Day 3 - Tuesday, 6/12/18 - Kimball, NE to Wendover, UT

Today was awesome. The scenery improved markedly as soon as I got on the road. But first, let me backtrack a bit to the end of day 1.

So this happened...

I was looking for the hotel in Wentzville on Sunday night, and I passed it because their sign wasn't lighted. Anyway, I rode a ways through town and then decided I needed to pull off and find the hotel online and set the GPS. I pulled up into a parking lot, found the hotel, and set the GPS. The parking lot was up above the street level a bit, and there was an incline to the driveway. I sat at the top of the hill waiting for traffic to clear, as I had to make a left turn to go back the way I had come.

When traffic cleared, I started rolling down the hill to pull out, and all of a sudden a truck came over the hill to my left. I knew I couldn't get across without it broadsiding me, so I stopped rather quickly at the bottom of the driveway. Unfortunately, where I landed was with my two wheels straddling a dip between the driveway and the road. My legs aren't long enough, and I couldn't touch to hold the bike up. Over she went, hard. Because of the angle and incline, the bike rolled past the crash bar and the right side mirror took the hit. I've had this bike for 11 years, and this is the first part I've broken.  Barb and Gary Thayer, if you're following this, we're gonna need to order a mirror and housing :(  I'm hoping it didn't do any more damage to the front end.

I was fortunate that people started coming out of the woodwork, including the guy in the truck. They picked up the bike in no time, shared directions to the hotel, and helped me load my bags back on. Chivalry is alive and well in Wentzville, Missouri. I sustained a bruise to my left shin, and a bigger one to my pride :(

So, back to today. I left Kimball about 8 a.m. The temperature was about 55 when I hit the road. It was nice having to wear a jacket and gloves, such a nice change from the heat and humidity of the last couple of days. The entire day was beautiful, I think the warmest it got was 80 degrees, somewhere in the middle of Wyoming.

As soon as I crossed into Wyoming, the scenery really got nice. Hills, curves, rock formations, beautiful meadows... it was great! Traffic was light for the most part, and the 80 mph speed limit rocks. You can really eat up some miles at that speed.

Unfortunately I'm having some technical difficulties with my camera and computer. I'm not able to edit the images to cut out the excess "stuff." So I'll just post a couple of my favorites for now, and hopefully have time once I get to my destination tomorrow to sort through and fix the editing issue so I can do a better job for the rest of the trip.

Keep in mind that I'm taking these while riding, so not all of the images are worth keeping. I don't look at the screen, I just point and shoot. If I get it, great, if not, oh well...

Cool rock formations. This is an appetizer for what I know is to come the next several days.

The land is vast and the road is long...

I did learn that Salt Lake City's rush hour is about as bad as Atlanta. Fortunately I just got into a small part of it, but it was about 20 minutes of stop and go riding, which is about the worst when it's hot. But once through that part, there was this...

That's the Great Salt Lake out there.. tough to get a close shot.

And then the salt flats go on forever... it must have
 been 30 minutes of riding at 80 mph and passing this same scene.

The last hotel sign I saw before leaving SLC for Wendover said "last hotel for 99 miles!"  And they were serious. Last ANYTHING for 99 miles. Sure glad I stopped for gas before continuing on.

At the other end of the salt flats was Wendover, Utah. I rode through town looking for a hotel, preferably with a restaurant. I didn't realize that West Wendover was a continuation of Wendover, but on the Nevada side ... where gambling and alcohol is legal.  There's actually a line in the street with "UTAH" painted on one side, and "NEVADA" painted on the other. I decided I wasn't going to be in town long enough to pay the West Wendover prices for a room, so trekked back to Utah and got a nondescript room, and had a nondescript salad at a little cafe across the street.  I really was dreaming of a cold beer, but I didn't want it badly enough to get back on the bike to go to the other end of town.

So, I know this is a lousy representation of the beautiful country I rode in today, but hopefully tomorrow I can make some adjustments and get my technology straightened out.  I guess I forgot about this part of trip prep!

Time to turn out the lights. Tomorrow will be shorter, but I still want to get a fairly early start. Good night!