Bike Trip Day 1

The Trip

I didn’t make it to Amarillo on the first day, but this song was on my mind.
 Amarillo by morning

I left Denver to start my “retirement adventure” around 1PM on Tuesday, June 10^th, 2014.

I’ve been dreaming of, fantasizing about, and planning this trip for months.  When I mentioned the idea to Susan, my wife of 30 years, she (after initial disbelief) was supportive of the idea.  So over the past couple of months I’ve put together my equipment and planned a tentative route that will take me to the Texas coast then along the coast to Key West, Florida, then North to Main, West to Seattle, South to San Diego, east back to Texas and then home.  I figure it to be roughly 11,000 miles and I’m giving myself 2 months to get around the route.

I’ve packed about 3 days of clothes, wet weather gear, and my new Microsoft Surface II pad, upon which I am typing this journal.  So far I’m not liking the ‘windows 8’ interface and this keyboard is going to make me lose my religion…but I’m sure I’ll overcome, adapt, and get on with the writing.   I also packed a one man tent, summer weight sleeping bag (with sheet) and a sleeping pad…sleeping beside the bike should be quite an adventure in and of itself.

My first day on the road was good with excellent weather and no wind to speak of.  Colorado is green and in blossom from Denver to Limon and south.  A storm had gone through a couple of days earlier and it left the air clean and sweet smelling.  One stretch…south of Limon…was perfumed with the scent of growing grass and a million wildflowers in bloom.  It was a little bit of heaven as the bike purred along at 70MPH.  Later, near Lamar, CO, I road between fields of alfalfa waiting to be cut and the smell was intoxicating.   The feed lot just outside of Lamar, however was no bed of roses.

I wonder if cowboys on horseback enjoyed the same feeling I had as I “forked my bronc” and rode the wide open prairies?  We shared the open air, the sense of movement, and I just bet that the old cowboys enjoyed the expanse of green grass and the clean smell of fresh air laced with wildflowers.  OK, so at 70mph I had a little more fresh air…but still it’s close isn’t it?  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yz-nlseVOc

 

I spent my first night in Oklahoma at a $50 motel in Boise City called ‘The Longhorn Inn’.  It was clean enough…and I figure it to be the first of the old, cheap, motels I’ll enjoy on this trip.