[This is a work of fiction. The story is an unadulterated and unabashed attempt to tickle male fantasies and perhaps some female fantasies as well. It is a fantasy and as such, the story may or may not conform entirely with reality. With historical exceptions, all other locations, events, and characters are entirely fictitious and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.]
NOTE: This is number five in a series. At least chapter one should be read first. Preferably, the story should be read chronologically in order to keep up with the setting and the carry over from chapter to chapter. Also, a reminder that real ghost stories have been reported all up and down the Mother Road since its very beginnings. It's unknown if such experiences are still happening on the restored sections of the old road.
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Only thirteen and a fraction miles of Route 66 used to pass through the "Sunflower State". I say used to because, in 1960, Old Kansas Route 66 was decommissioned and the entire mileage abandoned when the new Interstate system by-passed Kansas altogether. From the start of my trip in Chicago, I'd been skipping back and forth between the newer four lane Route 66 and the older versions. Since the Kansan abandonment was only three years old, I had no trouble finding and driving on it.
The Kansan thirteen odd miles of the original Route 66 ran across the extreme southeastern corner of the state, taking in Galena, Riverton, and Baxter Springs, before crossing into Oklahoma. Kansas was quite proud, and remains so, of their little piece of The Mother Road and not a bit happy to lose it.
In fact, Kansas had its own special Route 66 marker--a black "66" on a yellow sunflower. To further help visitors stay on track and on the old route, the state also painted the standard "66" federal badge and number directly onto the road in some places.
The introduction of the Will Rogers Turnpike in 1953 was the beginning of the end for the Kansas segment of Route 66. The turnpike made it possible, as an alternate, to drive directly from Joplin, Missouri to Tulsa, Oklahoma for quite some time before the Interstate system followed suit and thus, both new routes by-passed Kansas completely.
Cruising along in my split window Vette coupe, which you can read all about in the Chicago part of my story, I felt horny again. Damn, it'd only been a short time ago since that truck stop back in Missouri. I've told you before how much I like and need sex. But after my Missouri sexcapades, I really needed to take some recuperation time before my next serious roll in the hay. We'll just have to see.
About that time, I drove into Galena, Kansas, five-hundred and ninety miles past Go. Once more, my pre-trip planning and notes came to my aid as I thought about the history of the area. A lot of mining labor troubles had occurred here during the 1930's. I suspect there is a lot of history on that topic, but mining is not one of my interests. I kept driving.
Six miles further down the road I came to Riverton, Kansas, and a special object of interest. That object was one of the few remaining Marsh Rainbow Arch Bridges--this one across the Spring River. These bridges date from the 1920's and are of all concrete construction. Like all road lanes of the original road, the bridge floor was eighteen feet wide--two nine foot lanes.
Two main side supports, resting on piers, are in the shape of rainbow-like arches with spokes radiating downward onto more piers. They serve the dual purpose as supports and bridge railings. The origin of the bridge name is obvious.
There is a second such bridge that spans Brush Creek just north of Baxter Springs. Seeing at least one of the bridges was my major reason for visiting the Kansas section of Route 66. I took numerous pictures, of course. They are architectural beauties and the product of the civil engineer, James Barney Marsh.
Anyway, there was a temporary barricade to prevent vehicles getting out to the bridge. I'm not sure the bridge was used anymore anyway. So, I had to walk some distance to get to the bridge itself.
I got some pictures and moved closer. As I moved, I heard some noise, sounds, something, coming from a grassy bank across the road and at the foot of the bridge. I eased over that way, quietly and carefully.
What I saw, took my breath away. A naked couple was doing a sixty-nine on the grass. He was on the bottom--she was on top. My first impression was that neither was all that attractive. But that didn't seem to stop them from what they were doing. Click, click, click went my camera.
The middle aged guy was puffing already. The girl, a bit overweight, suddenly spun around and raised up. Click. She reached down and positioned his cock. Click. With a groan, she impaled herself. Click. Then she went to work in ernest. Click. Oh, hell--click, click, click some more as I moved around a bit for different angles.
I thought they were much too busy to notice me. But, I guess I was too much out in the open because the woman suddenly called out to me rather breathlessly and without breaking her stride.
"You could get better pictures in closer. Fact, why don't you just come and join us. Bert here likes threesomes."
Startled, I blurted out, "Sorry, I'd really love to, but I'm on a pretty tight time schedule today and can't afford the time. I barely had time to get the bridge pictures. I'll take a rain check, though."
She just grinned and returned her concentration to her fuck stick ride. I retreated. I really wasn't on a tight schedule, but I just didn't fancy joining those two for some reason. I returned to Swifty and headed back to the Mother Road.
