Kansas is famous for lots of stuff, but one I didn’t know about was bumper stickers. The modern sticky bumper stickers were invented in Kansas by Forest P. Gil from Kansas City before World War 2. I’m not sure what we would do without the ability of expressing our believes on our car bumpers.

I heard on NPR today that Topeka High, my high school, was the first high school in the country to cost more than $1,000,000 to build. I’m not sure why they decided to spend that kind of money in 1931. It is a very ornate building and one of Topeka’s city landmarks for sure.

And now there is controversy about whether the chimp that recently died in Florida was really Cheetah, the origianl chimp from Johnny Weissmuller’s Tarzan. That sure would have been a really old chimpanzee. I hope it is true and not a fake. I loved Tarzan and have every one of Edgar Rice Burroughs books he wrote and have read them more than once.

Something that has amazed me recently is how many rich people there are in this country. Maybe not exactly how many rich people, but how much wealth. It constantly bewilders me when I’m riding around these towns where the real estate seems astronomically high how many homes there are that cost zillions of dollars. I always think that when I’m walking around downtown Manhattan in New York. I think that somebody owns every one of these buildings. And they go on for miles upon miles. Then there is Austin. It isn’t a cheap place to live. The housing is expensive. Plus, the property taxes are out of this world, something close to 2.5% as far as I can figure. (There is no state income tax though.) And I can ride for miles upon miles and there are just huge houses upon huge houses. It doesn’t seem like there is enough money or high paying jobs to support the infrastructure.

Talk about infrastructure, Topeka’s has gone down the toilet. It seemed like this fall, all the city did was try to repair roads. And it didn’t work. The repairs crack nearly as soon as they open the road. I was riding my bike at night when I got back from Christmas and it’s nearly too dangerous to do with the conditions of the roads. There are so many pot holes that could launch you if you didn’t see them. I don’t see anyway to catch up with the situation any time soon.

Okay, enough of this. I have a ton of stuff to do toady. I got a couple new pairs of Shimano shoes for cross and need to set up the cleats. They aren’t that easy to mimic the position of my old shoes since the bottoms are much different. I’m a little worried that the plastic on the bottoms are too hard of a durometer if my pedals get wet. There doesn’t seem to be any rubber which is always good for grip when it is wet. Plus I have to ride over to Lawrence and get some small parts from Sunflower. That is 70 miles round trip. It is supposed to be near record high in Kansas tomorrow, mid 60’s. That is always good in the winter.

This is a great bumper sticker.

The entrance to Topeka High School.

The original cast of Tarzan. They look so happy up on their tree limb.

A lot of our roads here in Topeka really suck.

And I have no idea why many people don't think that the curbs in front of their houses are their responsibility. I can't stand it when the sewer grates are clogged and leaves are normally the problem.

I've been switching between my road pedals and MTB pedals, but I'm going to ride these until Nationals to make sure they are going to work.