A Glacier Experience - Day 1

Day 1 - Saturday, June 23, 2012 – Kansas City MO to Wray CO

On Saturday, June 23, 2012, we arose at donut making time to start our journey. This was in hopes to have a beat-the-heat day, since the weather was quite warm for the afternoon. Bags were neatly packed the evening before and bikes were made ready. Actually, this story begins a few days earlier…  Early in the week, Ronnie had taken his Honda Goldwing to his buddy to get two new tires installed.  I took my HD Ultra Classic to the local Harley Davidson dealer for a routine 10,000-mile service (change motor oil and filter, change primary oil and adjust chain, change transmission oil, inspect and service air cleaner, etc).  Ronnie got his bike back on Tuesday. I got a call from the dealer stating the exhaust mounts were broken on my bike – and they did not have the parts on hand – and that if I desired to have the bike ready for the weekend, I would have to get said parts overnighted.  So I did.  Spending a couple extra bucks to get parts overnighted was not my main concern.  The service writer not remembering that I needed the bike back by Thursday evening was…  Long story short, the bike was in my hands on Friday afternoon, fixed right, and running great.

Theresa and Kathy in Hiawatha KS

Back to Saturday morning…  Ronnie and Theresa met Kathy and I at casa de Smith and looked at the weather.  The desired route(s) showed rain near each route.  We looked at other routes, but decided to stick with the plan.  We made it north of Kansas City to St Joseph and went left on 36 Hwy. About 20 minutes on that road, we decided donning our rain gear was in our best interest.  Once we got to the McDonald’s in Hiawatha Kansas, we decided to eat breakfast and let a heavy band of rain go past, which took around an hour.  Kathy figured out that the rain jacket she brought was not as water resistant as she thought.  Oops!  We got back out in the lighter rain and proceeded on for around 45 miles before turning off, getting gas, and taking off the rain gear.

In hindsight, 36 Hwy in northern Kansas is lacking of any excitement – especially with near 100* heat.  Most everything was normal, until after lunch at The Frontier Café in Oberlin Kansas.  You see, Ronnie and I defined that route and decided to go clockwise instead of counter clockwise, as we had been discussing in the weeks leading up to this venture. Thing is, we forgot to update the ladies on this new route. :)  We continued west with some fuel and stretch stops passing a northern route, which the ladies thought we were taking to get to Alliance Nebraska in order to get to Custer South Dakota the following day.  We touched in to Nebraska and ended at the Sandhiller Motel and Lounge for the night, which is located in Wray Colorado.

Sunflower at Sandhiller Motel

Not much exciting happened on this leg, other than Ronnie getting lost when trusting his GPS.  Oh, and the exchange I had with the front desk ladies at our hotel:

Me: Do you have entertainment tonight?
Motel Lady: No, Urine Ray.
Me: Name is Rob, friends call me Updog.
Motel Lady: Nice to meet you, Updog.
Me: Why did you call me Urine Ray?
Motel Lady: No, You are in Wray! Wray Colorado.
Me: Do you have beer? Its been a long day...

Rocky Mountain Oysters at Sandhiller

We unpacked the bikes and took our clothing and things in to the hotel rooms, had a couple of victory beers (celebrate the small things, right?), and made it over to the Sandhiller Lounge portion of our mecca motel – which included rocky mountain oysters.  We then hit the bed knowing that an early rise was in order.

Other highlights:

·      National/State Parks: N/A (unless you count breezing by Brown County State Park just east of Hiawatha)

·      Miles: ~ 485

·      Route Map: http://tinyurl.com/0623-Day1   

Click Here for Day 2!