Mississipi River, RedLegs & Glenwood Canyon

August 2013:     After my excursion through the backroads of Indiana it was time to make time.   I had a long brunch with Biker Baby (read here)  and got a late start to my day so I had to make up for lost time.   It was a pedal to the metal kind of day and I ended up in Avoca, IA where I got an early start the next morning.   Little did I know that this was to be my highest mileage day of my trip.

There was nothing really to see except the straight ribbon of road dead ahead.   A few days earlier I was in Toronto contemplating riding home via the Canadian route and now I was deep in the south riding along I-80 and heading towards Colorado

I knew that I had a long ride ahead when I left Chicago so when I received an email inviting me to spend a night in Centennial,  I jumped at the chance.   About half a day later I diverted south to I-76 where I soon came to the Colorado border

Here I am at the visitor's centre where you have to give your email address to obtain the official State Map.   This section of highway doe not seem very well maintained and there are virtually no services

and I was physically in the middle of storms.  I could see menacing clouds all around me and I was just waiting for a deluge of rain, but luckily I outran the clouds

I left Avoca, IA around 7am and arrived in Dom's garage around 6:15pm,   11 hours on the road and 603 miles later stopping only for gas and quick snacks.   read  here1

I can't thank Dom enough for hosting me.  I had a great time and stayed two days.  One was a non-riding day for me as I played monkey   read here2     and he took me to Red Rock Canyon

 it was hot and we were walking around in our riding boots and getting tired watching all these people exercising up and down the steps/chairs

We even managed to spot some wild life

And snap a few photos of Valencia

Eventually all good things come to an end and I had to move on   read here3     Dom took the lead and led me out of town.   He just wanted to make sure I was safely on my way

Along the way I  went through the Eisenhower Tunnel    read here4  

Most of those links (above)  have video and I am just recaping some of my highlights so you can understand the sequence in my video below and also to thank my hosts Dom and Martha for inviting me into their home and and putting up with me for a couple of days.    I can't thank you enough for being thoughtful and kind to a lonely traveler.   I am honoured to be part of your extended family
 

And also a very big thank you for taking a day from your schedule to show me around as I relaxed in your Hack watching the scenery go by at Ural speed.   All I can say is those tires on those big rigs are sure big as they go barreling by

 Oh, another thing.  I am not one to wash my bike.  My windshield was plastered with bugs and I could barely see through it.  Remember that I am now on the return leg of my trip and this was the first time that my windshield had been cleaned.   Dom took one look, shook his head and grabbed his windex bottle and went to work

It wasn't long before I had the cleanest windshield in town.   Thanks again Dom

After I left Denver  I took I-70 and headed West and found myself in Glenwood Canyon.  I decided to record longer video than usual and add some video from the day before I arrived at Dom's .  My normal practice is to keep my videos on the shorter side and certainly less than 5 minutes, but the Glenwood section alone was over 8 minutes so sorry if it may be a bit too long but I didn't mean for it to be boring.

Glenwood Canyon is an engineering marvel,  read more here.    They tried to preserve the natural landscape and built the freeway "in the air" so as not to disturb the environment and more facts here.   I wanted so much to stop and look over the edge to get a better view but thought it to be too unsafe.  As you are riding on the roadway you don't even realize you are on an elevated road . . .