2 Days in One

Mainly because yesterday was just another superslab day and nothing much to it.  Just making the miles.

Got to say I am not a fan of the big interstates.  The only reason people use them is to get somewhere. Whereas we prefer to be getting somewhere.  See the difference?
Everything works at a frenetic pace.  If you drive slow - you know, at the speed limit - you will get run over.  Cars will happily use your space to do an overtaking maneuver on someone else.  The only "safe" way to ride is at their speed or just above.
Anyhow, here's a few things we did manage to see.

Lots of road signs

People with all sorts of spares

Police trying to be incognito

A big blade.

In Omaha they don't have enough freeways yet.

Low flying jets to scare you.

And a big memorial arch.  Not sure why.

We ended up only doing 367 miles for the day.  We started out late because we watched the MotoGP and stopped for a while for the Little Black Bike's due Walmart Carpark Service.

A nice motel in Kearney, Nebraska and we were well rested for today.
Enough of the I80.  I'm slowly mastering the new Garmin so I planned a route taking a zig-zag way through to Colorado Springs.

Aussie Karen did attempt to take us on to I80 to start out, but we can't blame her for that.  We went south though, instead of west and after about 10 miles she got the idea and stopped ordering us to do U-turns.  She picked out the right towns and followed my plan very well.

Much better roads at a more leisurely pace.  Just 65mph.

Lots of cornfields currently growing under irrigation.

Our motel hadn't provided much of a breakfast so we decided to find a diner somewhere along the way.  We went through several small towns not finding anything at all.  No big chain restaurants on these backroads.
Finally, in a mid-size town we found a nice little restaurant that did breakfasts.  Inside we found a wonderful collection of cookie jars.  Simply amazing.  The breakfast was good too.

Old style decor added to the atmosphere

Hundreds of cookie jars on all the walls.

Still in the far west of Nebraska, crossing miles of cornfields we were running low on fuel.  Finally found a fuel depot down the back of a tiny town.  The old-style pump was connected to a card-swipe maching.  Fun to watch the tumblers spinning.

When the tank was full, it showed $1.46.  Huh?  A local who was waiting assured us our card would be charged $14.60.  It will be interesting to get the next statement.

Wide open plains and scary trucks.  The truck was in the servo.

 We now faced a long ride on long roads with a strong side wind.  Sometimes it was quieter to sit with head to the right of the screen.  Until it hurt.
Otherwise just grin and bear it.  It was a nice day after big rains the previous night.  Locals were telling us of 2 to 5 inches in these parts overnight.  A bit of wind wasn't really going to worry us.

The long road slowly climbed.

Through some tiny towns.  

You'll notice a distinct lack of traffic and reasonably good roads.

The roads steadily gained altitude and we eventually got over 6000ft.  Then we came across one of the biggest windfarms we've seen.  There were many hundreds of these big windmills.  We tried, but eventually gave up counting.

Dwarfing the wheat harvest machines

As far as the eye could see.

We eventually battled the wind in to Colorado Springs.  Can't see the Rockies this afternoon, they are shrouded in clouds.  Here's hoping for clearer weather (with no vortices) in the morning.

417 miles today and so much nicer riding on the byways.