Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado, Utah

Monday morning was a cool 58 degrees when I left the Riverside Motel in Hebron, Nebraksa and continued west on US 136. My destination for breakfast was the Red Brick Cafe in Red Cloud, Nebraska, where I'd eaten last year and enjoyed visiting the Willa B. Cather Historical Society Museum. Unfortunately, when I arrived at 9 AM the building that formerly housed the cafe was empty. I rode around town for a little bit and finally asked someone for a place to eat. He said that the only place was the Red Brick Cafe, which was now in the front of the town bowling alley. Sure enough, right on US 136, where there's a block of red brick street, was the bowling alley with an "open" sign in front. The same waitress and chef were there, and she explained that they'd just moved and they would have a proper sign for the restaurant in a week or so. I related how I'd been there last year and had a long conversation with a woman about the town and Ms. Cather, and the waitress said it was probably Jeannie, which sounded familiar.

New home of the Red Brick Cafe - the bowling alley has 3 lanes!

The rolling hills I'd been riding through gradually flattened and the farm crops gave way to empty fields, hay, and range land. I'd intended to ride all the way to Alma before angling down to Kansas and US 36, but Highway 136 was closed at Franklin, so I rode south on State Road 10 into Kansas where the road became 8 and in 25 miles turned west  on US 36, which Carol and I had traveled west to east earlier this summer. There's no way around it - western Kansas is rather bleak, which is not to say that there aren't interesting sights along the way.

About 100 yards from the dead steer is the twisted carcass of a house trailer. Tornado?

Hay bales in a field

US 36 in eastern Colorado becomes even bleaker, and the only thing that I had to look forward to was passing through Last Chance, which I did once again without even noticing. It was on my GPS, I knew that it was at the junction of US 71 and 36, and yet I didn't see it. People probably steal the town sign, and I passed by Highway 71 without it registering. Carol tells me that there is really nothing there to indicate a town.

Eventually US 36 joined I-70 and I followed my GPS into  Denver onto I-25 and off at Colfax Ave. It was the beginning of evening rush hour and what with construction on I-70 my progress was slow - no lane splitting in Colorado. I knew that western Denver and west Colfax Avenue in particular could be somewhat sketchy, so I'd made a list of motels that were a little farther out of the downtown area. However, I passed the Westway Motel, which had a nice neon sign out front and decided to take a chance. All the maintenance budget must have gone to the sign, because the motel itself was a dump even by my low standards.

Westway Motel - not my best choice of lodging this trip.

Nevertheless, I checked in, did my bike checks and chain maintenance, and read for awhile before riding towards downtown to meet Vanya at Table 6 for dinner. Dinner was very good and Vanya  and I talked and caught up. She'd  been in town briefly for a wedding just two weeks ago, but we'd barely seen her. In spite of my trepidations about the motel, I wasn't murdered in my sleep or devoured by vermin, and when I looked outside on Tuesday morning I realized that I'd slept through a hard rain. I met Vanya for breakfast at a café downtown called City O'City, and afterwards she gave me a tour of the Justice Center where she works. It's a fairly new building, probably built in the last 10 years, and everything is clean and unmarked, with bright  rugs, wood-paneled offices, and leather chairs in the reception areas and conference rooms.

Vanya  in the rotunda in the Justice Center - State Capitol in the background

 

After parting I walked around downtown a bit before going back to the bike and heading towards I-70 and out of  town.

The Denver Art Museum

I-70 mostly follows old US  6 but the Eisenhower tunnel on the Interstate bypasses Loveland Pass on US 6. Back in July in 1972  Dick and I crossed over Loveland Pass on our way to a pig roast in Wisconsin following our visit to California. It was about 2 in the morning and the fog was so heavy that I couldn't see 50 yards in front of me, and I was struggling to follow the taillights of the car ahead of me. Dick was having even more trouble seeing the small taillight on my motorcycle. We stopped to warm up at a cafe in Idaho Springs and after we were there for a few minutes a truck driver came in and asked us which way we were headed, because he'd just come down from the pass and it was snowing. Today it was fresh and clear, and after creeping through some road construction on I-70 I exited the Interstate to ride over Loveland Pass again. There was no traffic, the road is in great shape, and the curves and the climb were fun.

Almost 12,000 feet - that's a high pass

The view from the top

 Continuing on 6 there are more curves and then sweepers, and the road eventually straightens as it goes down  to the Keystone ski area and then on to Breckenridge. I got back on I-70 at Dillon and rode past Vail then got off at Eagle for lunch. Someone in the Colorado Department of Transportation has gone mad for roundabouts, because  every small town where I exited seemed to have a dozen or so. Eagle was no exception, and I went through three of them to get to a rest area, then another two to get outside of town (now on US 6 again) where I finally found Heidi's Restaurant hidden behind an Autozone, which itself was hidden behind a Costco. It was worth the search because the salmon melt sandwich was delicious and coffee was very good. Refreshed, I got back on the Interstate, which in that part of Colorado is quite scenic. There was more road construction through Glenwood  Canyon along the Eagle River, but even past the canyon area the scenery is interesting as the road crosses the Colorado River again and again. Eventually, however, the land becomes high desert with rocky buttes and continues to be the same in eastern Utah.  I'm spending the night in Green River, Utah, at the Budget Inn, one of my kind of places. There is Kleenex and shampoo, however, and a good WiFi connection, so I can't complain.

Tomorrow, a detour to Hanksville, and into Nevada. US 50 again.