Day 2 – Indy to near Leavenworth, KS
No, I didn’t get myself sent to the federal prison, just to get that out of the way. It just happens to be the town nearest to where I stopped for the night.
So, day two was in some ways a repeat of the first. Alternating between US40 and I70, hoping the former would be more interesting (it wasn’t, but at least it didn’t have so many trucks.) Again, the mission was to put miles behind me. When I started thinking about this trip I was looking at stopping points around 400 miles or so along the road, but 600 seems easily do-able if I’m trying to make distance, even without riding at night. But this day I wasn’t just going to ride through. For one thing, I had to find a Bank of America so I could stop in and pay my mortgage, for another I wanted to see the Arch in St. Louis. Those combined, as the bank operates there (I’d discovered that many places along my route they don’t). Funny thing was when I used my mobile banking app on my iphone to find a branch it sent me out of town by the airport, which was ok because it was on my way, but when I mentioned that to the guy in the bank he said there was a branch right by the Arch. So anyone who uses the bank and that app, don’t always believe it.
Anyway, the arch. For one thing, I saw it fully 9 miles outside of central St. Louis. I’d seen photos of course, but they don’t really convey how big that thing is. I got off, rode along the river (big accomplishment, crossing the Mississippi, and clocking more than 1,000 miles on the trip so far). And like I said, that Arch is huge, and pretty cool. Oh, speaking of cool, that was the only cool thing I encountered that day. More than 100 all day, yet again. Got into good habit of drinking a quart of something every time I stopped, and stopping not just for gas but in the middle too just to drink more. Helped keep my energy up and senses alert. The drive itself was pretty dull. I guess huge farms just don’t really do much for me. But the stop in St. Louis helped make up for that.
After the arch, and the bank, it was back on the road. Destination, KC. Mission – Bar B Q. I guess I really am a city guy, I got off, rode around the city aimlessly, looking at the buildings, etc. There’s this huge riverfront park, obviously quite new, rather nice, but sadly, the only people I saw using it were homeless folks. Maybe the heat kept those who could afford it indoors, and it’s better used when the weather’s better, I don’t know. Anyway, after that, mission dinner. I had been directed to some street, which turned out to be where the major jazz clubs are clustered; I was tempted but couldn’t find one that served bbq. However, the door guy at one club, whose perfectly detailed Suzuki 1300 crotch rocket was parked outside, and I chatted bikes, riding, etc. for a while then he sent me off to his favorite place just a few blocks further down. Excellent recommendation, the food was killer. Pulled pork and what they called burnt tips combo sandwich, certainly hit the spot.
I’d already made a reservation at the aforementioned campsite in Leavenworth, just a short piece down the interstate. So after dinner I rode down there, set up and sweated myself to sleep.
Day 3 – Leavenworth to Pueblo, CO.
The folks in the Leavenworth campsite next to me, in a big old RV of some kind, fired it up around 5:30am and thanks to its poor condition (sure noisier than a C) that’s when I woke up too. Well, I hoped that would get me on the road nice and early to beat at least a little of the heat.
The route of the day was to go south from Leavenworth (KS rte 7 to I 35), pick up 50 and take that west. See how the day went, and stop when I stopped. The only real thought in my head was to visit Dodge City, being a bit of a history buff. Well, turns out that was not the highlight of the day’s ride. First off, it felt hotter than before. A bank clock/thermometer said 107 at nearly 4pm, I heard from someone that it topped out at 115. And man, was most of the ride boring. Perfectly flat, straight, all the same massive farms. A grain elevator every county or town, that you could see for miles away there was nothing else. The occasional train rolling by to catch my eye, stretching seemingly forever. Reminded me of when I was a kid in camp, there was a freight line nearby and we used to sit and count the cars, how long they were, nothing we’d experienced in our suburban Long Island lives to that point. I heard later that there was some flooding (who’d have thought, given how hot and dry it was) further north so they were diverting trains to this more southerly line, so there was more traffic than usual.
Every town it seemed had a little history museum. One was outdoors, so I stopped to have a look, various farm implements were the main features. One of the roadside historical markers I stopped to look at told how red wheat was brought to Kansas by menonite immigrants. Like I said, learn something new every day, right?
Ok, so what was most striking and almost made the drudgery of the ride worthwhile was seeing a wind farm someplace in the western part of the state. I think I mentioned that on my first day in a rest stop I’d seen two trucks hauling blades for these things, they were so big. (just one per trailer). Well, this farm must have had hundreds, all neatly lined up in a half-dozen or so rows, stretching for miles. Really quite beautiful to watch them do their thing (some good out of that annoying cross wind that had been buffeting me all day).
