Council Bluffs, IA to Chicagoland

We were only 452 miles from home and I wanted to make sure I got home tonight. We’ve cut the trip short since there was something very important that I had to do tomorrow morning, I had to be home to do it.

We have been riding in the evenings to get me back home by tonight and I could just see something happening close to home, like getting a flat tire or something, to prevent me from getting home on time.

I just didn’t want to cut it so close. While Mike still had to put in a full day of work today and couldn‘t leave until about 3 or 4PM, I decided to head out early and ride home by myself. Mike didn’t have to work tomorrow so he could either ride the 452 miles home tonight or camp somewhere tonight and finish the ride tomorrow.

Before 10AM I left Council Bluffs. The day was chilly and never really warmed up past the upper 60‘s. There was quite a bit of traffic on the road and I just wanted to get home already. Focused on getting home, I didn’t even take one picture today and stopped only when I needed gas. It was hard to believe that after 6 weeks on the road I was going to be home tonight.
By the time I got on I-88 I needed a longer break and some food. I rolled in to Chicagoland as the sun was setting, thankfully missing rush hour traffic by a couple hours.

After countless of trips this was the first time that I had returned home and felt like I’ve actually been away for a long time. Because of work the last few years my longest trips had only been 10 days long.

After spending 50 days away from Illinois and riding 6,864 trouble free miles on my 954RR, now with 41,870 miles on the odometer, all I could think of was when would I be able to return to the mountains?

I think it’s time to start planning our move out west.

North Platte, NE to Council Bluffs, IA

Mike got to work on his computer this morning, I decided to do some laundry. The Ramada in North Platte was a great find, not too expensive, with many amenities. Even the complementary breakfast was good with lots of choices. The Ramada granted us a late checkout of 1PM. After we vacated our room, we had a quick lunch and Mike went to the breakfast nook to continue working on his computer and I went outside to do some reading at the picnic table next to the parking lot.



Ramada in North Platte, NE - a nice place to spend the night

At 4PM Mike was done with work and we were ready to hit the road once again. We had a motel reservation in Council Bluffs for tonight some 281 miles away.



Some neat green and yellow grasshoppers hanging out near the Ramada



Even though that’s the exact same mileage we rode last night, tonight was way different. Without traffic, tolls, rain, wind and stopping to eat we made it to Council Bluffs by 9PM with only two stops in between for gas.



I-80 through Nebraska

We found the Motel 6 in Council Bluffs and parked our bikes along with 10+ other bikes parked there. Even though there were lots of motorcyclist staying here, I wasn’t impressed with this place. It actually cost more then the Ramada we stayed at last night but was not as nice. It was one of the cheapest motels with wireless internet in Council Bluffs that was willing to give us a late checkout. The price was $72 per night but the catch was that the wireless access had to be purchased separately and it was $4. So what do you get for the $4? Well, not very much so I don’t recommend it. Basically they give you a card with an access code to the internet but you can only open “one” browser window on your computer.



A wonderfull dinner at Las Mesa in Council Bluffs, IA

Since we hadn’t eaten dinner yet we were hungry and in luck, there was a Mexican Restaurant located next to the Motel 6. La Mesa restaurant looked really nice from the outside and really nice on the inside and the food was excellent. We got there at 9:30 and found out they were closing at 10PM but we were still seated and served promptly. I highly recommend this place.

Highlands Ranch, CO to North Platte, NE

Riding home in the middle of the week was going to be tricky since Mike couldn’t take any time off work. He still needed to work and put in at least 6-7 hours a day in front of the computer during the office hours. We would have to ride after he got done with work each day and since we didn’t want to ride late at night, we really couldn’t do more than 300 miles a day.

We left Highlands Ranch in the early afternoon. We got on the E-470, the East Denver toll way, heading East toward I-76. We had to stop a few times to pay tolls and the toll was a hefty one too. We paid $7.75 each to travel some 35 miles. At least the traffic was moving on this road and it wasn‘t too crowded, but having to pull over and pay with cash so many times was making this section of the road take way longer than it should.

