Day 05 - Steamboat to Wendover, UT

Today's itinerary was to cross the western half of Colorado and all of Utah. We woke to 38 degrees in Steamboat, seeing our breath in the morning air as the guys prepped the bikes for departure. How to dress for a day that would have a 50 degree temperature variation? Shorts topped by the heated pants worked great. From our 8 am departure we made good time working our way across western Colorado.

 The terrain began to change not long after, and the first glimpses of red rock appeared.

A bit after 10 am we took a needed break at the Dinosaur Visitor center, where we had stopped twice on previous trips.

Having shed our heated gear and layers, we could enjoy the 70 degree temps as long as they lasted.

Soon we crossed into Utah. 

We stopped for lunch in Duchesne, Utah at Cowan's Cafe. Back on the road, we got on route 191 which was really scenic. Nearly every turn had interesting sights and rock formations.

Our trip would not be without tradition if we did not experience road construction on non-pavement.

Our conditions today ranged from smoky to extremely smoky. We had a few reprieves, one of which was a surprise elevation gain back up to 9,000 feet without us even realizing it until we cooled off a bit (as Tom later said, for only about 5 minutes). 

As we neared Salt Lake City, traffic picked up dramatically for 40 miles. We thought the city highway traffic went on forever! And it was hot, 97 degrees. Near 4 pm we arrived at Salt Lake. But, as the pictures show, it looked dried up!

The smoky skies didn't help, we could not see across it at all. It was cool anyway and Rob tried to capture interesting snaps.

We made our final 90 mile push to Wendover, made shorter by a 80 mph "speed run" as Mike said. At a quick fuel stop, a man in a SUV said "You guys were hauling a--! I was following you!" We are not sure what these circles on a pole were meant to represent. We will need to research it later. Soon the the terrain shifted to the white salt flats, a preview of what we hope will be a fun day tomorrow.

Once in Wendover, we relaxed at dinner and reminisced on the day. Today we covered about 515 miles in 11 hours. Tomorrow we try out the Bonneville Salt Flats! 

p.s. This blog app does not work well with tablets, so excuse the typos and weird formatting. Michele wanted to be sure that was mentioned.

Day - 04 Denver to RMNP to Steamboat Springs

Holy smoke! There was plenty of it today. When we left Denver (Wheat Ridge) the skies had cleared somewhat overnight so we had mountain views in the morning. Rob's route snaked us through town to Highway 72. He shared the night before that we would take the scenic route up to the park with plenty of twisty roads.

After an hour or so we arrived in the town of Estes and checked in to the park. Our first stop was lunch, a planned picnic in Hidden Meadow picnic area. Rob researched spots in the park that would be both scenic, have picnic tables, and real bathrooms. It was a great location. We had sun to help warm the biting wind. We joked about the alpine chipmunks trying to steal our Combos.

 

After we packed up from lunch, we thought extra heated gear would make us all more comfortable. We soon learned that 2500 feet higher was actually warmer than the 9,000 elevation of our picnic spot. So we all roasted as we approached the peak. At this point, the smoky conditions were really apparent and obscured the long range views. Mike asked what was up with the big sticks. They are so one can see the road edge when covered with feet and feet of snow. 

The views and experience of riding the highest continuous road in America was still pretty cool. Rob and I had to make the trek to the very top at Alpine Visitor Center. 

When we did this same walk up four years ago the views were limited only by our sight. No matter, it is still awesome. Back on the bikes around 2:30 we made our way down the mountain and out of the park on to highway 40 towards Steamboat Springs. The conditions seemed to get more smoky but there was still plenty to see. 

The ride from the park to Steamboat was about 90 minutes. Portions of Hwy 40 are made for motorcycle touring with wide sweeping curves. I was wishing I had the NT on my own for much of the ride today to experience it myself. We got to Steamboat around 5pm. The skies were full of ash. 

We walked into town for dinner at an upscale brew pub. Today is Huibok's birthday - Happy Birthday! We celebrated with wine and carrot cake. 

Tomorrow we venture to Utah.

Day 03 - Topeka to Denver

Today was all about wind! A great northerly wind that blew us about for nearly every hour of our 550 miles, and the wind turbine farms across the plains in Kansas and Colorado. After breakfast at the Hampton Inn Topeka, we set out at 7:30am in hazy, humid conditions. Our morning ride on I-70 was fairly sleepy, with few trucks and cars on the road.

Oue second mystery stop of the trip was less than two hours away. Sorry, but it will remain a mystery for our blog readers and be known only to us. We will reveal, however, that it involved Donald Trump toilet paper. Onward west, we passed Fort Riley, spotting Chinooks and Blackhawks.

The wind picked up suddenly at this point and was quite cool. It really helped to temper the heat of the day. Clearly the plains are the ideal spot for a windmill farm. This is the Smoky Hill Wind Farm near Salinas, KS, within 20,000 acres. Over 100 land owners participate. Kansas gets over 30% of its energy from wind, with a goal to reach 50%.

