Day 22 – Chillicothe OH to Home

Our last day of the trip started with a late departure of 8:30am. We only had a short 350 miles to travel today across our last 4 states (Ohio, Maryland, West Virginia, and Virginia) and we didn’t need to rush. We continued on US Hwy 50 east as we have since picking it up in western Colorado nearly 1,600 miles ago. Riding along US highways as opposed to the interstates gives you more of a feel of the America you’re crossing since you go through towns along the way. Each one has its own character. Here is McArthur, OH.

We crossed over the Ohio River and into West Virginia at Parkersburg.

The Ohio River, just like just about every waterway we’ve seen since Missouri on our return east, was very full.

We grabbed lunch in Bridgeport, WV after riding about 180 miles. The temperatures were really starting to climb so Michele shed her two jacket liners. The last time she wore her jacket without any liners was on our way out of Phoenix!!

The country side was looking more like home again with the green rolling hills.

And once again, the roads started getting a bit more crooked.

As we drew closer to home, the number of motorcycles heading west increased. These folks were likely on their way home after participating in the Rolling Thunder Demonstration early in the day. The roads were thick with motorcycles today!

We arrived home a little before 6pm and our trip has concluded. We traveled through 20 states, saw 11 National Parks or Monuments, and rode a tad over 6,600 miles in 22 days. We saw devastating flooding and the aftermath of 3 tornados and a wild fire (that had shut down I-40 the day before). We experienced rain, snow, hail, and high winds with elevations ranging from 600 feet to over 11,000 feet. We even had to dodge a few tumble weeds (some as large as bushes) while riding. We saw many different types of animals. Most of all we had a great time experiencing a little bit of America and the wonders she has to offer.

Where will we go next time? Those plans are already underway…

Day 21 – Fairview Heights IL to Chillicothe OH

Today we were on the eve of our final stretch home. During the morning bike inspection, Rob noticed that one of the six main rear running lights on the Wing was out. Not critical since there are 5 other main running lights. That’s the 3^rd light to burn out on this trip. This one would have to wait until we got home.

It was very humid this morning and foggy, a fog that would last from Indiana through Illinois. Back on US Highway 50, we had a relatively quiet ride in the morning and came upon a train crossing. Although this is a still photo, the train was not moving much faster than this.

I think we could have crawled on our knees faster than this train. We looked to the right and saw tons of rail cars, looked to our left and saw tons of rail cars, then decided to detour. Otherwise, we might not have gotten home until next Wednesday.

We successfully detoured a few miles and finally crossed over the tracks on an overpass.

We stopped for lunch at a town called Loogootee.

We had a giggle trying to pronounce it. The Wing also led us involuntarily to this location.

A father and son rode by us in their cool trike.

After lunch, we passed through a small town near Seymour, Ohio. They had a recent tornado or a microburst which decimated this very small section of town. Notice the overturned truck!

As we moved through four different states today, including Kentucky, there was a lot to see, especially the flooding.

We came upon a bunch of rooster houses. They were strutting around their houses looking quite important.

Michele also spotted a small farm with a zebra amongst a few mules, but we went by too fast to catch a photo. We wondered where does one acquire a zebra?

Today we logged over 450 miles and are now back in Eastern Standard Time. Tomorrow is the final stretch. Rob suggested we turn back west and we could be back in Zion in 4 days…tempting!

Day 20 – Newton KS to Fairview Heights IL

Today was the first of our final three travel days remaining and we would ride in three states: Kansas, Missouri and Illinois. We left around 7:45am with temps in the mid 50s, cloudy skies and breezy.

US50 was mostly a divided highway today, very unlike the two-lane road through most of Kansas yesterday that slowed in each small town. We could pass slower vehicles with more ease (which Michele appreciated).

Although the road was wider, each town did have its quirks. Notice this water tower.

We encountered yet more road construction for several miles, having to stop for 10 minutes or so. Moving again, a train with too many cars to count came by.

Back on US Hwy 50 eastbound, Rob kept a close eye on the Wing’s radar. A small green patch of rain was to our west. As we approached Kansas City, we saw another Virginia couple on a Harley trike pulling a trailer, already donned with their rain gear. We think they were trying to jinx away the rain. Light rain fell but not enough to even get our gear wet, and soon we were ahead of the cloud.

Our route took us straight through the middle of Missouri from West to East. Here there are rolling hills and very green fields, due to all the rain and recent flooding.

We stopped for lunch in Warrensburg, where University of Central Missouri is located. A funny elderly man came by to talk to us and tried to convince Michele that he was from a town called Tightwad, pointing to the name on his cap. We will have to Google that one.

Back on the bike, the rain cloud had grown and intensified.

After a few hours, we stopped in Rosebud, Missouri for a gas break. We didn’t realize there were such things as turkey coops, but they apparently are sold in abundance here.

