Day 6 - Pikes Peak

Day 6 – June 15, 2009
We had reserved tickets for the cog railroad at Pikes Peak for noon so the plan was to have a nice breakfast and leave the hotel by 9. I turned the key on Abigail and she started but then quit and no amount of sweet talk could get her started again. This bike has only left me stranded one other time in almost 3 years. Glenn, Don and Roger decided to push the bike with Bernie on it and let him pop the clutch to start it but that was a real circus. Bernie said they were pushing him over and he wouldn’t even try to start it. After that little trial and error I pressed the starter button and she kicked off. Later in the day she again hesitated. It sounds as if she is not getting enough gas on start up. I’m wondering if the high elevation has anything to do with it. I know I’m finding it harder to breath today. We still made it to Pikes Peak depot in plenty of time to get our tickets and shop before boarding the train. A cog railroad can climb grades of 25% and I felt as if I was going to slide out of the seat. The view was magnificent and as we neared the top and cleared the tree line the air was much thinner and I began to feel the effects; dizziness, difficulty breathing and headache. I thought it was just me but everyone in our group was feeling the same. The top was covered with snow and the temps were in the mid 20’s. This was well worth the $30 each to visit this beautiful mountain. Leaving Pikes Peak we took CO 115 to Canon City where we have gotten a room at the Super 8. As we were riding I noticed the mountains were on my left, right and straight ahead. The ground around the highway is a desert with some type of ragged ground cover and brush. The Rocky Mountains are not like any mountains I’ve ever seen. They don’t appear to have rolling hills but rather sharp edges jutting up at various heights. The color changes depending on the direction of the sun. Little towns dot the base of the mountains but you don’t see houses up the mountain sides as you do on the mountains in the east. Tomorrow we plan to visit Royal Gorge and then cover a lot of miles in order to get close to the Canyonlands National Park.

Day 5 Pueblo CO

Day 5, June 14, 2009
Only 220 miles to go today so we left a little later and had breakfast at a restaurant instead of McDonalds. The day began cold and damp; everyone had their rain suits on for two reasons it looked like rain and to keep warm. And the wind – it just never stops in Kansas! The wind was blowing across the prairie so hard it was difficult to control the bikes. I saw the first cowboy working a herd of beef cattle in a feed lot as we were leaving Garden City. It has been a long time since I saw a two story house – most are small bungalows or ranchers. Most have trees surrounding them to shield them from the constant wind. Other than these trees none exist and the ones that are here are small and beat-up by the wind. As we move to the western edge of Kansas I notice the change from wet flooded fields to dry and dusty. The only grass growing is prairie grass. As we enter Colorado the lack of water becomes more noticeable. The homes in the small towns have no lawns or flowers; the only thing growing is the sage brush. It appears the only road paved in this area is route 50 which is a divided highway almost all the way. Some of the small towns actually have all dirt streets. There are many fields of hay either cut and drying or ready to be cut. These are needed to feed the thousands of cattle dotting the plains. We stopped in Lamar Colorado to see the petrified wood gas station and get some pictures and then one block over we stopped to get pictures of the Madonnas of the Trail. There are 12 of these statues at various locations from east to west. While there we noticed a blade from one of the windmills on display in front of the little town museum. We learned each blade is 112 feet long and weighs 35 thousand pounds. Riding across Colorado the road begins to have a few more curves and you can see mountains far off in the distance and the wind has decreased significantly. We arrived in Pueblo around 2 PM (we had gone through one more time change) giving us time to check in to the Motel 6 and do laundry before dinner. We were joined at dinner by Lee and Cindy, friends of Bernie’s and Shirley’s. We have reserved tickets to ride the cog railroad to the top of Pikes Peak tomorrow at noon. The Motel 6 on route 50 in Pueblo is clean and comfortable and very reasonably priced.

Posting from Garden City Kansas

Day 4 – June 13, 2009
We left the hotel at 6 AM and traveled 500 miles to Garden City, Kansas. It was cold and damp for the first 100 miles or so and I was glad I had brought my heated jacket. Kansas has been a constant change all day. Parts of route 50 are 2 lane country road and others are 4 lane divided while still other locations are multi-lane super slabs. You can drive for well over 100 miles and never put your feet down and not see a curve in 10 to 20 miles or more. The terrain ranged from flat to mountainous to rolling hills. At one point it was flat on one side of the highway and rolling hills with sage brush on the other. And the wind never stopped blowing over the flat, empty fields. As we moved further west in Kansas the trees began to disappear until now around Garden City you see very few. The smell of cattle hangs heavy in the air from the numerous feed lots. I have never seen so many cattle in one place before. Oil rigs dot the fields as do the huge grain bins located in just about every town. You can see for miles and I know the fields belong to someone but you don’t see a farm or even a house near. Our goal for the day was Dodge City but when we arrived there were no rooms available. At the first hotel we sat in the parking lot and called every hotel listed in the GPS and found all to be filled. There were 3 big events taking place this weekend, so that is why we pushed on. But we did stop to see Dodge City and what a bust. A small section of the town is made up like a ‘movie set’ with the old store fronts and wooden walks. Since we had an hour to ride and it was already 6 PM we decided not to spend the $15 or the time to walk around. We did stop at Kinsley, Kansas for a rest and to take some pictures of the sign in the middle of the country.

