Kanopolis Lake – Day 1 5-13-12

Today is Mother’s Day, so I started the day off with breakfast with mom and dad.  We were originally going to do Cracker Barrel, but it was packed.  So we went down the street to Country Kitchen.  I talked them into helping me figure out how to load up my kayak and mountain bike in the back of my little truck.  They came over around 11:15 and we started loading up.  It took about an hour to bungee the heck out of them, but we figured it out.

I hit the road around 12:30 for Hutchinson to drop Alowishus off with his Granny.  We chatted for a bit before I hit the road from there.  Once I got thru all the construction on hwy 61, I rolled into Lindsborg around 2:30.  Luckily, I found a little grocery store. Once I left the grocery store, I was going to check my map on my phone to see where to go from there (I really did this trip without a whole lot of preplanning) but I didn’t have any service and I can’t get internet when I’m roaming.  So, I shot from the hip and kind of remembered that I was suppose to take Hwy 4 out of town.  It ended up being the right way.  Since I went thru Hutch, I took mostly back highway roads and it was a lot more scenic than just rolling up the I.  Luckily there were signs pointing the way to Kanopolis Lake.  I remembered I was in the campground just south of the dam.  Once I turned in there, I remembered enough to find my little cabin.  It is the Bat Masterson.  It has a key pad entry, which is handy cuz I don’t have to tote a key or card around.  It was much bigger than I expected.  Has a big kitchen/dining/living room.  Very large bathroom and my bed seems to have a dead creature over it.  Not sure how I feel waking up to that every morning. I got all unpacked.  I sat on my porch for a while and used my new binoculars to scope out the lake and some birds.  I keep hearing a woodpecker, but I can’t seem to find him.  There is another bird running around here that is black and very bright yellow.  I have been trying to see him with the binocs but I never seem to have them when he is around.   Once I got settled in, I took my bike out for a spin around the campground.  Its a pretty small campground but it has some good hills.  I came back to the cabin and decided to have dinner.  I had to go purchase charcoal and lighter fluid cuz I didn’t know what kind of grill they would have here.  So, I fired up a small pile of charcoal in my ginormous grill for 2 hot dogs.  The first batch didn’t get hot enough so I had to pull the wieners off and put some more charcoal on.  I still never got it hot enough to cook them like I like them.  About 45 minutes later, I was able to eat.

After dinner, I decided to check out another section of the campground on my bike.  I did run across 1 little deer.  After I came to a sliding stop in front of him, I took some photos while he looked at me like I had 3 heads.  He finally trotted off and I went on my way.  I rode a total of 5 miles today.  When I came home from this ride I decided to eat some cheese cake that I bought at the store.  Then I came out to the porch to write up this blog while I watched the sun set.  Now its getting a little chilly and the bugs are pissing me off.  It is so absolutely calm out here.  The air is fresh and clean.  There is lots of birds and little critters roaming around.  There isn’t even a breeze.  The water is like glass.

I haven’t really planned this vacation out like most of my other ones.  Mainly because I didn’t have much information up front to plan from.  I looked at some maps today and I will probably start tomorrow off with a hike.  Then there is a short mountain bike trail I’ll hit in the afternoon.  Then, if the weather is as perfect tomorrow as it was today, I’ll bust out the kayak.  I am hoping to find some place where there is some Wi-Fi so I can upload this thing on a daily basis.