LETTERS: Good memories
To the Editor:
On June 9 I was traveling northwards on my motorcycle, back to my home in northern Minnesota. I enjoy motorcycling, and it is not unheard of for me to make a 1,000 miles in a single 24-hour period, stopping only for gasoline and restrooms.
Well, as I passed the town of Marion, I punctured my rear tire. I managed to control the motorcycle, and get to the shoulder of the highway, where I might try to fix the flat tire.
I carry some supplies for this purpose, and had just begun to unload my gear in order to get out my repair kit.
I'd no sooner begun work when two of your finest young men working for the Kansas Highway Department pulled over to lend a hand.
I'd explained my situation and my plans to correct it. They said they'd call for their supervisor, who had an air compressor on his truck. I could at least get the tire well-inflated after I'd plugged it.
The supervisor arrived, we found the leak, and plugged it. The tire inflated, I was on my way back to Marion with the supervisor following me to make sure that I would be OK.
I offer my thanks once again to these three fine young men, for making that extra effort to insure my safety and well-being. My predicament was such an all-absorbing one for me that I did not have the wit to ask their names so that I might properly thank them.
The people of Marion, the people of Kansas, and the people of the Kansas Highway Department should all be proud of these men and the high standards of professional conduct they upheld.
As for me, a plugged motorcycle tire and a plugged nickel are of comparable value. The only proper and safe remedy for a punctured tubeless motorcycle tire is a new tire, which I finally secured at a cycle shop in Hesston (after plugging the hole two more times.)
With a new tire under me, I now had to fight strong winds the rest of the way through Kansas, and then some stop-and-go freeway traffic through Kansas City. I was beginning to think that the state of Kansas did not want to let me go.
Overall, I have good memories of my ride through Kansas, due in part to three young men in the Kansas Highway Department and the town of Marion.
Thomas V. Koehler
Two Harbors, Minnesota
