North Central short hop

After spending a Saturday night with a few cold ones, choppin' up a perfectly good stock sporty seat into a ratty solo seat, it needed a trial run yesterday. With no one else wanting to saddle up I headed out solo. After stopping by a friends house, I left Blue Rapids, Ks and headed east on Hwy 77. Not too far outside of Blue Rapids I grabbed Hwy 9 to Frankfort, Ks. There's not much in the way of twisties, an occasional sweeper, but the scenery in the rolling hills is still cool.

After Frankfort it was onto Hwy 99 heading towards Westmoreland and Wamego.

Right off of 99 is Pott. Co. State Lake #1. It's not real big but it's well maintained and a great spot for camping and fishing. Another thing to keep in mind if you're traveling this road is that Johnny Law likes to patrol this one. The speed limit is 65 and for the most part if you're within 5, they'll leave ya alone.

Westmoreland is the home to one of the worlds largest hand dug wells. It's now in the possesion of the state historical society which is a good thing but I think they could take a little better care of it.

Trash and dead birds floating. WTF is wrong with people, the dead birds are something that can't really be controlled, but come on! Do ya really gotta throw trash in there?




After Westmoreland there's alot of this into Wamego. I didn't stop in Wamego, it was Sunday and everything of interest was closed. More on what's in Wamego in another blog.


A couple miles outside of Wamego I took a right on Hwy 18, known locally as Zeandale Road. I think this is one of my favorite local roads. Beautiful scenery in a rural valley and even some twisties to play with!

Into Manhattan, Ks. I usually avoid this place, the home of K-State, too many idiot cagers, and usually way too many idiot college kids trying to text and drive. Below is Aggyville, the bar strip that caters to K-State students. Today it was unusually deserted, first it was a Sunday and second classes are out for the summer.

By this time I was getting hungry and thirsty. Time for a stop a Bobby T's, a decent, biker friendly sports bar on the outskirts of Manhattan. Good prices, great food, and ice cold Boulevard Wheat on tap. How can you go wrong?



Taking the back way out of Manhattan finds you on County Hwy 412. It a great drive through a low lying area that skirts along Ft. Riley. Beware of Sunday drivers on this road. The speed limit is 60 but I end up following a couple blue-hairs.

This is just one of quite a few limestone structures along this road.

412 intersects with Hwy 77 and I follow that for a bit and head north on Falcon Rd or Hwy 24 towards Leonardville. Just before Leonardville I take County Hwy 875 north.

Back on Hwy 77 north heading towards home.

Coming into Waterville, Ks about 7 miles from home.

I hit just over 130 miles for the day and found my new homemade seat to be better than the stock seat, but nowhere near my Mustang seat. Kansas may not be known for it's twisties, but it's got scenery that's all it's own and while you're wandering around the backroads through the small towns you're going to be hard pressed to find nicer people and some of the best cooking around.

Keep the rubber side down!

View zeandale run in a larger map