Rob also noticed the roads were curiously lacking in names, instead just using letters of the alphabet.

Traffic really picked up in the late afternoon as we approached St. Louis. Soon enough we were in front of the Arch!

We walked along the park area and down underneath to the museum. Security was pretty tight, and Michele got her boots patted down. Everyone else in St. Louis seemed to be here as well, so we skipped the ride up and the movie, and walked through the museum.

The river was really high, evident here by the handrail that leads right into it. The carriage horses didn’t seem to care, though.

We headed Illinois-bound for our hotel, about 10 miles away in Fairview Heights. We escaped the rain while riding today and are bunked in for the night. Tomorrow we head to Ohio, and expect the temps will start to warm up for us.

Day 19 – Pueblo CO to Newton KS

Our day began hitting the road right before 8am with clear blue skies and the temps in the 40s. Just as we were ready to leave, Rob noticed that the right headlight had burned out. Having already replaced the left headlight while at Zion NP in Utah, he had purchased a 2^nd bulb just in case. So with the spare bulb in hand, he swapped out the burned out bulb for the new in a few minutes and we were on our way. The route today would follow the Arkansas River for over 350 miles, although we caught glimpses of it only a few times at small overpasses.

The tall mountain ranges of yesterday were replaced with vast farmland. Truly in some areas it was as far as we could see into the horizon where it met the blue sky. We noticed that much of the land was only suitable for grazing, as it was very arid, brown and rocky. In this photo, Rob was trying to figure out why the power poles were so low. He theorizes that they might have been originally used for the telegraph back in the day!

Near the eastern edge of Colorado, we noticed a horrific stench. It got worse as we went along, and sure enough we saw our first of many feed lots for the day. Luckily in this picture the smell doesn’t come through.

They were so expansive that we couldn’t just hold our breath as we passed by. In fact, Rob told Michele that he blacked out for a portion of it (kidding).

We passed through many small towns on US 50 today, some of which are incredibly small. Rob knew a town would be approaching by the telltale grain elevators near each one.

What the small towns were missing were lunch options, so we pushed on to Dodge City.

It’s not every day you see a highway named after a famous, historic sheriff.

This is the fun western town of legends, but a bit commercialized. We managed to find a cute local place for lunch in a pretty old home. Although we don’t like coffee (gasp!) they had a good lunch menu.

After leaving Dodge City, Rob commented that the scenery greened up and there were more trees than in western Kansas. The feed lots were thankfully replaced with lush farmland. There was a huge windmill farm along the way.

We also lucked out and spotted another wily coyote, probably in search of a chicken coop.

We did encounter several road construction projects that held us up for about 30 minutes in total. We got to Newton, KS at 5:20pm Central Time. Our change in elevation today from Pueblo CO to Newton KS, was 4,695ft 1,500ft.

Our hotel is a brand new Comfort Suites flanked by a steakhouse where we had brisket and BBQ chicken and an ice cream shop. Tomorrow we will cross through Missouri and meet the St. Louis arch, a first sighting for both of us, so we are looking forward to it.

Day 18 – Mesa Verde NP to Pueblo CO

Our day began with a 6am wakeup. An hour later, we had the bike packed and were on our way to the café just down the hill for breakfast. Michele spotted 18 wild horses grazing about 200 yards from the lodge’s parking lot.

There were two foals in the group. One looked like he had been born this year and was his mother's shadow never leaving her side. The other one looked like he might be one year old and a bit more independent. Little did we know that later today we would spot a coyote, a heard of elk, and the ever elusive mountain sheep!

After breakfast, we were heading out of the park at 8am. The morning was cool at 37F. The temps would struggle to break out of the 40s for most of the trip as we traveled across several mountains.

We first headed north out of Cortez, CO along CO Hwy 145 through Lizard Head Pass, past Telluride’s ski resort and into Keystone, CO. Lizard Head Pass had beautiful snow filled mountains and fields. The temps at the top of the 10,222 ft pass were 36F and the roads were wet in the shaded parts of the road.

The view in our mirror after descending Lizzard Head Pass was just as picturesque as when it was in front of us.

We continued along CO 145 and picked up CO Hwy 62 just north of Placerville, CO. Hwy 62 connected us with US550 and from there we picked up US50 in Montrose, CO. Just outside of Montrose, we clipped the eastern most edge of the Black Canyon NP. The rock formations in this NP are black and deep browns making quite a contrast from the red rock formations we saw so prevalently in AZ and UT.

US50 follows the Gunnison River. The river has cut a twisty and scenic route through rock.

We soon reached the Blue Mesa Reservoir. The reservoir’s waters are a striking blue color. The water levels looked VERY low.

We stopped for lunch in Gunnison at the Tic Toc Diner.

