Day 2 - August 31

The intent for today was to put on as many miles as I can to get through the least exciting part of the trip.  Mission accomplished!  I left mom and dad’s at about 5:30 (before the sun was even up) to get started.  Less than 12 hours later I had ridden across Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, and cross the border into Colorado.  By evening, I had ridden over 900 miles.  I am spending the evening in Lathrop State Park near Walsenburg Colorado.  The scenery is just about to change.

I did see a couple of interesting things I saw on the ride today.  The first was the disappearing moon.  Early in the day, as the moon was lower in the horizon, at one point it just began to disappear from the bottom to the top.  In a matter of a few minutes, it was totally gone!  Because it was still dark, you could not see that the moon was disappearing behind a cloud – the line across the moon as it disappeared was so perfectly flat, it looked like someone was just hiding the moon.  It was an assume sight I had never seen before!

In Oakley Kansas I did get of the motorcycle (yes I do that!) and took a picture of the moment in recognition of Wild Bill as this is his home town.

It is hard to explain how dry it is in most of this region.  The crops are in very bad shape.  In Nebraska they have already harvested some of the corn as it has been that dry already.  The grazing pastures have nothing for the cattle to eat – I don’t know what they are living on.

Along the way I went through Columbus Nebraska.  The town looked very familiar.  I believe I went to a demolition derby with my brothers here a few years ago.  I think I even went by the hotel we stayed at.  It was kind a spooky that I recognized the town after only being there once for 1 day!

Tomorrow the fun begins. I will be heading New Mexico near Toas for some fun riding.