Motorcycling Road Trips:
2024 plains crossing, eastbound#
Posted 2024-06-16
I made the eastbound trip on Tuesday, 6/11, and Wednesday 6/12. The first day was the long one -- roughly 800 miles -- making for an easy second day. The actual total-trip distance was 1046 miles (there's no map for the last bit because I was in very familiar territory and did not track it on the Beeline GPS app).
I departed about 5:15AM Mountain Daylight on the 11th, finishing off for the day about 9:46PM Central Daylight. I departed the next day about 9AM Central Daylight and was at my destination by 2:06PM Central Daylight.
Weather conditions were about as optimal as I could have hoped for: no rain, little wind, not too chilly in the early AM or after sundown, and sunny but not too scorching for the midday. The blackbird rolled through the miles with ease and was a rider's bike of the finest caliber.
Some highlight pics -- most from the right-mirror-mounted mini camera -- follow, with some brief captioning beneath each.
Doing Beeline GPS trip start right before departure
The sun attempts to break through the early morning clouds as I sail along eastbound I76 in northeastern Colorado
Westbound freight train goes by near Brule, Nebraska
Passing by a Nebraska country cemetery along Hwy 92
On Hwy 20 in eastern Nebraska I pass a truck hauling a wind turbine blade, a fairly common event when crossing Nebraska or Iowa
Stopped at the Sinclair travel center in Moville, Iowa to fuel up and pause in the shade for some cola and an ice cream treat. Note the stylish Sinclair dinosaur in the distance
I pass through Correctionville, Iowa. Unusual name, even for a small midwest town. Look up the back story if idle curiosity has gotten the best of you.
Speaking of wind turbines, here many can be seen on closer inspection, actively generating power amid northwest Iowa farmland
Starting day 2 I pass through picturesque Waterloo on Hwy 20 eastbound
Ten miles into Wisconsin, on Hwy 151, having just crossed the Mississippi at Dubuque, Iowa. The road winds lazily in this area through Driftless Region forested bluffs