Once we got on I-76 there was hardly any traffic heading east, so it was smooth sailing until we ran in to some very dark clouds. There was a huge storm building in the distance, the wind was picking up as well but we kept going and we were prepared to get wet until the lightening started but now we needed to pull over and wait out the storm. It was dinner time anyway, but we really didn‘t want to waste too much time sitting around. We needed to ride 283 miles today and we weren’t exactly thrilled to have to ride in the dark but we had a reservation at a motel in North Platte, Nebraska tonight. Since Mike needed internet to work and we needed a late checkout for tomorrow and as always price was an issue, I shopped around to find the best deal on a motel room. We needed to get to North Platte tonight, no matter what.



Heading in to the first storm on I-76

By the time we got back on the bikes again the storm was totally gone and I was so glad we had pulled over to wait for it to pass. About an hour later the winds picked up again and I started to see dark clouds on the horizon again. Then the sun was replaced by darkness with the occasional lightening on the horizon.

Unfortunately with each mile we were getting closer to the lightening which illuminated the whole sky now every few minutes. The wind was picking up and after a while the road appeared to be wet, meaning we were following the storm, probably heading straight into it since we were traveling much faster than the storm. The winds were strong now, blowing me all over my lane and at times debris would blow across the road and startle me.

We were on I-80 now, which is a heavily traveled interstate with super cool high tech rest areas along the way that even have live weather updates displayed on monitors. We pulled over to check the weather at one of them. Then we got our rain gear on. The storm was currently over North Platte and since we were not that far away from there, we were definitely going to get wet.

Back on the road the raindrops started, the strong gusts of wind continued and I couldn’t wait for this ride to be over. There is nothing more un-fun as riding the interstate in the rain in the dark with gusty winds. The rain was now coming down hard but we were almost there. After about 30 minutes of riding in the rain, at around 11PM we finally got off the interstate and found the Ramada. At $69.95 + tax per night this place was great and our room was really nice and big.

Our last days in Colorado

Since our arrival in Highlands Ranch Colorado yesterday, we have been thinking about starting to plan our ride back to Illinois. This trip was finally coming to an end but not because we wanted to go back home. I had to be back home no later than Sunday, August 24 so we were going to try and ride back to Illinois over that weekend, taking three days to get home and taking some scenic back roads through Nebraska and Iowa.

We were hoping to stay here in Highlands Ranch for the rest of this week and then go back to Fort Collins for a week before heading back home. But just as we started planning our two last weeks in Colorado I came to find out that I received some mail at home and unfortunately there was something that I needed to do back home this Saturday morning. THIS Saturday morning?

We decided we were going to leave this Wednesday to arrive home on Friday. So instead of having two more weeks left in Colorado, we only had two more days left in Colorado.



Larger than life-size bronze statue of a pronghorn by sculptor Larry Perkins



This statue is named “Tah Keen Cha” which is the Oglala Sioux Indian name for the North American pronghorn which inhabits our Western plains

This afternoon Mike’s uncle gave us a tour of Highlands Ranch. The highlight of the tour was to check out one of his bronze statues, this one is of a pronghorn which stands in front of the Westridge Recreation Center in Highlands Ranch.

The pronghorn statue was really neat to see and we got lots of info on the making of bronze statues from Mike's uncle. It's actually a very long and expensive process, but they do last forever. And Highlands Ranch is very interesting place, it is one of the most populous unincorporated communities in the United States and its zip code is actually the zip code for Littleton, Colorado. This explains why I didn't see Highlands Ranch on the maps.

Delta to Highlands Ranch, Colorado

We woke up to a beautiful day. Since we didn’t make it to where we were supposed to be last night we had to adjust out route today to make it shorter. We wanted to arrive in Highlands Ranch in the afternoon where we were staying with Mike‘s uncle.



Our nice room at the Riverwood Motel in Delta, CO



Outside Riverwood Motel

From Delta we headed east on 92, then in Hotchkiss we turned north east on 133. In Carbondale we went north on 82 to Glenwood Springs and then I-70 to 470.

92 is a great road south of Hotchkiss, the portion we rode was a bit straight, the scenery consisted of barren hills. Past Hotchkiss on 133 the curves started quickly and for the longest time there were large mountains ahead of us. The section of road through McClure Pass at 8,755 feet in elevation was very scenic and fun. 133 is a great road, except for a few slow moving trucks there wasn’t too much traffic on this road on this Sunday afternoon.