So then on to Dodge City, which was a real disappointment. The ‘old’ part is in private hands, tourist trap city, pay to play. I passed, took a couple of snaps from the gate, grabbed some ice cream from a shop on the next block (fresh, handmade, quite tasty, and perfect for the weather conditions; I had thought of getting some real lunch but just couldn’t see doing that in the heat). Forget get the hell out of Dodge, by that time, I wanted to get the hell ouf of Kansas. So looking forward to getting to the Colorado mountains.
Bennett, we’re not in Kansas any more.
So by late afternoon, I was out of Kansas. Hooray! Little did I know, eastern Colorado was no different (a guy I’d spoken with in Dodge had, in fact, warned me of that, he grew up over the Colorado side. Which made me all the more anxious to press on closer to the mountains. Folks that the cross the border Colorado visitor center pointed me to a state park in Pueblo where I could camp, so I lined up a spot and pressed on.
Unfortunately, as it turns out I didn’t have Colorado detail loaded in my GPS, the brochure on the park they gave me was worthless as far as directions, and street signage to it was really bad. So I wandered around Pueblo for far too long till I found it, just around dark. Not good. I hadn’t eaten all day, and needed to remedy that. Just past the park entrance a bit I found a place open, it was a music/pizza/beer joint, quite full even at that late hour when I got there. Food was actually quite good, sampled a local beer called Flying Monkey which was also quite good, and sat outside with the other smokers talking bikes, travels, all sorts of stuff. Note to self, alcohol + altitude are an interesting combination. I’d limited myself to one, as I always do if I’m going to ride, but I still felt it the next morning.
Day 4 – Rocky Mountain High. Pueblo - Moab, Utah
This was going to be a day to get a relaxed start, ride some through the mountains, and maybe head south to Arizona. I called a friend back east who’d lived in Colorado for a number of years, he made some recommendations, and I was set. Or so I thought. The beginning was uneventful enough. Head west on 50, experience the majesty of the Rockies up close for the first time. OK, I have to admit, being a flatlander mountain twisties do not come natural to me. I don’t have enough practice finding my line, working the gears, etc. to be fully comfortable doing it at speed. But if I was just hovering around the yellow sign speed recommendations (instead of my usual +10), not too horrible. Reaching the continental divide was another one of those milestones and quite cool. Even the long descent from there was a bit nerve-racking, but kind of fun too. But then, after climbing another, the skies darkened. Pulled on my rain suit, but was not looking forward to that, let me tell you. Of course, when does it start? Right after I pass the sign that says 'motorcycles use extreme caution'. 9% grade coming. Oh, and a full U switchback to start it all off. Noplace to hide, or even to pull off. The few pull offs they had are all gravel, which I wasn’t in the mood to tackle. Better to stay on wet tarmac than try and decelerate on gravel without dropping it and maybe hurting myself. So down I went, then up the next, and down again, all in a pretty steady and often quite heavy rain. At times, crawling with flashers on. Happily, I wasn’t the only one (thought probably the slowest not towing something very large). Who cares, I made it down in one piece, which is all I cared about.
So the thing is, looking at my maps I saw the route that Chris had recommended took me up and over a couple of other 10k+ peaks. Given the heavy clouds I saw looking that way, I decided to change plans. I’d aways heard great things about the national parks in Utah, so I decided to turn west not south and go have a look. Of course, the rain found me en route there too, but at least on straight roads where it wasn’t much of an issue. So here I am camped just down the road from The Arches, which will be my first stop of the morning. On the way to the campsite I’d passed a brew-pub/restaurant which was my dinner destination. While there (beer was excellent, food was, well, perfectly fine pub fare) started talking to a guy who gave me suggestions for the rest of the day’s journey – even showed me where there’s a ferry crossing the Colorado which I’ll take as that sounds like lots of fun. So, that’s the plan.
Oh, and as I was leaving a couple stops me – I guess that’s your C, he says, seeing the roundel on my helmet, perhaps (sorry, no chromeheads patch on my jacket as yet). Turns out he’s another chromie from Louisiana who is visiting the parks up here too, albeit in a cage this time. Small world indeed.
Ok, time to end this for the night. Hope to get an early start, and won’t if I keep this up.
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