Enjoying the Road Less Traveled
On our first two days out, we needed to cover over 1200 miles. I really prefer to travel the backcountry two lane roads but for fast efficient travel you can’t beat the Interstate system. (Check out this site for all you could ever want to know about the interstate highway system which celebrated 50 years in 2006) http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/interstate/homepage.cfm
The temperature was above 100 degrees for a good part of those two days. I’m originally from Nebraska and GT is from Georgia so we’ve traveled from NE to GA many, many times. For a little different route than we usually take, we stayed south of St. Louis and went up the west side of the Mississippi on I-55. That was a pleasant Sunday morning ride. When we got to I-70, we found a different pace. Everyone was in much more of a hurry than we were and they didn’t mind letting us know about it.
Contrast this I-70
with this US 63 to US 36
In Columbia, we turned North on 63, and this is the wide open road we found. We took 63 north and then turned west on 36. Wide open 4 lane road all the way to St. Joseph, MO. We were able to sit back and just ride! I’ll take the road less traveled.
September 14th, 2007 at 1:37 pm
Looks like a fun trip. I prefer taking the slow backroads, but then there is the hazards of the 400 mile yard sale.
December 6th, 2007 at 7:36 am
I enjoyed looking at your cross country trip. I really enjoyed your website.
Thanks,
Peggy
December 6th, 2007 at 8:36 am
Thank you for taking me back to 1996, when our family drove from Lincoln, NE, taking the same route you did all the way across NE to Rapid City, SD to visit some friends. That trip was a turning point for me. I had moved to NE for 14 years earlier from GA, and struggled learning to love it, especially the flat terrain and relative lack of trees. On this trip, we began by making a stop at Ashfall State Park in Orchard, NE, where we took part in an archaelogical dig with Dr. Mike Voorhies (paleontologist from U of N). Anna found a wolf tooth bone that is now at the museum in Lincoln (probably in a box in the basement). We learned about the geological history of NE and about the ancient volcano which deposited the ash to preserve the animals we were now helping excavate. Our deluxe accomodations at the Orchard Motel featured “all the modern amenities” like AC and TV, as advertised on the matchbook. It was very clean.
Then it was on across the lonely sandhills (from the ancient ocean we had just learned about), where every 20 miles there might be a sign that said “So-and-so’s Ranch: 20 miles”). I found myself driving, everybody else asleep, radio off, quiet, peaceful, dreaming about what it used to be like when this was an ocean, when suddenly the thought hit me, “I am ENJOYING this!” I’m not sure when the transformation took place, but I was loving NE, this place where I had once told my co-workers in north GA, “I’ll never live there, it’s flat and ugly”!
It happened that, unknowingly, we chose Sturgis weekend to travel, so we saw the same rows of cycles at Wall Drug as in your photo. I remember being surprised how polite some of those grizzly-looking men were, opening doors for Anna with her walker. They blew my whole biker stereotype.
Thanks for helping me re-live a very special trip.