. The last 10 miles were tiring, but made it without any problems. Arriving at the Stockton High School we were among the first 100 or so to arrive so had plenty of choices of where to sleep. Mark and I decided against sleeping in the gym since it was like an oven and would probably stay that way for quite a while. We scouted the halls and found what we thought was a good location. There was a slight breeze blowing through so it was comfortable enough.

Shortly after Mark and I had staked our claim to sleeping space in the school hall, we rode downtown for a late lunch of pizza. We had to wait quite a while since it appeared the staff was overwhelmed by the people waiting to be served. That was fine with us since it was cooler there than outside. After eating we left, I visiting an antique shop and Mark going back to the school. I had been looking for years for a large antique wooden handled brass school bell and had not seen any for at least 10 years. I walked into the store and started to ask the proprieter if he had any when – and there it was! A large one and one of the nicest that I had ever seen. He also had a Bohemian glass bell that I would have liked to have purchased. I asked if he would accept Mastercard but unfortunately his answer was no. I debated on going down to the bank and getting money using my card, but decided not to. I have wished to this day that I would have anyway…..

That evening the Stockton HS cheerleaders served supper at the school. Some of the riders who had ridden this route before said the roast beef and mashed potatoes were very good. I decided to give it a try and found for the $5.00 they did indeed serve good food.

After supper I met up with Dave again and we decided to ride back out of town the way we had ridden in to photograph some flowers by the road and look for fossils. No luck on the fossils, but got some good pictures of flowers. Although Dave is a stockbroker by trade, he is quite knowledgeble about flora and fauna both ancient and present.

While Dave and I rode out of town I noticed the clouds were building up rapidly to the west and southwest. That evening about 8:00 p.m. the police drove up advising everyone to go inside the school because we were under a severe thunderstorm watch. There were a lot of tents set up outside and their occupants came in for awhile until the storm blew out. They were concerned that the hail could be very large and tent fabric would not do much to stop it. The BAK leaders were forced to tell people to move their bikes out to allow room for the "tenters" to come inside. This did not set well with a number of people since the policy of BAK was to allow bicycles inside schools if the schools permitted it. Everyone did so, agreeably or not. The storm blew over with some rain, thunder and lightning, but no hail. Eventually everything settled back to normal.

Later that evening while I was outside with Mark watching the clouds and lightning, Dennis came around the corner with a woman who introduced herself as Betty. Betty and Dennis had been talking with a group of friends when Betty made the comment to Dennis that she was looking for a Howard Robinson, whom a friend of hers had said was going to be on this route. Dennis didn’t remember my last name, but knew that my first name was Howard, so he said he might know who that person was. He found me and introduced Betty to me. It turns out that my wife, works with Loree, a choir member with Betty, and Loree had given her my name.

When we finally settled in for the night we were kept awake by something we had failed to notice earlier when we staked our sleeping claim. The restroom door hinges, even though they were some 30-40 feet away, were squeaky and the door was constantly banging shut. If I were doing an analysis of restroom habits of people, I would say, based on that experience, that people use the restroom before they go to bed and then the urge hits again about 2:30 a.m. Squeak, slam…Squeak, slam…

When looking for a place to sleep in a public hallway, avoid doing what I did. I placed my mattress in such a position in the hallway that people had to make a slight offset at the head of my mattress to avoid kicking my head. Fortunately this did not happen, but how I’ll never know because the hallway at my location was inky black!

It was hard to go to sleep with the restroom door noise, but compounding my sleeplessness was the insufferable heat. Any breeze that had been blowing down the hall earlier in the day seemed to completely disappear by bedtime. It was almost sickening hot.

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