The Super 8 motel I stayed at on Tuesday night absolutely ruled. It was just what I needed after a hard day. The manager Pricilla was very nice and accomadating. She even allowed me to utilize the hot tub after it's "official" hours were over. I got up Wednesday morning, packed the bike and was on the road by 8:15. I got to thinking about camping during the first portion of the ride and quickly came to the conclusion that it probably wasn't going to happen. I decided that if I were to run across a post office, that I'd mail my camping gear home. Lo and behold, about 30 minutes later there was a post office located in the small town of Burlington Juncion, MO. I stopped in and after 20 minutes I had my sleeping bag, mat, and tent on their way back to Columbus. One of the reasons that I decided to do this was to that I could more easily remove the seat from the bike in order to check my oil. As I found out the day 2, if I wanted to remove the seat it was easily a 1/2 hour ordeal. Also, after a long day the last thing that I wanted to do was have to set up camp.
Back on the road, Missouri greeted me with a beautiful morning. Not a cloud in the sky and a brisk 42. degrees, it wouldn't be long before it was almost 80. The roads were twisty and rolling and made for great scenery. It was exactly what I had envisioned a bike trip to be.
Before long I was at the Missouri/Nebraska border. As soon as I crossed it I lost my cell phone signal. I would not regain it for 250 miles. My phone really feels like my lifeline. I made extensive use of it on day 2 for mapping and communication. To not have it available to me felt really isolating. I also didn't want Laela to worry about me because I'd been calling or texting her every time I stopped for gas. I was even looking for pay phones in small towns to be able to call her. Fortunately for me she wasn't concerned about the lack of communication. US-136 in Nebraska is really desolate and I easily went 1/2 hour at a time without seeing another vehicle. It was nice to have the road to myself. What wasn't nice were the sections (albeit short) that were actually gravel. Nothing like gravel and no phone signal to make you feel a little nervous.
Other than that, the day was unremarkable. After my final gas stop in McCook, NE I decided to start looking for lodging. The sun was going down and I had no fewer than three locals warn me about deer. It would be another 93 miles before I found lodging at the Butte Motel in Wray, Colorado. The dark ride was slow and I didn't go over 50MPH unless I was fortunate enough to be behind another vehicle. Obviously I had my brights on and was HYPER alert for any fauna that might be lurking on the roadside.
I finally got my room, pulled up to my parking spot (they're numbered for each room). I hopped off my bike, but oops. I was so happy to be getting to a room that I forgot to engage the kickstand. I dropped the bike onto it's left side. I quickly removed the luggage and got it stood back up. After schlepping my gear into the room, I went back to the bike to head up to 7-11 to grab something to eat. It was then that I notice that my shifter peg is now bent all to hell. It's still rideable but the peg is noticabley "limp."
All in all, Wednesday was fantastic and I cleared 501 miles. I just woke up on this fine Thursday morning and am about to get back at it. I better upload this before someone figures out that I'm poaching their wireless (I hope it's not a honeypot).