A scenic stop on 133



Paonia Reservoir next to 133



Paonia Reservoir



Today’s temperatures were mild and it was definitely cold at the top of the pass, even though as Colorado passes go, this wasn’t a very high one. Extra layers were needed today.



Heading towards McClure Pass on 133



133 heads in to the mountains







We turned on 82 and arrived on Glenwood Springs. There was a lot of traffic in town and we inched along with the traffic. We were looking for I-70 but the signage for the interstate wasn’t all that great. There was no warning that it was coming up. I saw it on my gps, got ready to intersect it and all the sudden the interstate was to the left and we were stuck in the right lane. We headed out of town and got on I-70 past Glenwood Springs. I think next time when in the area, I’d like to avoid this town.



I-70 east of Glenwood Springs





There are a few long tunnels on I-70





Inside the tunnels

The interstate past Glenwood Springs is not boring interstate, it’s full of twists and turns and has a low speed limit. It’s a very fun road. After a while the interstate starts to climb in elevation and stays at high elevations for a while. We needed to layer up again, it was rather chilly up here. We were also hungry now and wanted to stop somewhere for a late lunch. Unfortunately we were tired of fast food so we rode into the tourist trap called Dillon. For some weird reason, many of the restaurants weren’t even open in Dillon. We rode around the tiny town, decided to park the bikes and walked to another restaurant, but never made it past the front door and the menu that was posted there. $12 for a hamburger? Not on our budget.

It seemed like going in to Dillon, which was a bit off the interstate, turned out to be a waste of time. We decided to get back on the bikes and hit one of the fast food places near the interstate and save some money.

I got on my bike again but it wouldn’t start this time. There was no mystery to what was going on either. I killed the battery. With the large tank bag, the GPS and camera mount, there just wasn‘t a lot of space left for my hand to reach the key. Each time I had to turn the ignition key, I had to somehow squeeze my hand through all the obstacles and feel for the key and attempt to turn it, sometimes it took 4-6 tries before I managed to grab the key and be able to turn it.
Toward the end of the trip I started to get lazy and many times I’d turn the engine off but I’d leave key turned to the ‘on’ position leaving the headlights on. That was of course if I knew I was going to be turning the engine back on in a minute or two. Well, after weeks of doing that and each day of doing it more and more, I had finally drained the battery.

I’m glad Mike was there to push start my bike, but it wasn’t easy. My bike was loaded up to the gills and so heavy and there were no large hills here to roll the bike. It took a at least 20 minutes for him to get the bike running but finally it started. Yea! We rode toward the interstate and grabbed some fast food. This little stop in Dillon made us lose an hour and a half and now we were in a bit of a hurry to get to Highlands Ranch.

I-70 was OK for a while but once we got closer to Denver the traffic started to build and slow down. It looked like a lot of people were heading back home to Denver from the mountains on this Sunday afternoon. I thought the traffic on I-90 in Wisconsin was bad on a Sunday afternoon, with all the Illinois people heading back to Chicagoland. This traffic heading in to Denver was way worst, mostly because the highway was not only packed full of cars but was also very curvy and there was no secondary roads to escape the traffic. The traffic was stop and go all the way from Idaho Springs to Denver. 470 was also packed full of cars and now the dark clouds overhead decided to purge their load. Stop and go traffic and heavy rain! This was so far one of the worst rides I’ve had in Colorado, but we were almost there and not too much further the rain got lighter, we found our exit and we were pulling over at Mike’s uncle’s house in Highlands Ranch just south of Denver.



Today's route was 280 miles long: 92 to 133 to 82 to I-70 to 470



This weekend's route from Monticello, UT to Highlands Ranch, CO was 635 miles long

Moab, Utah to Delta, Colorado

We left Canyonlands National Park and arrived in Moab. It was almost 3PM and we were starved, having only eaten granola bars earlier. After eating for a week in our motel room, we were ready for a good meal out. We chose Slickrock Café, a neat looking place on 191 in the middle of town.



Lunch at Slickrock Café in Moab, UT

The food was really good, and my southwest chicken sandwich was one of the best chicken sandwiches that I’ve had in a while.



