Day 5 Layover Day, Pratt, KS or Down Memory Lane

We start our layover day spending 2 1/2 hours driving to(and back from) the closest bicycle shop in Hutchinson, KS. It turns out to be quite a nice shop, Harley's Bicycle Shop, that sees about 150 cross country riders a year. He, Bob, is confident he can make the ugly noises in our bikes go away. Upon our return to Pratt we gather up Aunt Ellen who was born here 95 years ago, Cousin Roger and Kathi who drove her from Colorado to here yesterday, and Bill for a tour of Pratt and listening to all of Ellen's memories.


First we visit the house that Ellen lived in from 6 to 18 until going off to college. She remember the little boy across the street who her father, an ENT doctor, had to remove his eye due to cancer. Then we drove towards town by her old school, since torn down and rebuilt. Once in town we did a walking tour by the old bank where her father had an office above it. Across the street is a People's Bank, we bank at the Taos branch of People's but it's home office is in KS. Then down the street to gaze at the unusual architecture of the theater which was there when Ellen lived here. Notice the brick street in front. All the old part of town has brick streets, the original ones too. This here is main street and gets a lots of heavy truck traffic as it is the major N/S route. We are amazed at the excellent condition of the bricks.
Our last stop before lunch is the Pratt Tribune where Ellen marched right in telling them her age and that she was born here and did they want to hear her story. They took her in the back for about 20 minutes for an "interview" and photo while we were out in front hearing more stories of Pratt from the editor. After lunch we hit the historical museum and spent about another 1 1/2 hours there before returning to the hotel for a needed rest before dinner.

Dinner was another adventure. We left Pratt at 4:45 and drove 75 minutes to a tiny town in Oklahoma boasting only a few streets and luckily for us a gas station plus a lovely Victorian House that is a restaurant 3 nights a week. They specialize in home raised beef and home made desserts. We enjoyed it all plus our good friends
from Tulsa, OK who arranged for all this. People
do drive great distances here for almost anything. Thank you David and Katie! After being completely stuffed with a great dinner we all drove back to Pratt in a 3 car caravan accompanied by the most unusual light show any of us had seen. Two large thunder clouds were being lit up constantly by lightning on the "inside" of the cloud. It was the most amazing and beautiful sight and stay going for most of the drive home. What a full "rest" day, not a rest day at all. Martha and I are so glad we have another day off to maybe rest a little. But what fun and, after all, this is what the ride is all about.