"That'll be $24.00. But I hear it's pretty wet up there." said the toll booth worker at the entrance to the Pike's Peak Highway. We knew all about wet. It didn't phase us. I was digging for the cash out of my wallet when I saw two riders heading towards us waving frantically. They looped back around after exiting the park and pulled up next to us. "Do NOT go up there! We were in a group of 5 riders and we all had to lay down the bikes to keep from sliding over the edge. It was glare ice!" This was the first time I have every actually heard someone say "I had to lay her down.". I thought that only happened on the net. "And three guys were struck by lightning!" said the other rider. That one smelled of bullsh*t, but even being in proximity to lightning on a mountain does phase us.

Six days earlier......

Cheryl and decided to make Santa Fe and Aspen our main destinations for this years trip. The goal was not overly ambitious - a ride to Santa Fe and then up to Aspen. Total mileage was about 3000 miles, which is less than our usual ride. But, I reasoned we would do some sight seeing from Santa Fe and Aspen. The one potential wrinkle in the plan was that Colorado and New Mexico were basically under water. They had received, and continued to receive precipitation of epic proportions. It was all over the news. But, it appeared to be heading north and we reasoned that if we came around and up from the Southeast, we would miss it. Uh-huh.

It was also part of a larger goal - to, sooner or later, cover the lower 48 on the bike. Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico were all on our "to do" list. Fact is, I've been to those states. But not on this bike and not with Cheryl.



Cheryl and I reasoned that leaving late afternoon on Friday would get us a jump on our trip to New Mexico and Colorado. The plan was to make "somewhere" in Iowa by nightfall. On our way out of town we stopped by the fire station where Rich works. Rich is a member here and he kindly offered to lend us a couple of Airhawk seat cushions to make our trip more comfortable. Rich, and guys like him, are what make this forum great.

Here we are doing a photo op in front of the fire station, getting ready to head out on our adventure. Rich thought the flag would be a nice touch. I agree -



We left Milwaukee by late afternoon. Anytime we go anywhere, it seems we take one of three routes, taking us through one of three cities. If we head east, we get to ride through (or alongside anyway) lovely Gary Indiana. If we go south, equally lovely Beloit WI. Today we headed West, through somewhat better Dubuque Iowa.

The ride to Dubuque and beyond isn't bad. But, when you've done it as many times as we have.....well, it get's a little old. And like the other two cities mentioned, it is simply a milepost along the way to our destination - somewhere we haven't been before. Wherever that starts.

Reading about it for the second time would be as boring as riding it for the 20th time so I'll skip ahead to Iowa City - our stop for the night and about 4 hours into our trip.

This is how our days will end for the next three -



Sun in the eyes.

Iowa City is actually a nice town. Home of the Hawkeyes and temporary home of me when I'm doing work for the medical college. I know the good hotels and we checked into the Comfort Suites on the main drag - hospital rate. Nice!

As savvy travelers, we are well prepared -



I figure if I ply Cheryl with alcohol she on't be so camera shy -



And of course, we will need food. Pizza is the food of choice as it is usually brought to us by a nice young man like this one -



Day 1 - 4.5 hours and 250 miles

Temps - 60s

sunset - around 7

7&7s - at least 2

pizza - 1

 

Looks like a great ride so far!!!

 

Gonna keep hitting refresh on this one...

You went thru the armpit of Texas (sorry Grumpy Bear)...

Hopefully you found some beauty in the desolation, because it's there if you look, especially at sunset...

 

Nice timing Nevada on this first snowfall. I know it's only December but I have been dying for some ride reports to get me through. Great start keep em coming. Thanks for sharing!!

 

Day 2

Iowa City to Liberal Kansas – 700+ miles and 12 hours

Today was to be a big riding day. This late in the summer we are limited to about 13 hours of daylight so we elected to get a jump on the day and head out before sun up. Six AM at Starbucks –



With some caffeine and breakfast sandwiches under our belts we headed out. It was an unseasonably chilly morning - about 40 degrees. Fortunately, we had heated gear so besides a little cool breeze on the face, we were comfortable as we headed west and into Des Moines for our first gas stop.

Cheryl’s favorite gas station –



She has a lot more gear on than she did in this same shot from 2 years earlier. This would be a common theme for most of our trip.

We jumped back onto the interstate, the dreaded, but necessary conduit to more scenic regions. I am reminded of a quote by Charles Kuralt.

- Thanks to the Interstate Highway System, it is now possible to travel across the country from coast to coast without seeing anything.

I couldn’t agree more. But, when traveling in the Midwest, one has to weigh the cost in time by taking the less traveled path vs the scenery that path offers. Then factor that, if you get to the good stuff earlier, you can spend more time there vs what you are already familiar with. In this case, familiar means flat 2 lane through farm towns. We have plenty of that in Wisconsin. So with that in mind, we speed towards Kansas City –



Somewhere south of Des Moines we came upon this contraption –



Maybe Charles Kuralt didn’t know everything after all.

Like I-80 through Iowa, this part of Missouri and Kansas isn’t particularly noteworthy. More interstate, more traffic by Kansas City, and tolls. The temps did climb as we headed south and once through Wichita and on 2 lane, we pulled over for gas and to shed some layers.

Cheryl feeling less bulky –



The temps were in the low 80s and we were happy to be off the interstate and on hwy 54, a two lane highway that will take us into New Mexico. As mentioned, our destination was Liberal Kansas. I chose it based purely on the amount of miles that I planned for that day. We wanted to lay up to New Mexico to have an easy ride on the 3rd day. Hwy 54 was a refreshing change from the miles of slab we had just covered, but I can’t say it offers amazing scenery. What else does one expect when travelling through Kansas but lots of fields and nothingness? Sometimes that’s okay, and that night, it was.





However, nothingness soon became something - in the form of rain. We saw the signs from far off. –



We’re making some time now. Not much to see and daylight is fleeting -



The rain was getting close now. We could watch the cloud bursts march across the planes and almost time our arrival to coincide with their departure. Sometimes we were going 90. Other times 50. We knew our luck would run out sooner or later though, so we pulled over and put on the rain gear. The telltale black streamers reaching down from the clouds were just ahead of us when we continued – right into a cloud burst.
It wasn’t all that bad. Yes, it was coming down quite hard. But the heavy bike felt solid on the wet pavement and if I maintained enough speed, the rain would flow, more or less, over my head.



But, as any passenger knows, what flows over the rider’s head often times makes it right into the face of the passenger. We dodged some and hit others. Cheryl was getting soaked. But, always the trooper, she kept her spirit up and continued to take pics as the weather would allow.




Liberal was about 20 minutes ahead and the sun was low in the sky. We were soaked and the temps were dropping. We had timed it pretty well. We would find a place to lie low in Liberal and let the rest of the storms glide overhead. With any luck, tomorrow would be sunny and clear.

Miles - 750ish

Saddle time -12ish

Temps - 40-80 degrees

Rain - yes

Dead Armadillos - too many to count

7&7s - 2 each

Tomorrow - Day 3 and the ride into New Mexico

 

Thanks - but it gets much much better.

Seeing as it was our first time riding through that region, we took it all in with appreciation. We always enjoy seeing new things, even if there isn't much to see.

Yep - it's been a snowy day and I figured this was a good time to kick this one off.

 

Thanks for sharing the ride. Looking forward to the next installment.

 

subscribed..enjoyed your last trip also.. Looks like this one will get more "interesting" as we go...

this caught my attention to say the least

 

Nice thanks for sharing.

 

Thanks for sharing looking forward to the rest your trip/..