50/80/50 Trip Day 11 - Home

 Jacksonville, IL to Home:  347.1 miles

I got a later start than usual, but not late as I was still out the door before actual sunrise.  I decided to wait for free hotel waffles and they did not disappoint.  They even had chocolate chips for them.

After eating, I was glad to be out the door toward home.  With Covid killing hotel breakfasts for the last 18 months, this was the first time I've had gratis hotel waffles in a very long time.

I jumped on I-72 and headed east.  There was very heavy rain to the Northwest.  It was moving slowly, but I still did not want to get caught in it.  The morning was temperate and cloudy.  Instead of a sunrise pushing me down the road, I was moving toward it.

I made my way east.  I thought about jumping off the interstate and taking US-36, but there really wasn't anything I wanted to see and the thought of dealing with traffic was too heinous.

I spent time trying to decide if I should work the next day.  The weather forecast doesn't look too good, so rather than sit around all day, I may clandestinely work from home and at least clear out my inbox.  I suppose I can decide in the morning.

Getting around Indianapolis was ... Indianapolis.  Jumping back on I-74 I got caught in construction that came to a standstill a few times.  I'm not sure why I can drive thousands of miles, at times on busier highways and have the construction beat me up so close to home.  At one point I yelled, "People, I just want to get home!" and traffic started moving.  I never knew I had that power.

I got home early afternoon.  The dogs were quite happy to see me and the lawn was ugly long.  With rain forecast, there wasn't any choice but to mow immediately.  While I didn't really want to do this, it did allow me a chance to replay many events of the past 11 days.

50/80/50 Trip Day 10 - I Still Was a Mad Man

 North Platte, NE to Jacksonville, IL:  663.8 miles

I woke up to rain at some point overnight.  By the time I got up it was mostly dry, but there were massive puddles everywhere so the rain must have been relatively heavy.

There was no coffee maker in the room so I walked down to McDonalds - the first time I've been in a McDonalds in many years.  The coffee was OK, but in all fairness probably better than hotel coffee.  It sprinkled a little on my way back to the hotel.

Once packed I was on the road a little before daylight again.  The radar showed a little rain up ahead, but it didn't look too bad so I didn't put on my rain suit.  As it got light the rain down the road started to look much worse.  As I got closer I started to see quite a bit of lightning too.  I stopped to put on my rain suit which was 100% the right thing to do as I subsequently went through a couple hours of very heavy rain with frequent lightning strikes.  There was enough cloud to ground lightning to be concerning as well.  I pulled the early radar image and while northern Nebraska looks a lot worse, it was bad enough.

The lightning was bad enough I wasn't totally happy being on the road, but I just didn't see waiting this one out as a possibility.

Stopping at a gas station during some heavy rain, the guy at the pump next to me looked at me dripping wet in my rain suit and said, "You, sir, are a real motorcyclist."

"Uh, maybe a real dumb one?"

And I could tell I was back in the midwest since people talked to me at every gas stop through the day.

Eventually the rain lightened and stopped.  I decided to avoid the interstate and drove south before hitting I-29.  There was very little traffic which was nice, but it also got broiling hot and humid.  When I was stopped for a train anyway, I pulled over and took off the rain suit.

Crossing into Kansas briefly, I got treated to another ear worm:  Carry On My Wayward Son ... though my mind could think I still was a mad man...

I was surprised to see quite a bit of terraced farming in the area.  This must be a pain to farm, but I guess it does allow more productivity if the soil is really good.

I crossed over into Missouri.  North-South Missouri is a bit of a slog, but East-West wasn't too bad.  There were some pretty views as well with the road snaking out to infinity.

Throughout much of the Midwest, I've been hitting these rock hard bugs (they hurt if they hit me in the face).  One of these little buggers wedged itself inside my helmet and started crawling around.  I didn't stop, but did finally get it out and saw it was a Japanese beetle.  Yet another reason to hate the evil things.

I crossed the Mississippi River at Hannibal, MO.  SO and I had been here in August of 2002 when we still toured on a Harley Dyna Superglide T-Sport.  We met some really goofy motorcycle characters while exploring the world of Mark Twain.  It was one of several very memorable things about that trip.  The world is different now.

