Rocketing across the Great Plains

When I started planning this trip, I debated the idea of camping in a tent along the way. My biggest concern was navigating the bike in the camp grounds on gravel roads. I never thought about getting rest. I imagined tranquil camp grounds in bucolic settings under bright stars. I’m sure that was what the two tents full of drunken kids were thinking too when the setup their tents next to mine. They had a great time, and I got to listen to it all. I guess I am getting old.

Partying campers aside, I was up before dawn. It took me a little longer to break camp than I hoped, but I was showered and ready to hit the road at first light (around 6:00am). There was one small problem. I could not get the bike out of my camp site. When I parked the night before, I didn’t think about how I was going to leave. I pulled nose in down a s slight dip. When I went to leave, I discovered I could not muscle the bike back up the dip to get out. It took me several minutes, but I was finally able to maneuver the bike out of the site. I learned my lesson. I will always back the bike into the sites for the remainder of the trip.

I took route 55 north into Saint Louis. One of my goals for the trip was to see the Arch. As I neared Saint Louis, I was worried I would have problems finding it. That was not a problem. The Arch is huge. I saw it from miles away. The route was clearly marked, and I was in the Arch Park by 7:30am. It’s a neat place. There were runners everywhere, and I contemplated putting on my running cloths and joining them. I might have if I were not so concerned about someone ripping off things from my bags (the strap on bags do not lock).

I passed several homeless guys on my way into the garage, and I was more than a little worried I see one of those guys wearing my Triumph motorcycle jacket so I did not spend much time in the park. I just took a few pictures and bought a pin. I’ll have to go up in the arch some other time.

I left Arch Park a little after 8:00am, and after a few wrong turns and one scary moment when I nearly dropped the bike in the middle of an intersection (it was real close) I was on route 70 headed west through Kansas.

I’d never been to Kansas before, and I’d never seen the prairie. I thought I would ride through an endless sea of corn fields. Instead, I rode through an endless sea of rolling fields of tall grass that stretched out as far as the eye could see. It was beautiful. I took a side road deep into it just to see what it was like, and got myself in trouble when I discovered there was no safe place for me to turn around for many miles.

I rocketed across the plains. The speed limit on 70 is 70, but today, traffic was moving at nearly 90. The bike felt good at those speeds, but I took a beating by big bugs that slammed into me and exploded like hideous paint balls. I was wearing biker glasses and riding with my face mask up. It was too hot to leave it down. The upturned visor acted like a bug ram and I had bug goo all inside my helmet. By the time I reached my camp site, I could not take the stench from the baked in bug juice – yuk.

I reached the camp site at a little after 6:00 (central time). The facility is actually very nice. The wireless works great. The bath rooms and showers are spotless, and there’s actually a nice air conditioned lounge with a big screen TV where I sat and watched the Olympics while I typed this blog entry – so much for roughing it.

Tomorrow I see the Rockies for first time. I can’t wait!