Colorado - Day 10 & Epilogue

Day 10
Saturday, July 7, 2007
Start: Lexington, NE, 8:00 am
End: Grayslake, IL, 11:00 pm
Mileage: 715


The route for Day 10: Lexington, NE to Grayslake, IL. Slabbing the remaining 700 miles to home.

We had good weather today and simply rode across on I-80 all the way to Illinois where we caught I-88, which was again very pleasant with no traffic. As I got closer to Chicago, the feeling of having to deal with bad drivers, traffic, construction, etc. didn't upset me as much as I knew that I had just enjoyed 8 days of beautiful riding on mountain passes and in deep canyons...

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Epilogue
What a fantastic ride that was through beautiful Colorado, Arizona and Utah. It was everything I expected and more. The twisties we rode were mainly the big state highways and I'm sure there's lot of smaller roads to enjoy in that part of the country. And thanks to the relative remoteness of the western states compared to the mid-west and the east, there was less traffic on the roads and therefore less enforcement. However, being a holiday weekend, we did encounter our fair share of cager traffic.

Besides the federal ticket that Andy and I got, there weren't any other real upsets on the trip. Aileen did drop her bike but it sustained no real damage and I'm surprised Rick didn't drop his ST3 on this trip. Maybe, he doesn’t need those training wheels after all. Weather-wise too, we only experienced one day of real heavy rain over Independence Pass and some sprinkles here and there. It was definitely hot in Arizona, but nothing unbearable. Too bad the moto-camping didn't work out as planned, but all the other accommodations were as we expected.

Regarding costs for the trip, per person we spent about: $200 for 10 days of lodging; around $400 in gas; $300 in food and about $35 in park entrance fees for an average daily cost of $94. That's an excellent price considering the fun we had and the places we went.

The planning for next year's trip has already begun...


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