KS Boys Backroads Tour!

Sitting around having fun at the hotel during the Stray Kat 500 this year a few of us thought it would be a good idea to do SOMETHING, anything in between the 500 and the KKOA in Salina. We all have shows we were going to do but something where we actually did something with our rides would be great. The idea was brought to Finkd's attention and he took the ball and ran with it. He'd done a cool run last fall when Ian Berky was up at Premier Body & Paint in Arkansas City, KS and had been wanting to do another run anyways so the stars lined up for us all and the run was planned. Finkd did a great job planning the run and took us down some very cool roads along the way.

Next time I'll plan better, I was scheduled to shoot some photos of bands in Salina on Friday and Saturday nights so I knew it would be a sleepless weekend. The alarm started blaring it's offensive wail at 5:30 on Saturday morning, well before the time that I should have been waking up since I got to bed around 1. Being that the alarm was the start of what I knew would be an adventure I hopped up, took care of the dog, got myself cleaned up and was out the door of my Gypsum, KS home by 6:05. The first stop was to pick up Mongo51 in McPherson, KS, we headed south towards yblock292's place near Derby, KS.

Mongo51 & delivered yblock292's paper from the end of his driveway and we all shot some b.s. before heading out. Fuddpucker showed up in his beautiful 58 and JWS in his T showed up pretty soon and we were off! I wanted to shoot some pics so I called shotgun in yblock292's 50 Ford while Mongo51 hopped in the 58.

Here's a shot out of the side of the 50 while the boys were behind us at a stoplight, the gawkers were staring at this trio of fine U.S. steel and we were enjoying the attention.


After a quick breakfast at McDonald's where some guy about plowed into the 50 it was back on the road to Premier Body & Paint in Arkansas City. We beat Jeff to the shop and just sat around talking with some of the early folks that showed up. Voodoo Jim brought the Corn Cobb Coupe out, Finkd brought his sedan, and Hotrod95's folks showed up in their T. Shawn from Fat Lucky's was in town and riding with Finkd, I never did ask if he had to use "the chicken stick" on Finkd's dash. I would have, I'm sure! Sorry if I forget anyone's name or what exactly they drive, I need to work on that.





B Scott's windshield has the proof that this is a driven car.


Then we were off! Heading out of Ark City to the east on some 2 lane county roads. If you click on any of these photos you will be taken to the gallery on my site for this run, many of the photos that were taken while we were out of the cars have been GPS tagged, look for the "Map This" button above the photos to see where it was taken on Google Maps.




This part of KS is exactly opposite of what most people think of when they think KS, the Flint Hills area is just plain beautiful in most areas. We had a cool path laid out before us through the hills and around some curves. I was enjoying the jaw time with yblock292 so much that I didn't take nearly enough photos.













It wasn't long before we had our first stop at the "Y" north of the small town of Dexter, KS, meeting up with a couple more cars and folks.































Then it was off for another leg of the adventure. Saw this cool old filling station in Cambridge I believe.



Then we found some twisties as we followed the valley.






Most were pretty tame, although since yblock292 and myself were gabbing we both missed the sign warning us of the sharp one just over the next hill, we had to use the whole road but we made it....barely!



Part 3

So then we find ourselves in the bustling city of Latham, KS. Again, click on the photos to go to the gallery, a bunch of the photos can be located on a Google Map by clicking "Map It" above the photo.












Although the gas was cheap...there wasn't any left...damn!


The next stop was just a few miles up the road, a spot that I have been wanting to photograph cars at for a couple of years. I still want to do some single car shoots here in the near future. Any takers, P.M. me!















Next off it was off to the nearby Beaumont Hotel in Beaumont, KS. This is a cool little joint where you need to keep an eye out for small planes that land in a nearby field and taxi down the city streets to the hotel for a bite to eat. This is a cool place to grab a bite with some great memorabilia on the walls for your viewing enjoyment while you eat.

Here's the historic water tower next to the old rail line (same rail line that the previous stop was under).



Here's Finkd taking a closer look at one of our fellow diner's "hot rod".



It's not often that you have plane parking.







Then I showed the fellas a stretch of old highway that's been bypassed by the new high speed roads.



The next stop was at a gas station in the middle of nowhere. Right were U.S. 400 and KS99 meet.




The carb in yblock292's Ford (with a Chevy 265 small block) was acting up, making him crank it longer to start up, which burned up the relay running the starter (this car has a kool push button starter instead of using the key). Soooo everyone pitched in and helped him get the ol gal started up. I'm not sure how much horsepower everyone added, we'll have to do the calculations haha.





Then it was back on the road for some more winshield time.







The next stop was at Elk Falls, KS where we checked out the falls and a cool old bridge from the 1890's.







A couple of the crew went down and checked out the water, recent storms muddied it up a bit, but it sure looked cool.









Then we were off to hit the last stop of the day, Buck's BBQ in Sedan, KS for their Saturday night Prime Rib special. Wowie wow wow, that was a good slab of cow! I think there were about 25 in the group total at Buck's we got there just in time for some storms to start rolling in.

After a good long dinner telling stories and lies and enjoying the company of our friends and rod/kustom family it was time for us to head back home. As we started rolling out the rain hit us, we were on the edge of a storm but it rained pretty good for a bit.



We were treated to a nice view after running out of the first batch of rain.


That's it for photos of the trip, from there it was a good drive talking with my buddy yblock292 about life, family, career and a few stories about cars and the adventures that we have had in them. The wipers in the 50 are vacuum operated and wouldn't ya know it, they weren't operational for the drive home. This wasn't too much of a problem for most of the drive, RainX is your friend afterall!

Straykatkustoms had to stop on his way home and hide out from the hail & funnel clouds in a car wash bay in Caney, KS. BScottStudio had a rough drive home in the roadster, hitting rain the last 10 or so miles, we were mostly smooth sailing, even getting a fly by from Finkd with Shawn and Lucas on a dry stretch of the highway. I'm not saying they were exceeding the speed limit so we musta been going slow.

The final 10 or so miles of the trip back to yblock292's got a bit sketchy. No wipers and suddenly it's raining as hard as it could, no problem! We'll just stick our heads out the windows and use the wing windows for some aero protection. That was the plan until the hail started! Jack took a bit of hail to the noggin but we powered on! I was watching the lines on my side of the car, he was staying out of the way of on coming traffic with his head out the window in a hail storm listening to my "YOUR WAY!, MY WAY!" directions which usually got a "WHAT?!?" in reply due to the wind noise.

Shortly after Fuddpucker and Mongo51 showed up, we were all laughing about the adventure, well once we checked for hail damage! Then Mongo51 and I hopped back in my daily (it did get some additional damage to the hail damage it had picked up Friday night) and we headed north for the 120 or so miles to Salina.

So that's it, that's the story of how some Stray Kats and friends enjoyed the hell out of the Flint Hills, their rides and each other's company one Saturday in Kansas.