UT to CO to NE to IA to MN.. 3,701 miles and finally Home sweet, fresh, shiny, bike home!
Well we made it back to MN - unlike the way out to Utah, we took 2 days to get home. We are exhausted and day by day losing steam! We made our way across Utah, into Colorado, over I-70 through Colorado via the twisty mountains, and then thru dreaded Nebraska. 3,701 total miles in the course of 7 days... almost all of which were super fun!!
Talk about a long, boring state to ride through. Nothing to look at but semi trucks and fields for hundreds of miles. Don't get me wrong, there are some great parts of the state of Nebraska... but I-80 is NOT one of them! Then we hit Iowa and 'home' seemed so much closer all of a sudden! Once we saw the sign for Clear Lake Iowa, my whole body woke back up and excitement took over as we are really almost home now!!! One last gas stop to say hi to Neil (who is off today) - and we were on the home stretch!!! Great traffic, cruising right along... until we weren't. MN is amazing in the summer - weather is great, tons of things to do outside, but then there is the downfall of MN Summers. Construction. Lots of road construction. So what should have been less than a 2.5 hour final stretch home took 4 hours.
We were SO close yet so far away!!!! We arrived home before nightfall, yay!!! The bike is trashed and needs a serious bath. I unpack my gear and immediately start re-packing items needed for the next adventure, which leaves town on Thursday. Not a lot of turn around time! I wash the bike after unloading it, but my arms have nothing on the amount of grime and bugs and ish all over the bike. And not to mention lacking rubber on the front tire - but it got me out there and got me home!
After making a good wash effort, I collect the change from my bags and off I go to the DIY car wash - this bike needs serious measures to get the ish off.. the kind that comes out of a super high powered car wash sprayer. With $4.50 in my pockets, off I go to wash this thing down. I used all of that $4.50 - but 99.8% of the ish is now washed off the bike and I can actually SEE through the windshield for the first time in a week!!!! The little things in life! Luckily as I was pulling into the car wash bay I remembered to back the bike in.. because the last time I was here I pulled the bike in as normal. Which was all fine and good until I went to leave. Now, pushing the bike backwards, slightly uphill, and on wet cement was not my idea of fun! I was literally stuck in the car wash bay and had to embarrassingly go find a patron of the nearby pawn shop to come help me push my way out of the bay. Not this time though! I learned!! With the bike all shiny 'new', I creeped my way home on my near bald tire and park her in the garage until my tire appointment tomorrow... she's pretty, clean, and will have fresh new rubber in time for the next adventure!!!!
So shiny and clean! Time to rest up for round two!
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