I made it to Jacksonville and easily found my hotel.  It seemed to be a fairly new building and was a REALLY nice room.  Subway and cookies rounded out the evening.  I'm ready to be home.

50/80/50 Trip Day 9 - You're The Fastest Runner But You're Not Allowed To Win

 Salt Lake City, UT to North Platte, NE:  675.4 miles

After getting up and having a cup of coffee I packed up the bike.  I said goodbye to my sisters and was out the door when it was still just a bit too dark - so dark I almost missed the correct entrance to the interstate.

Once on I-80, I knew I was going to be on I-80 for a while.  If Day 2 brought a demoralizing distance from the GPS, this day was over twice as bad as it said my next turn was 572 miles.  Ouch.

But I guess this early in the day it didn't feel quite so demoralizing because I just said, "Oh well, I'll ride one mile at a time..."  It was a beautiful morning.

I climbed out of the Salt Lake Valley, headed east in the vague direction toward home.  I had seen a bit of rain on the radar but was still very surprised when I hit some shortly after crossing into Wyoming.  It wasn't enough to really worry about though even thought it was still cool to cold out.  I also hit a few very brief, but heavy showers in both Eastern Wyoming and Nebraska.  Neither one was enough to make me stop.  Wyoming was very smoky from wildfires burning somewhere, so I wasn't even sure it was rain when I was coming up on it.  Oddly, I smelled the distinctive smell of rain well before actually hitting it.

When my sister and I were in the Olympic Village, we heard Howard Jones' No One Is to Blame while briefly on the shuttle.  It turned into an ear worm lasting much of the day.  It could be worse.

I enjoyed the thinking time as I motored along.  Conversation with my sister's the previous night gave me stuff to think about.

I passed many routes that SO and I have taken on various other adventures out west.  I appreciated the memories.  I'll admit that I cried a little on the inside when I kept going on the interstate after seeing the signs for Flaming Gorge.  The picture below is from our first motorcycle adventure out west from 2004.  In so many ways that seems like so long ago.  It is also very likely my second favorite road trip I have ever taken.

I even stayed on I-80 in Eastern Wyoming instead of getting off to go through Medicine Bow National Forest - another frequent, gorgeous detour which is also a great motorcycle ride.  I was obviously in going home mode.

I crossed into Nebraska and the temperature increased quickly.  I was ready to be done for the day.  I bought some "Big Berry Adventure" Tic Tacs to eat and help keep me awake - they were so terrible I dumped them out on the road (but didn't litter the container).  The Tic Tac company should be ashamed.

Eventually I rolled into North Platte.  I thought about going to the Golden Spike Tower, but it just didn't seem like it would be $8 worth of interesting relative to getting off the bike for a while.  I found my hotel - another indie hotel - just down the road.  The last time I stayed in North Platte, I had Chinese duck for dinner so I repeated that this time.  Unfortunately, the duck tasted like chicken wrapped in duck skin.  It wasn't bad, but it was disappointing.  The Zingers I bought at Walgreens were a good way to end the night.

50/80/50 Trip Day 8 - A Quick Trip to Jail

No miles on the bike.

We headed up to the condo and drove up to the Blood Lake hiking area.  This is a much milder hike than the previous day's and one we could all do.  We started early to avoid the heat and the temperatures were absolutely wonderful when we first got going.  There were already lots of other people hiking.

My youngest nephew also was really interested in finding geologically significant rocks.  Since most of the places to search for geodes and fossils was not in the immediate area, we decided to give him the opportunity to find some rocks on this hike.  So as we got going I went up ahead and put some volcanic rock from my sister on the ground and helped him "find" it.  He seemed pretty excited to find his obsidian.

We continued on the hike.  It was fun, but I was still a bit tired from the previous day.  There were tons more people and the area was marred by lots more human intrusion; power lines ran the main valley of the area as did some well-used two-track trails.

Blood Lake itself was quite pretty.  

There were a few groups of people there, but it wasn't too busy.  I hid a rock with a trilobite in the water and again helped my nephew find it.  He seemed less thrilled with this and suggested it be given to grandma.

We walked around the lake.  On the far side of the lake in a big rocky area there was a large snake at the water's edge.  I didn't get a good enough look at it to guess what it was.  I was a bit surprised to have seen it at the elevation we were at (almost 10,000 feet).