This area of Kansas along I-70 West was more green and lush with agriculture than Highway 50 that we took a few years back. We saw milo crops, sunflowers, corn and soybeans. The wild sunflower is the Kansas state flower. 

A few more scenic shots of the day. 

As the day went on and we crossed into Colorado, we noticed the skyline became increasingly hazy. To the point that we could not see more than 20 miles ahead, if that. Could it be pollution, smoke or dust from the farming? 

We speculated on this until we got to Denver and the hotel. 

Smoke from the fires out West in Glacier and Oregon! Will our scenic ride be obscured tomorrow? Stay tuned...

Day 02 - Indianapolis to Topeka

We had another long mileage day ahead of us so we departed at 8am. What a difference a day makes--today was 90 degrees and sunny. We rode through western Indiana on I-70 with little traffic and cooler temps in the morning. Into Illinois, Rob planned a mystery stop and kept it a surprise from Tom and Mike. Meet the Kaskaskian Dragon!

 

He is a quirky roadside attraction that Rob found from doing a Google search a few weeks ago. Mike got the drone fired up to get a few snaps of the action (although he had technical difficulties so we are not sure what pics he got).

After fun and games we got back on the road and eventually crossed into Missouri. Our planned lunch stop was closed! So we popped over to Red Robin instead. After lunch we kept on west, taking in the scenery and reading billboards. This field was crammed with them.

During the long highway stretch, Rob created a game for himself to guess the elevation of the hilly road ahead. He guessed one within three feet (what talent!) Once in Kansas City the traffic increased dramatically for the rest of the 80 miles to Topeka.

We arrived at our hotel around 6pm, fairly hot and tired from the 580 mile day. A short walk to Texas Roadhouse for dinner, the place was hopping! We were seated and served quickly and got to relax and cool off.

Tomorrow we look forward to adding Julie and HuiBok to our gang, as both are due to arrive in Denver late in the day.

Day 01 - Home to Indianapolis

We decided last night to get a full night's sleep so that this trip would be our first where we would not start out tired. Asleep by 9pm--success! The 4am alarm still seemed unholy and Rob said he was awake since 2am excited about the trip. So maybe not entirely successful. Good news though, no rain at the house from the remnants of Hurricane Harvey. Tom and Mike arrived at 5am donned in rain gear. We optimistically decided to not wear ours hoping that the weather would only threaten to rain. We left shortly after 5am and the weather was mostly dry for the first hour and a half.  This worked right up until we turned onto I-68 when it began to rain heavily. Rob pulled over at the first off ramp where we quickly and awkwardly put on rain gear. Mike later told us he was happy we stopped so he could put on his rain gloves. The temps had been hovering around the 57F degree mark up until that point.

As we made our way across Maryland and West Virginia the rain continued to fall heavily at times and temps dropped to the upper 40's as we topped out at 2800 feet! Thank you, Harvey!

We connected back to I-70W and rode out of Pennsylvania and into West Virginia. The roads dried out and the sun began to peek through. This is about when we figured Mike woke up since he started chatting with us over the CB. He apparently got just two hours of sleep last night, so we will forgive his early radio silence.

We stopped for a fuel and rest break in Morgantown, WV. A man asked us what it is like pulling a trailer, never having tried it himself. We chatted and he shared that he was from Oakhurst and gave us a few tips on scenic driving into Yosemite.

A heavy drizzle began as we made our way across Ohio and just as we were getting used to better conditions. We stopped in Hebron, Ohio for lunch around 11:30am. We were about half way to our destination at this point, making excellent progress. After lunch, the drizzle continued through the remainder of Ohio. It was not until we were 30 miles outside of Indianapolis that the drizzle stopped, the clouds disappeared, the sun came out, the roads dried up, and the temperatures climbed from 60F to 77F.

We made our last fuel stop of the day at Post Rd just east of Indianapolis and removed our rain gear. Mike told us the area was well known to be not the safest. We'll know for next time! We were about an hour ahead of schedule and decided to head straight over to Michael's brother's house. Jeff and his wife Tiffany had graciously offered to make us dinner at their home on our first night.

We arrived at Jeff's home at aound 5pm. We all sat around on the patio talking for an hour or so and watching the antics of their to dogs in the yard. Jeff and Tiffany made one awesome meal! Steak (marinated in some kind of goodness, Yum), salad, green beans, and a sweet potato casserole that was more like desert. We all called it Crack. It was amazing!

After a great meal, good stories, and a little Pappy 12 year old bourbon tasting, we said goodbye to Jeff, Tiffany and their two sons. We feel quite honored to have been welcomed into their lovely home and treated to such kindness. It is hard to beat a home cooked meal with family and friends after 600 miles on the road.

The hotel was only 20 minutes away. It took awhile to clean the bike after the messy day (it was waxed and pristine when we left this morning!) Tomorrow we head out for Topeka, Kansas. The weather promises to be sunnier and much warmer than today. We will happily be storing our rain gear and look forward to another great day of travel across America.