Day 3 – June 12, 2009
We began packing the bikes around 5:30 AM. It was cool and damp but the rain had stopped and the weatherman was predicting a dry day. No more than 30 minutes after leaving Bedford, route 50 turns into a narrow country road and we entered Martin’s County Indiana and Martin’s Forest State Park and we could not have asked for better riding; up and over mountains and the twisties again. Then 30 more minutes and we found ourselves on a highway straight and flat. The highway reached into the distance as far as you could see and if there was a curve in 10 or 20 miles you were lucky. The fields are large in Indiana and reminded me of a lumpy bed because the little humps could not even be called hills. Suddenly we were back in the mountains climbing and then just as quickly they disappeared and again we found ourselves riding almost in auto-pilot because the road requires so little maneuvering. At some point we crossed into Illinois; everyone else saw the sign but not me, but I did notice the road became rougher and straighter. The cash crop in this part of the country is corn, soybeans, barley and oats and while the grains are golden in Indiana and the corn at least 10 inches high; in Illinois the grain crops are still green and if the fields have been planted at all the corn is only about 1 or 2 inches tall. There has been so much rain; the creeks are swollen and flooding the surrounding fields. I noticed the pastures with beef cattle in Indiana, Illinois and Missouri and a few dairy farms but just past Loogootee, IN I saw the first of very few Perdue Chicken farms. In Flora, Illinois we saw oil rigs scattered about the fields. We stopped at a Hardees for a cup of coffee so I asked some ladies about the rigs. Yes they were still pumping oil from the region. Apparently in the 40’s there was a big oil boom in the region and a couple of the ladies had moved with their families to the area at that time and they are still drilling new wells. Getting around the larger cities has been a breeze – 50 is so well marked. A couple of times I have seen signs for ‘old route 50’ and ‘business 50’ but I opted not to take those since we have so many things we want to see and do further west. We have called it a night and stopped at Tipton, MO after riding 385 miles. We have had a nice dinner and the guys are outside playing cards. We are staying at the Twin Pines Motel in Tipton and it is modest but clean and priced right at $58.

Never hurts to look for a bargin

I forgot to tell you about the great hotel we had the second night. We stayed at the Comfort Inn which was a little pricy but we got a good deal. It had been raining off and on all day and we were all tired and getting grumpy. I found a hotel in the GPS and followed the directions. I knew we were in trouble when she had me turn into a housing development but when we pulled into a person’s driveway and the GPS said you have arrived I knew something was wrong. So we headed back to route 50 and saw a Super 8 but couldn’t find the service entrance. What we did find was the Comfort Inn. We all agreed it looked out of our budgets but it began to rain so we pulled up under the porch area. Kathy, Jenny and I went in just to check the price. The clerk said $89 a night. We agreed we would call the Super 8. The clerk said she would match their price and she even looked up their number. I called from her phone and they quoted me a price of $69 so the Comfort Inn clerk said she would give us the rooms for $65. What she didn’t know was the Super 8 didn’t have 3 rooms available so we couldn’t have gone there even if we wanted to.

Hello from Bedford, IN

We were on the road by 7AM and by 8 AM it was raining – no it was pouring. Within 30 minutes visibility was seriously reduced and I was riding with my face shield up and glasses down because of the fog on both. The rain let up after 2 or 3 hours but didn’t completely stop until late afternoon. Route 50 turns into a 2 lane country road with no shoulders across the whole state of Ohio with the exception of the Cincinnati area. In Ohio we traveled through rolling hills lush with green growth and fields with young corn and others with mature barley or oats waiting to be harvested. The homes along route 50 ranged from small, barely more than 3 rooms to large farm houses. The fields seem to stretch as far as the eye can see. But you still have the forests and occasional S curves when climbing one of the few mountains in the area. Indiana picked up where Ohio left off – small country road but much straighter and fewer homes or towns. I was struck with the feeling of openness as we rode through Indiana. We stopped for the night in Bedford, Indiana around 4:30 PM. 322 miles today.

Day 1

We left at 5:30 right on schedule and arrived at the McDonalds on Kent Island only to find Glenn, Kathy, Roger and Jenny were at a different McDonalds across the bridge. Our first day has ended in Parkersburg WV, 397 miles today. Route 50 from its beginning in Ocean City to Fairfax Virginia is a mass of concrete 4 and 6 lanes with traffic racing to and fro. But after Fairfax it begins to slow down and becomes a 2 lane country road running through small towns with very old houses and well manicured lawns. I have found route 50 to be well marked with the exception of Winchester, Virginia. There is a road sign on the east side of the city and then no signs again until you exit the city on the west. It is as if the whole route just disappears within the city limits. I have traveled route 50 through Winchester twice before and both times ended up lost but thanks to my trusty GPS this trip proved to be much better through this town. Around Gore you begin to find the foothills and then enter West Virginia and find some of the best roads to ride if you like the twisties. We climb hundreds of feet to the top of a mountain and then decent trying not to ride the brakes. We can smell the brakes overheating on the cars and trucks that pass. This year the roads are some what broken up and patched after the winter freezing and thawing and with the heavy rains mud and trash have washed down on the roads from the mountains. Then we had the road crews out cleaning and placing gravel on the shoulders. On a mountain road with hairpin curves and 9% down grades this can be very dangerous for a motorcycle. I’m not complaining because I love the roads of West Virginia; just know you need to be aware of all possible dangers on these mountain roads. We had a little rain to add to the day. From Clarksburg to Parkersburg route 50 again becomes a 4 lane divided highway where you can make good time. We pulled into the motel at 6 PM – 12 hours in the saddle.