191 near Moab

After lunch we hit the road. We headed south on 191 and turned east on 46 which turns to 90 in Colorado. This is a great road, I‘ve been on it before in 2006. 46 starts out straight but gets pretty twisty, through the La Sal mountains although there are quite a bit of tar snakes on this road near the Colorado border. There are also a lot of deer here, we saw a few on and around the road and it was still early in the afternoon.



46 through Utah



90 through Colorado



Some tight switch backs on 90

There wasn’t a lot of traffic here, actually we saw only a hand full of cars before we turned north on 141, one of my all time favorite roads in Colorado. The previous time I rode 141 was in 2005 and I rode it in the opposite direction. I remembered there not being a lot of places to get gas on this road and I was a bit concerned when we turned on 141 without gassing up first.

As I remembered 141 was amazing and there was hardly any traffic. And as I remembered, there were hardly any towns and no gas stations for miles and I was getting low on gas. Then all the sudden I reached the town of Gateway. It wasn’t at all the way I remembered it. There was a large resort where there was nothing three years ago and it looked new. There was also a gas station and a grocery store behinds the gates of the resort.



141 through Colorado



141 is one of my all-time favorite roads





The Dolores River runs along highway 141

We grabbed stuff to eat for later at the grocery store, it was huge with a lot of selection. Then we filled up our gas tanks and headed out. The state park I had hoped we would be camping at tonight was still very far away and the day was coming to an end. We would have to find a closer campground, but so far we had seen nothing. We continued on 141, the sun went down and the deer came out. One deer jumped over the back of Mike’s bike while it was crossing the road. Mike didn’t even know it had happened. This was definitely a sign to slow down. The wind was picking up and there was lightening on the horizon when we finally reached highway 50 and headed south.



A brand new resort is Gateway, CO



Gas pumps at the resort in Gateway

We were heading straight for the storm and within minutes it was raining. It was already close to 10PM and we didn’t feel like looking for a campground and setting up the tent in the rain. We pulled in to Riverwood Motel on highway 50 in Delta. The parking lot was gravel and the motel didn’t look like anything special from the outside but our $60 room turned out to be wonderful. The room was huge with refrigerator and microwave, the bathroom was huge too and there were all these little free extras in the bathroom, stuff you‘d find at one of those large fancy hotels. Even a free pack of gum. I highly recommend this place.

We ate the food we bought at the grocery store earlier in Gateway and went to sleep. The weather channel said scattered showers all night so grabbing a motel room was a good idea.



Today's route was 260 miles

Canyonlands: Upheaval Dome to Grand View Point

We woke up to a beautiful morning. I walked over to the Green River Overlook, the sun was in the perfect location in the sky for pictures. By the time I walked back to the campground it was already getting hot and we had to get going.







Green River Overlook

We rode over to the Upheaval Dome and changed in to our shorts and hiking boots so we could do the hike but after we got to the first overlook at Upheaval Dome we turned back around and headed back to the bikes. Not only was it really hot now, it was getting late and we still wanted to ride to the other side of the park.



Upheaval Dome Trail



View from the Upheaval Dome Trail

In the parking Mike met Ilaria and Antonio, a couple from Brussels who were asking Mike about his bike. We learned that they were in the US on vacation and Antonio is a motorcycle rider and works for ACEM (Association des Constructeurs Européens de Motocycles) which in English means Association of European Motorcycle Makers, an organization which defends the interests of motorcycle and scooter riders in Europe. We had a good talk about the differences between American motorcycle riders and European motorcycle riders. Antonio gave Mike his business card and Mike sent him and e-mail a week later, when Antonio wrote back he attached these two photos of us leaving the Upheaval Dome area. That was cool!





Above are two pictures Antonio took of us leaving the Upheaval Dome area

We rode over to the Grand View Point Overlook, walked for a bit around the overlook then headed toward the entrance of the park only stopping one more time at the overlook to Shafer Trail, an awesome looking dirt road.



Grand View Point Overlook









Bikes at the Shafer Trail overlook



Looking down at Shafer Trail road





We really wished we could have spent more time in the park and could have stopped at more of the overlooks but it was getting late and we had to get going. This park is amazing and the next time we come here we will have to bring the dual-sport bikes.







Grand View Point Road in Canyonlands National Park