Final Three Days - Guess the Total Mileage?

Woke up Sunday in Battle Mountain, the motel was very well maintained.  Certainly quality lodging.  Battle Mountain is a nice small town in northern Nevada.  Most of this part of Nevada is pretty barren with a few small towns throughout. 

This is what a lot of northern Nevada looks like

From Battle Mountain, I rode across the Utah salt flats, through Salt Lake City, then headed towards Casper, WY.  Thankfully, Margaret talked me down from the long route and I detoured towards Cheyenne to save a few hundred miles and ended up staying the night at an interesting cowboy hotel in Laramie.  This was a very long day, twelve hours across 721 long miles.  It was a very windy day and dark by the time I reached Laramie.  One thing I didn't like when riding was lots of wind, especially the strong gusts, it makes you focus more on controlling the bike and less on just enjoying the ride.  Of course, the wind is much worse at night because you can't see it coming. ;-)  

 Cowboy Bill, the guardian of my motel room. 

Back to the road -- leaving Laramie, I drove through Cheyenne and entered Nebraska.  Very nice rolling fields throughout Nebraska.  I enjoyed it that much more because, due to the temperature being warm, I was compelled to pack my jacket and ride all through Nebraska Cornhusker country with my MISSOURI TIGERS shirt on!  I got a couple of stare-downs when I stopped for lunch in a Chinese restaurant in Sidney (the home of Cabella's).  I also made sure to stop at the Radio Shack next door to pick up a 'mote-controlled' car Jack wanted as his gift.  I also picked up some groovy bracelets for Kate from a hippy shop in Garberville, CA and a huge roll of firecrackers for Kyle from a fireworks seller in Laramie.  I think the only gift from a gift-shop was a snow globe with a horse in it for Kate from a Pilot truck stop in Cheyenne. 

 Middle of Nowhere

 

 A little bit of the rolling hills of Nebraska

I wanted to camp my final night and found a nice lake-side campground just south of Lexington, NE on Johnson Lake.  After I lathered up with insect-repellent (the mosquitoes where very thick) I was able to set up camp and enjoy the storm which was heading my way.  My final meal was a cheeseburger from the nearby filling station, some fruit, chips, peanut-butter M&Ms, and two bottles of sweet tea next to another roaring campfire.  A huge storm was approaching which made the night very interesting, especially when I woke up at 1:00 under an umbrella of lightening and deafening thunder claps around me. 

 Nice picture of my boy blue (aka, the blue mule)

 Uh oh, storm is moving in

Monday morning, after packing my wet tent and other camping items, I headed off through southeast Nebraska, through northern Kansas and to home following the California/Oregon/Sante Fe trails.  While I thought I was on an adventure, I'm sure it doesn't compare with what the Pony Express riders and settlers experienced travelling across the country with their technology. 

 One of the many small towns I passed through.  This is Frankfurt, KS