Fresh off of a great day I pedaled down breeze to Larned KS. It is still wicked hot but I made fast miles and did not suffer much of the heat while riding.
I had heard Larned had a nice little nine hole so I headed right for it. Google was undecided if it was open but Larned is tiny and it was faster just to show up and see. On arrival I was undecided if it was open. There were zero cars in the parking lot. I checked the front door. It was locked. But then I realized that was the restaurant. The “pro shop” was below. I found a door with a sign that said pay here.
Inside a small hallway there was a box for filling out your ticket. You dropped half in the box with payment or receipt from the credit card machine on the wall and kept half for proof of payment while playing. A completely self serve operation. The only person I saw the whole round was a lonely staff member mowing that only waved as he passed by.
The course is lackluster but it was novel to have an intire course to yourself. To be honest it was like playing disk golf in a city park.
The holes are wedged into a piece of land smaller than I have ever seen nine holes placed. This is accomplished with some cleaver routing that sees several tee boxes and greens within feet of each other. So much so they installed fencing to protect from errant shots. There’s one miniature pond that comes into play on three holes. The most interesting hole is a blind shot over a hill to a green marked by a makeshift target 30’ in the air. Not shockingly, given the limited real estate, fairways and greens are tight and tiny providing ample difficulty. The greens were a wreck but effort was being made to repair them. I played well for me but still lost several balls to the rough and that tiny pond.
I was now completely drained from the heat and checked into a motel and headed straight to Sonic for a massive limeade.
The motel did not have laundry so I walked a few blocks to the laundromat. I had no idea what was in for. Turns out it was free laundry day. A local charity takes over for one day a month and makes sure the community has clean clothes. You are allowed 5 free loads. It took me several minutes to explain I only had one load. They kept insisting I should separate my load. The place was hopping with characters. All laundromats are crazy but this one was on another level. The tv had evangelical bible study on. Several guys were yelling at the preacher like they were watching wrestling. A grandmother and her granddaughter were loudly discussing who in the laundromat they would sleep with. One guy was standing face into the corner (he never moved the whole time I was there). Several others were playing dominoes sitting criss cross on the floor. There I was wearing Gore Tex sitting on the “Group W” bench. Much like lunch there is no “free” laundry!