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Trip to Cassoday, Kansas
May 3-6, 2002
by Dan
Cooley
The first time I heard of Cassoday was on one of the singles boards, I think it might have been a question if anyone was going, on the F650 board. I thought at the time, that would be a nice weekend ride, so I looked it up on the map to see where it was. This all happened sometime last year and since we were going near there on vacation in the truck I thought we might as well stop and see what was there. Well, as all of you know who have been there, there ain't much there, we were there during the week so it was really quiet. We stopped at the Senior/community center to see what information we could get and I asked one of the elderly ladies what she thought of the motorcycles. Well, I was kinda shocked by her answer, "OH we really look forward to them", so I asked her who the rowdiest group was and she replied "the Scooter People". I also asked her if there were any campsites nearby and was informed there wasn't, so that would determine somewhat the speed of my trip. I tend to be a bit frugal (OK, so I'm cheap), so don't stay in motels any more than I have to, I figured I could make it there in 2 days, stay there 1 day and make it home in 2 days. With that in mind I would have to spend 4 nights in motels, which would be tolerable. I usually allot no more than $30 per night for a motel when I'm by myself and I keep a record of all the cheap motels that I come across with notes about them (some notes are not real pleasant). Well that laid the ground work for the trip to come. I keep an eye on most of the singles boards, so when Reid ask if anyone was going to Cassoday on the 5th of May I thought that would be as good a time as any to see what it was like. I responded to Reid's inquiry that I would be there if the weather looked favorable and he replied basically the same. I also put out a feeler on the MZ board to see if anyone was interested and Randy & Jim responded with interest. Randy is from the Dallas area and I don't know where Jim is from (Jim didn't make it for some reason). I also talked to my usual riding buddy and he didn't feel like going that far in such a short time (I guess maybe its age, he's 67 but I'm only 64). We rode to Daytona Speed Week in March so that was still fresh in his memory, he'll forget by next March and be ready again. I'm always ready for a ride as long as it don't cause too much teeth gnashing at home. I had told the wife that I would be taking a bike ride to Cassoday sometime in the next year, so she was pretty much ready for it.
I live in southern California near Julian, so I put the starting and destination points into MapQuest for driving directions. The route they made for me would have been 1,545 miles, which was 99% freeway. I didn't use MapQuest's directions. I left home at 4AM on Friday morning the 3rd of May. I got about 3.5 miles from home and ran into a road block, accident ahead, road closed for undetermined time, I thought to myself, what a great way to start a 950 mile day. I gave some thought to which would be the best alternate way to go and decided to take a twisty canyon road through Borrego Springs, I knew it would be much slower but it was the next shortest way and I already had the fuel figured really close. I took Hiway S2 to S22 through Ranchita and Borrego Springs to Hiway 86 at Salton City, north on 86 to the Mecca turn off to Interstate 10, I filled up at Mecca and continued on to Interstate 10 to Desert Center where I picked up Hiway 177. I took Hiway 177 north to Hiway 62 to Hiway 95 to a little jog just south of Needles that connects to Interstate 40. I was getting really low on fuel at that point, so I wasted more valuable time looking around a little settlement at the California/Arizona border for some gas but found none. I had a pretty good idea I'd never make it to Kingman on the fuel I had left, I know I can make about 200 miles on a tank if I keep the speed under 70 but I had been running faster to try and make up time so had gone on reserve right at the border. I carry a quart of fuel with me, which at 30MPH will make 20 miles and reserve will go about 25 miles so that would make me about 5 miles short of Kingman. Well, at least I was having some luck that day, there was a gas station at the Havasu City turn off just 10 miles down the road, Whew. Well that was about it for the first day out, the rest of the day was spent just droning down Interstate 40 with all the trucks to Tucumcari, New Mexico to spend the night (downtown Tucumcari is loaded with cheap motels, well under budget @$21.95). Oh, I forgot, I had a close call with a truck mud flap going through Albuquerque, the darned thing just grazed the fairing on the right side, enough to damage the paint but nothing else, except my nerves. I was in pretty good shape for 950 miles and it was only 8:30PM their time. I had dinner at Hardee's, had a shower and was in bed by 10:00PM.
