There were no road construction delays today, no rain, and the temperature stayed in the 80's. If the scenery had been more interesting it would have been a perfect riding day...
We had breakfast at The Broker, stopped by Vanya's to say goodbye to her and Rocky, and headed out of town on US 36, which goes down into Denver and joins I-70. On a normal workday that would be a miserable ride with heavy traffic and places where 36 is one lane due to road construction, but since today is a business holiday, we were through Denver in no time. US 36 breaks off from I-70 in Byers about 50 miles outside of Denver, and we followed it across flat and deserted eastern Colorado. There were a few ranches, but mostly just grassland with few trees or indeed much of anything, although there was a new-looking race track with several cars circling around.
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| Eastern Colorado is rather bleak |
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| Western Kansas just a bit less so |
The road was in good shape with a reasonable 65 mph speed limit. I'd wanted to stop in Last Chance to take a picture, but rode right through it without realizing I'd been there. Carol said there was no sign, and just a couple of abandoned buildings. We soon crossed into Kansas, which was more of the same, and I began to worry a bit about gas, since the tiny towns we went through had no services. Finally, we turned south for 25 miles to Burlington, which is on I-70 so we could find a gas station. We rode 50 miles on I-70 to Colby, Kansas where we found a hamburger lunch at the B-Hive Bar and Grill. It was the only place open in town except for the fast food places a few miles away on the Interstate.
Colby is on US 24 and we followed that for several miles and then angled back up to US 36 on a series of back roads. We are spending the night in Smith Center, Kansas, which is right near the geographical center of the 48 States.
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| An impressive corner building in downtown Smith Center |
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