After a quick lunch and a fuel top off, we continued riding east along US50. We rode through our second mountain pass, Monarch Pass, of the day. At an elevation of 11,312 feet, this is our highest recorded elevation for this trip. Although Monarch Pass is nearly 1,000 feet higher than Lizard Head Pass, the temps atop Monarch Pass weren’t as cold (low 40s) which is likely due to the time of day we were there. The amount of snow was also less but Lizard Head Pass looks to have gotten a few inches over the last few days while there didn’t look to be any fresh snow at Monarch Pass.

Fortunately, the only snow plow we saw was being used to push recently fallen rocks off the shoulder of the road.

We dropped down from Monarch Pass to approximately 4,500 feet and into Fremont County. US50 follows the Arkansas River which again provides quite a few twists and turns. It also has some good sized canyons it runs through and it was through this section of our ride that we spotted two mountain sheep on the edge of the road. We also saw several folks rafting down the river which had a few small rapids.

Shortly after 4:30pm, we rolled into Pueblo, CO which is our destination for the day. While checking in at the hotel, we noticed a few Gold Wings in the parking lot. Well apparently Region F of the Gold Wing Road Riders Association (GWRRA) is having a big conference here at the hotel over the Memorial Day weekend. Think they’ll mind if we crash their party?

Today was filled with beautiful scenery of all types (snowy mountains, evergreen forests, semi-arid plains). We also saw numerous wild animals along our 380 miles of mostly twisty roads. Tomorrow, we’ll drop off the Colorado Plateau and gain some heat while we make our way through Kansas. We’ll keep our fingers crossed for continued good weather.

Day 17 – Mesa Verde NP

Our first tour today was at 10am at the Cliff Palace. After a late breakfast, we made the short trip over to the meeting location for the tour. While waiting on the terrace overlooking the Cliff Palace, we stood next to an Army Vet with a bright red cap on. A hummingbird buzzed him and we all got a good chuckle. There were also several swifts doing their acrobatics along the cliff and making all sorts of noise.

The Ranger led tour was quite good. The cliff dwelling was amazing especially when you think of the level of effort required to construct the dwellings given the stone and bone tools used by the Ancient Pueblos.

What is even more amazing is that the Kivas (shown below) are not dug into the cliff rock but instead the surrounding cliff rock floor was filled in to make these below surface spiritual dwellings.

The descent to Cliff Palace was about 100 feet and required navigating a narrow walkway and a short 10 foot ladder.

Cliff Palace didn’t appear to be a dwelling that was lived in. Archeologists believe it was used mostly as a spiritual place and for food storage. The lack of black soot from fire places lead them to believe that fires were not burned and therefore the Ancients didn’t actually live here.

Getting back up required an ascent up a steel staircase.

After our tour of Cliff Palace we got lunch at the park’s nearby café, whizzed through the museum, and then made our way to our second tour at 1pm at the Balcony House.

Balcony House was a bit more interesting to get to. It required us to climb a 32 foot wooden log ladder.

And then shuffle through a narrow doorway.

Balcony House has several examples of black soot leading experts to believe that the Ancients actually lived in this dwelling.

Getting out of Balcony House was also a bit more difficult than Cliff Palace. We had to crawl through a small passage way. Here Tom squeezes through the passage.

Tom heard Rob comment “It’s as if these passages were made for me.” Interestingly enough, Rob is the exact size of the typical Ancient Pueblo male from 1200AD!

We then had to climb a series of ladders and a cliff face staircase carved into it.

Above Balcony House, we got great views of Soda Canyon.

After our guided tour of Balcony House, we did a self-guided tour of a third dwelling called Spruce Tree House. Spruce Tree House is the best preserved of the cliff dwellings with 90% of it original.

Spruce Tree House has a Kiva with an intact roof as it would have been during its use in the Ancients’ time. The Kivas were covered so that they were flush with the ground above and stayed about 50 degrees year-round.

We went down into the Kiva to see what it looked like inside. Here is how the roof is supported. You can see how the roof was supported and the fresh air vent used to provide fresh air for the fires that would be burned inside. Note the small brick wall in front of the fresh air vent. This was used as a wind break for the entering fresh air to keep embers from the fire blowing around as much.

Afterwards, we checked out the nearby museum’s 30 minute video. During that time a nasty thunder shower moved through dropping pea sized hail and rain for 15 minutes. Rob ran out to the bike to save the helmets and our riding gear from being completely soaked. The bike’s seat still had quite a bit of hail on it from the storm.

While at the bike’s we could see another thunderstorm approaching. We quickly made our way back to the lodge but not before riding through more hail that Tom said was quite painful when it hit his knees.

Tomorrow Tom splits off from Michele and Rob to hot-foot it back home to VA. He has 1900 miles and will aim to get there in 2 to 2 ½ days. Michele and Rob will take a more leisurely route following much of old US highway 50 from Cortez, CO to Leesburg, VA. Tomorrow Rob and Michele will be in Pueblo, CO and hopefully will have faster internet service.