I got up at 6AM Saturday morning the 4th and was in no great hurry because I knew I only had about a 500 mile day ahead of me. I took Hiway 54 northeast out of Tucumcari and had an uneventful ride on into Wichita Kansas. Other than a lot more trucks on Hiway 54 than I ever dreamed there would be, it was a much nicer ride than the freeway. I got into Wichita at about 4PM their time and wasn't at all tired, so rode on into Cassoday to see if there was anything happening there, absolutely nothing, town was dead as a doornail. I rode on back into Wichita and found a motel only a little over budget @$33.00 with tax, but much nicer than my usual fleabag's. The total trip from home to Wichita turned out to be only 1,475 miles, so I saved about 70 miles from MapQuest's mileage. My little MZ Traveller had run perfectly both day's at just under 50MPG and had used about 12 ounces of oil, a fantastic little bike, turned 58,000 miles just short of Wichita Kansas.
Woke up at 6AM on Sunday morning, cleaned up the bike a little in the motel parking lot, loaded my gear and started for Cassoday. I had a big breakfast at McDonalds on the way and got into Cassoday at about 9AM. There were bikes of all kinds entering town on every street, I headed over by the Post Office where I said I'd be and in just a few minutes Andy showed up on his Dual Sport MZ, shortly after that Reid came along on his SR500 Yamaha. We introduced ourselves and started looking over all the bikes that were parked on every street in town, this is quite a sight the first time you see it. I would guess that there was at least 2,000 bikes and scooters of all makes there, everyone just having a good time. I think the most interesting bike there was an early teens SuperX, made by the Schwinn Bicycle Company. I knew an old fellow who raced those on the board tracks of the era, he had a lot of great stories to tell. We covered most of the streets in town by about 11:30AM and I had noticed many bikes leaving already so soon we said our goodbye’s and headed out also.
I had no idea I would be back on the road again so soon, and after seeing on the news that there were severe storm warnings for an area just south of Wichita for Monday, I thought, well heck, I might as well get outta here while the gettin's good. I topped off with gas in Wichita and headed for home. I followed the same route toward home, there were some very strong side and head winds to contend with but the weather was holding up quite well. I ran into some sprinkles through the Oklahoma and Texas Panhandles but not enough to need my rain suit (I never put on my rain suit until I'm completely soaked). I was calculating as I was riding, and figured I should be able to make Tucumcari by early evening and be home Monday evening, which would save one night of motel costs. I kept up a good steady pace not stopping for anything except fuel and arrived sooner than I expected in Tucumcari. I was still in good shape so figured I might as well go on to Santa Rosa which would make the next day a little shorter. I arrived in Santa Rosa at about 8:30PM Sunday evening and got a room at a cheap motel that I had stayed in on another trip. I filled up with fuel, had a hamburger and salad at Burger King and hit the sack. I was on the road at 5AM Monday morning, I didn't start any earlier because I knew I would gain an hour, and it didn't make any difference what time I arrived home. I had called the wife Sunday night to tell her that I would probably be home a day early so I wouldn't scare her if I got home after she was in bed. I won't bore you with all the details of the trip back, fortunately I didn't have any close calls like the mud flap in Albuquerque. The weather was a little warmer on the way back but otherwise about the same. I always wipe the chain down with a rag soaked with ATF (I had 3 prepared for the trip in Zip-Lok bags) everytime I stop for fuel, so didn't have any chain problems at all, nor did it need any adjustments. I arrived home at 8:30PM Monday evening, a bit tired but glad to be back home.
The total trip miles, including the running around Wichita & Cassoday was 3,064 miles. Total expenses for the trip were approximately $220.00 including gas, motels & food. I'm ready to go again but must keep peace at home so will probably have to wait until next year.
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Created: 06/19/02 |
Updated: 01/06/04 |
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