Frank’s Coast to Coast Ride for Justin – Day 20, May 16
Editors note: the following is shared from Frank Watson’s blog at: Frank’s Coast to Coast Ride for Justin
LAKIN, KS – This was another day you just wanted to stay in bed! But I dressed up & hit the road in the mist & fog at 8 a.m. My goal was to simply make it 25 miles to Garden City and use the rest of the day to try and heal up from the tough rides of the previous day’s & try & figure out this cold / flu or whatever it is. I made my way through the fog & rain into Garden City, a rather large town with plenty of services.
I stopped at McDonalds for breakfast , coffee and to thaw out. I called home and talked to my wife about staying here for the day and wait out the weather that included bad storms etc. and maybe stop @ata doctor for an opinion on my cold. She agreed. I changed out of my sweat & rain soaked cloths into some dries & headed out for a hotel. Riding through town I changed my mind. I decided I didn’t need a doctor , I needed to put some miles in and head east.
Like Canton’s famous XC coach, Professor Steve Williams used to tell the kids that were complainers like me “What you need is to go see Doctor Miles” Doctor Miles solves all problems! So I went and saw Doctor Miles……. 83 miles to be exact!
Pressing up the road in the fog and rain I made my way all the way to the town of Jetmore. I ran out of water about 1/2 way through and stopped in at a tractor dealer along the road and filled my water and bought a candy bar and a Doctor Pepper and charged on up and down the rolling west Kansas hills.
I made it into town at 6 p.m. in the now pouring rain and found a room at a very nice little hotel the Pawnee Valley Lodge. Great people – great room and a restaurant the closest thing to my home towns “Chatter Box Restaurant” The bonus to my room is that it is one door down from the “tornado shelter” I will never get used to the fact that when you stay out here the people always show you the tornado shelter. Strange to me…. Just a way of life out here.
My health is better tonight and I am so glad of my choice of pressing on today. Doctor Miles did me good. Today puts me at the 1/2 way point of the trip. Kinda funny note, the roads out here have NO shoulder at all, and the road if filled with cattle hauler trucks! These guys are more than professional giving a lot of distance as they pass. I met 3 of them leaving Lakin this morn and as I got close to Jetmore I met the same trucks going back west – they all blew there horns and waved as the passed by. Kinda cool!
Tomorrow will be about 70 miles into Great Bend weather permitting ?
Remember to say a prayer to Justin, & please take time to go to the bone marrow registry site & sign up! Deletebloodcancer.org
Follow this journey on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/frankscoast2coast4justin
And on Instagram at:
coast2coast4mayorkline
Donations may be made by visiting:
https://www.gofundme.com/rideforjustin
For more background information on this effort see our earlier story at: Canton Man Riding Coast-to-Coast for Justin Kline
