For the trip to Ohio and back, I went for a fairly decent two-state ride today. I didn't get away until 1:30 and decided to ride 2-lane roads out east. I took US-34 till I was about 20 miles from Ft Morgan, then rode some back roads and hopped on I-76 from Ft Morgan till east of Brush. Then it was US-6 to Sterling, and US-138 (which parallels 76 on the other side of the South Platte River) almost to Julesburg. Then I went northwest to Chappell, NE, and got on I-80. I had known it was windy when I was on 138, but when I turned NW on US-385, I realized just how windy it was. I'm guessing 40-45mph. My gas mileage was down to 40mpg and it had been 65-68 (all indicated, of course when I was heading NE on 138. When I got onto 80, it was hitting me from the NNE and I was working hard to keep the bike straight. I ran with the traffic at 80mph and stopped for gas in Sidney (the used-to-be-home of Cabella's which is now owned by Bass Pro). From there, it was on west to Kimball, where I turned south on NE/CO-71. My indicated mileage went from about 40 up to 75-80mpg. By the time I turned west on CO-14, the wind was starting to slack off a bit. I got home at 7:30 after riding 357mi. for close to a 60mph average.
As hot as it's been all summer, I was surprised to see both NE Colorado and SE Nebraska greener than usual.
It was a nice ride -- the temperature only got up to 82F and was around 80 most of the day. It was down to 72 (and dead calm) when I got home.
As hot as it's been all summer, I was surprised to see both NE Colorado and SE Nebraska greener than usual.
It was a nice ride -- the temperature only got up to 82F and was around 80 most of the day. It was down to 72 (and dead calm) when I got home.