We headed back and the amount of people now on the trail was almost overwhelming.  But it was good to see so many kids, even if one of them was screaming as we approached the parking lot.

I also placed some geodes for nephew to find.  He seemed pretty excited to find them - which made it all worth it.

We headed back to the main street area of Park City and head lunch at a Mexican place.  The pig burrito with extra guac was really good.  While there were still people on the main street, the amount was maybe 25% of what we had seen on the weekend.  We went to the Park City Museum, which was quite small, but very well done for such a small, non-profit museum.  It told lots of the history of the area, as Park City was founded for silver mining - skiing didn't make any appreciable appearance until the 1960's.  It also held the remnants of the town's original jail (aka the dungeon).  

Back at the Condo I struggled to stay awake before heading back to Sister's house and doing at least a little bit to get ready for the trip back home.  "Going Home" mode was looming.

50/80/50 Trip Day 7 - Twin Peaks

No miles on the bike.

I did give the bike a good once over and everything looks as good as can be for the trip home.  I also made hotel reservations for the first night on the road home so things are moving in that direction

But first, today was hiking day.

We all met at the Condo and bought tickets for the lift to take us up to the Red Pine Lodge.  

From there we started hiking up.  It was still early so temperatures were not too bad, but the elevation change was not insignificant.  Our group got smaller as we hiked up until we reached a rocky ridgeline stretch.  On some parts of this it was almost like walking on a knife edge with not many good places to put feet - other than one carefully after another.

The end of this main part of the hike was a bit anticlimactic as we ended up near a road and another ski lift (which was not running).  So the point was the hike, not the destination.  By this time it was just me, my older sister and her kids.  We had a lunch of some snacks before my nephew and I kept going while the other two started back down.  We continued up to the peak above the ski lift - which was not far by distance, but was so by vertical.  The view did not disappoint.

We were not ready to go back, so we continued down the ridge to the next peak.  From there we could see another ski lift we could hike to so we headed in that direction.  While headed in that direction, we saw a quiet lake tucked in a valley.  It was almost too serene.

We continued on, grabbing another peak in the hike, until it looked like the trail we were on was headed in the wrong direction, so we bushwhacked off trail in what we thought was a better direction.  This was a mistake.  Not only did we eventually see the trail we were on would have ended in a good place, but our route also put us almost straight down in some places.  By the time we got to a more reasonable trail, my leg muscles were burning.  It was still worth it.

We took the lift back down into Park City and rested at the condo for a bit before heading to eat at a local restaurant.  It was good, but not great.  It was still fun though.

50/80/50 Trip Day 6 - Down(ton) Day

Park City, UT to Salt Lake City, UT:  22.5 miles 

I took a walk in the morning in my sister's residential neighborhood - basically walking up until there was no more up to up.  It felt weird to walk without a dog.  There were tons of other people riding bikes or walking - all doing their best to avoid any kind of eye contact or interaction.  American Grotesque.  

I'm not sure if this is better or worse than my rural area back home where, probably because people are so sparse, anytime I see someone there is a requirement for an almost perfunctory, banal conversation.

We picked up my younger sister and her SO from the airport and stopped back at the house briefly before heading back up to Park City.  We went to the Main Street area where there are tons of shops and restaurants.   It was fun to walk around and see everything.  There were a few interesting stores; the local art was neat to see.  

It was also a great place to people watch.  HL Mencken talked about America's Lust for the Hideous, but he was talking about the steel belt Pennsylvania towns - towns not totally unlike many of the towns I've ridden my motorcycle through over the last several days.  Some towns may be shabby with vacant store fronts and empty churches.  But these towns persist because they persist.  The physical location of Park City is gorgeous, but seems to be filled with a transient cast of a modern American Downton Abby.  It is an odd mix of people, but it may be hideous in a way HL Mencken was more blind to.  We did a short loop walk at the McPolin farm on the way back to the condo and I looked back toward UT-224 and the constant flow of cars and drone of traffic - where were all these people so desperate to be away from?   

Back at the condo we hung out for a while.  Ryan Montbleau was doing a free concert but I was a bit peopled out.  So when everyone left for the concert, I headed back to Sis' house on the bike.  This will give me a chance to give it a good once over before heading home.