Baxter Springs, six-hundred and three miles past Go, was once a key staging area for cattle being driven from Texas on the Shawnee Trail. The town was also the site of the Baxter Springs Massacre in 1863, when Quantrill's Confederate Raiders came to town. The Confederates captured an entire detachment of Union troops and then executed them.
Jesse James is alleged to have targeted the town bank later in 1876, but no substantial proof of such exists. But Henry Starr, the so-called "Cherokee Bandit," later did rob the bank in 1914. Henry was nephew to Sam Starr, husband of Belle Starr, "the Bandit Queen," made infamous by Richard K. Fox, editor of the National Police Gazette.
It was also there in Baxter Springs that I stopped at an area between sixth and seventh streets to take a look at historic old Fort Blair. The American frontier and the Indian wars are another special interest area of mine. Fort Blair, also called Fort Baxter, was established by Union troops in 1862. I knew that the raid by Quantrill's Raiders had massacred some Union troops here, including some Buffalo (Black) soldiers, but that is about all I knew.
And then, so help me God, it happened again. I was exploring and poking around some of the restored area of the fort. As I approached the end of an old building, a Black soldier in Union blues came around that corner. Without saying a word, that trooper challenged me with a leveled musket with a spike bayonet pointed right at my swinging boobs!
"Oh, my God," I yelped in surprise as my hand automatically rose to my mouth
With that, the soldier turned on his heel in a drill perfect about face and disappeared back around that same corner, out of sight before I could come out of my shocked trance. At last, I carefully peeked around the corner. The apparition was, of course, long gone.
Then I yelped in startled surprise a second time as a voice behind me quietly said, "Don't be alarmed Ma'am, if you just saw a Buffalo soldier. It's a common occurrence here."
It was the site administrator or ranger or whatever.
"God, that's two scares in less than ten seconds. Are there any more surprises coming?"
The ranger chuckled a "Don't think so," and then went on to explain, "After the Civil War, this old fort was abandoned while nearby Baxter Springs began to grow. Houses were eventually built over the former site of the old fort."
"That was a shame," I replied.
"Yes, well, the Baxter Springs Historical Society has just gotten interested in resurrecting old Fort Blair and has begun the purchase of houses sitting over the old site. However, according to one of the locals, the land and at least one of the houses, came with the ghost of one of those long ago heroic Buffalo soldiers."
"That must of been a surprise."
"Yes, it was. Allegedly, when one elderly resident was making negotiations for the sale of her house, she said, 'If you buy the house, the ghost goes with it.' The old lady went on to describe a dark man, wearing a military uniform. The soldier had not been known to cause any trouble, he just liked to show up every so often."
"That must of bee a bit disconcerting to some--like me."
"I'm sure it was. The real-estate agent, for one, was so frightened when she encountered the spirit, that she turned and fled. Hasn't been seen since."
"Well, that ghost sure startled me. It happened so quickly I didn't have time to get scared. This is not the first time I've had an encounter with a ghost on this trip. That's what's really beginning to frighten the daylights out of me. How many more, I wonder?"
"Well," replied the ranger, "If you're not intimidated, enjoy the rest of your visit at our fort. Meantime, I'll be around to answer any questions you might have before you leave."
"Thanks."
He was a damned good looking guy. Too bad he had a full shift left and I didn't have the time to wait around to attempt to seduce him. But I thought about it, and did stay around a while longer, until I'd seen all I was going to see. Miss Swifty rumbled back to life at my touch and I pulled back out onto the hard road.
There's much more history in this little corner of Kansas and this little piece of the Mother Road, but I'll leave that for you to discover. Just past Baxter Springs, I drove Miss Swifty across the sate line Into Oklahoma.
"Oklahoma--OK," in the words of the Rogers and Hammerstein musical, was the birthplace of the Mother Road in the actions taken by Tulsa's Cyrus Avery. It was also he who picked the famous double six symbol. I gave more detail on the birth of Route 66 earlier in my story,.
Ironically, Oklahoma was also the first state to deal the Mother Road its first official deathblow when in 1953, the Turner Turnpike, later incorporated into I-44, was opened between Tulsa and Oklahoma City. That action by-passed about one-hundred miles of Route 66. In so doing, it dealt the first of many deathblows to the multiple business that serviced those closed sections of road, a pattern that would continue until the road and the businesses it supported were dead and gone.
The Will Rogers Turnpike between the Missouri border and Tulsa opened a few years later. It would be far from the last time that this would happen in the history of this unique road. In fact, in time, this major by-pass would lead to the total decommissioning of the entirety of Route 66 as other states followed suit.
