This Moss Motoring Challenge was quite fun. This was our first year, we are not retired, and we live in the middle of Kansas. It was quite a challenge.
The most memorable trip we made was to Western Kansas to get the letter Q. We were driving down I-70 when we saw a huge billboard for Quinter, the gateway to Castle Rock. We pulled into town, population 918 and looked for a city sign. We couldn’t find one, so we took a picture in front of the post office. Boring. We drove 150 miles to get a picture of the Quinter sign—we weren’t leaving until we got one.
We started driving out in the country, trying to find a way to the billboard we had seen. After about 10 miles of dirt/sand roads (we NEVER drive on sand) we found the place. We drove by the farmstead a few times trying to decide how to approach them and ask if we could drive through their property. It was another 100 degree day, so we just pulled in to ask. We found a woman mowing the lawn and she was happy to stop to talk to us. We explain to her what we were doing and she thought it was great. Her husband was at a tractor show (he restores tractors), so she called her father-in-law to see if there was a way we could drive out there. Sure, we’d have to go through the overgrown cow lot.
After visiting with her for a while we found out her husband’s brother was our neighbor! We have been bike riding with his wife! Their daughter was living with them while attending McPherson College, where our son was, in the Auto Restoration Program (which is where we got the MG and father and son restored it). Such a small world.
So we started out across the cow lot. Wow, it was all sand and weeds. We could not stop for fear of not being able to move again. We tried to steer onto the weediest parts to keep from sinking too far down, as we drove through the ditch past the lot, then up the hill. Put the pedal to the metal. We made it up, but had to spin around so we’d be facing the right way for the picture. We weren’t going to be stuck there and not get the picture!
We made it back to the yard without incident, but it was iffy. Oh, I forgot to mention that about an hour and a half into our 450 mile trip that day, the clutch master cylinder failed. Continuing the trip without an operational clutch made the ride even more exciting!
This was just one of our more interesting outings. They were all pretty memorable. As always, the pictures just don’t do it justice.
Always up for a challenge,
Glen and Lisa Goering
'Quinter or Bust!' has 1 comment
January 2, 2015 @ 7:14 pm Ken Mohlman
I’m in sw Kansas, I’ve yet to tour a cow lot to get a sign picture ( should be an extra pointer)but we have done many u turns, driver thru questionable ditches and a few rutted dirt roads. Dad always said that a person has to get off the interstate to see the country!! I sure would like the MGB leg room in my Bug eye. Nice going.