50/80/50 Trip Day 5 - Olympic Heat

 Whitehall, MT to Park City, UT:  465.1 miles

The forecast was for it to be hot in Utah - hot hot.  I wanted as early a start as possible to minimize the brutality.  I was out the door an hour before sunrise.  

Temperatures started out between comfortably cool and cold, but it was a nice morning.  Only a couple miles from the AirBNB home a doe ran out in front of me, reminding me that I had to keep my act together in the dark.  The steel grey eastern sky was pretty to watch lighten.

There were a couple cars on the road, but it was very quiet.

I continued south on the smaller roads for the first few hours of the morning.  Temperatures plummeted during this time.  I saw temperatures of 41F, but I'm sure it was in the 30's for a while.  I had to try not to shiver and my nose started running.  I should have stopped and put on more clothes, but I kept telling myself that it will get hot fast.

The area I was going through appeared to be thick with high-end fishing lodges, and I could see why.  Every river or stream I went near looked very inviting even though I've never been a fly fisherman - too much pageantry.  

Eventually the sun did start to rise over the mountains, but it only helped the temperatures a little bit since there were so many hills and mountains.  At one point I stopped at one of the nicest and most well-thought-out rest areas I have ever been to (I guess high end fisherman are expecting something the proletariat can't have).  This allowed me to warm up for a minute, which ultimately made it worse once running down the road again.

But I was absolutely enjoying the morning ride in the cold.  I felt great and wished it didn't have to end.  As expected, temperatures did start to rise, making the morning just a little bit better.

The area around Yellowstone and the national forests was really busy with vacationers.  It was still early so other than the pokey coffee getters it wasn't too bad.  I was still glad I went by the two-lane route in the morning.

All good things must come to an end and I jumped in I-15.  I was happy with the time I was making.  At some point the mileage of my bike broke the 70K mark.  Given all the trips this Goldwing has taken me on, it seems like it should have way more than that.

Temperatures stayed comfortable until near the Idaho/Utah border at which point it was like someone flipped a switch on the heater.  It became imperative that I stop and remove the jacket liner even though I wasn't desperate for fuel yet.  The rest of the drive south was various levels of the brutal heat that I knew was coming.

Garmin routed me around Salt Lake City which was probably a good idea - too often Garmin is stupid.  Making my way to Park City, I got off the interstate and had more traffic in 10 minutes than I have had in the last five days.  Not only that, but I also got to see jack-wads in Audis fight with dick-weeds in Porsches to see who could be the biggest ass-wipe.  Maybe it wasn't that bad (it was).

I found my way to my sister's condo and turned on my phone.  Family were in the area and were eating, but I wasn't going back into the asphalt jungle that is Park City just for a meal.  I still have trail mix left.  I made myself at home in the condo instead.

Once everyone was back we all caught up a little bit.  After five days basically alone on the bike the condo seemed a bit cacophonous.

Older Sis and I went up to the Olympic Village - we had tickets to the Flying Ace Olympic Park Show.  We walked around a bit trying to figure out what to do before deciding to climb up to the top of the Olympic ski jump.  It was straight up, but didn't really take that long.  The view from the top was quite nice even if the area was a bit hazy from the heat.  Making our way to the ski jump, it looked more "mechanical" than I thought it would.  In the heat of July, it looked too plastic.  But I am still not ready to strap on some skis and run down it.

We played the role of active stow-aways and took the ski lift back down.  Just act natural and like we are where we are supposed to be.

The Flying Aces are athletes ranging from beginners to Olympic caliber that use the ski jumps and land in a pool of water.  This is also how they train in the off-season.  The five of us met for the show - finding a place to sit in the shade (good) on some of the most painful rocks in Utah (not so good).

The show was entertaining.  I could appreciate the ability of the athletes to make what they were doing look relatively easy to the point where it wasn't terribly impressive.  

There were also divers who demonstrated diving from heights up to 27 meters.  This is apparently the first official high diving platform in the US.

My older Sis and I went back to her house in Salt Lake City, leaving my bike in Park City.  I'll have to get it at some point in the future but it should be fine.

It is good to see the family again.  Its nice that we can get together in a way that is both independent and together.  We have some more activities planned for a few days and younger Sis should be joining us shortly.