Time for another adventure road trip through America. This time we are heading West passing through Iowa, and Nebraska to spend some time in Colorado and the Rocky Mountains before continuing into Utah and visiting Arches National Park, up in to Idaho, through Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota , Minnesota and finely home to Wisconsin.
Day 1 - To Kearney Nebraska
As we knew we had a long journey - 602 miles to be precise - we were up early and ready to hit the road by 6.50 am, having packed up most of the car the night before. The plan was to head West across Wisconsin into Iowa then down into Nebraska. After about an hour we stopped at roadside favourite, 'Kwik Trip' filling up with fuel and grabbing a breakfast of coffee and southwest omelette breakfast sandwiches to eat on the road.
We crossed into Iowa at Dubuque on what was to be a mainly uneventful journey, apart from a woman with a death wish. She was all over the road and as we passed her, we noticed that she had her phone clamped to the windscreen right in her line of vision! A stop for soda was soon needed after that so we pulled into a Kwik Star this time.
Yes! 5 hours since we left home we hit the half way point of 301 miles, time to crack open the Colin's - brought back from a recent visit to the UK - to celebrate!I
We then thought let's go nuts, we're on holiday, let's grab a coffee as well, so we checked out a 'Casey's Gas Station' at DeSota which was the birth place of John Wayne. I can conclude that the coffee wasn't good.
New State time, we headed into Nebraska, skirting Omaha, making it our 26th state on our American Adventure. We had up till now survived on some fizzy sweets and grapes, the car needed to refuel as well, so on our 4 visit on our gas stations of America trip we got up a 'Phillips Route 66' for a root beer and a 10 minute break to eat a picnic lunch of veggie sausage rolls, home grown tomatoes and an Apple each - living the dream!
The sun was shining, Primal Scream's Loaded was playing and as we passed through 'Goehner' we dropped in to double figures and only had 99 miles left, someone was a happy boy.
By 5PM and after 10 hours of driving We had reach our destination of Kearney.
Time to check in to the Days Inn on Talmadge St, our room was on the top floor and fairly new. After a bit of time just relaxing we decided to drive the couple of miles down to 'Thunderhead Brewing' where we enjoyed a pint of 'Prairie Peach Wheat' for me and a 'Cropduster Mid-American IPA' for him whilst dining on salad and jacket spuds.
Well we got the taste and ended up getting a flight and purchasing a 6 pack of the 'Cornstalker Dark Wheat' to go, delicious!
As we still had a fairly long drive in the morning we thought we best leave and after a walk round the delightful little downtown we decided to retire back to the hotel.
Day 2 - To Westminster Colorado
After a good nights sleep we were both woken at 5.30 by a car alarm, not too bad as we were both asleep before 10 the evening before. We had a leisurely start to the morning before getting ready and heading to breakfast. Plenty of choice but unfortunately for me, it just was my thing but Paul was able to indulge himself. Then it was time to make a move and start the journey to Westminster Colorado where we have an Airbnb for 3 nights.
By 9AM we were on the I-80 for the next 360 miles!
Half hour into the trip we were passing fields of corn and the air was filled with the intense stench of agriculture - which this time wasn’t from Paul!
Pulled into a ‘Cenex’ gas station for some coffee, the standard coffee run out after Paul filled his cup so I ended up with a cappuccino that I later found to taste like syrup and was undrinkable. We continued on the I-80 as it followed the meandering course of the Platte River.
Around 10.30 I was ready for a coffee as I had yet to have one this morning, now I wasn’t going to blog another coffee stop but felt this one was worth noting. We could not believe that at the ‘Sinclair Gas Station’ just outside Sutherland not only could we buy coffee along with fuel, we could also pick up a semi-automatic rifle in case we suddenly felt a need!
Shortly after we entered mountain time and gained an hour as the clock changed from 10.50 to 9.50AM. And after another 20 minutes we had crossed over into Colorado - our 27th State.
We stopped at the rest area to take the obligatory photo by the ‘welcome to Colorado sign’, walked around the viewing area before nipping in to the visitor centre where we were given some brochures of the area by the friendly staff. Back on the road and back to watching the Plains roll by.
By 1PM, we were ready for lunch, well done ‘Loves’ gas station, good fuel prices, good ice tea, clean restrooms and a very nice vegan chickpea masala wrap - top marks! We picked up the I-76 towards Devour and got our first look at the Rocky Mountains Range in the distance, very impressive looking. Carrying on a few more miles we got to our destination of Westminster. Being a little early to check in to our Airbnb, we stopped of at Starbucks to pass some time then headed a couple of minutes to our home for the next 3 nights.
A delightful property above the owners detached garage, very modern and spacious. Looking forward to staying here. It was time to grab some dinner as we could have quite easily slobbed out in the apartment.
So we set of to ‘Wonderland Brewing’ about a mile’s walk away. It was good to stretch the legs after being cooped up in the car and it didn’t take long to reach. Paul had the Alice Belgium Blonde and a Almighty Altbier, while I had 2 pints of the Silverback Weiss with a portion of loaded nachos to share. Delightful brewery with fab British music, I think we may just find ourselves here again to purchase some beers and glasses to take home. We headed back via Wholefoods Market to pick up a cake as it just may be someone’s Birthday tomorrow.
Fact of the day - The pony Express only ran for 19 months in 1860 to 1861 before it was replaced by the telegraph. The route ran for 1,930 miles from Missouri to San Francisco. The visitor centre was at the sight of one of the original stations on the route.
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