It was a bittersweet morning as we loaded up the bike to depart from Grandpa’s for the last time. RJ washed the bike, I cleaned the helmets and made sure everything was packed. Grandma was trying to feed us anything and everything- toast, eggs, orange juice, coffee, dessert, leftovers, … trash (jk, only the best from Grandma). She packed us cookies and water bottles for our journey. Grandpa, Grandma, and Aunt Maria had all stayed home from church to see us off and wish us safe travels. After big tight hugs and another “Are you sure I can’t feed you anything else?”, we were on our way to Oklahoma City. The drive was roughly five hours with not a lot of scenery along the way. It was reminiscent of the Utah desert mixed with the rolling hills of Nebraska. We talked about our time in Montezuma, setting puzzles with Grandpa and listening to Aunt Maria’s...

It was a beautiful Saturday morning as we loaded up Moty for the Dakotas. RJ washed the bike and cleaned the chain while I sat inside and drank coffee with Gramma. We shined up our helmets, packed the chocolate chip cookies Gramma had lovingly made for us and headed out. A quick stop at Grampa’s shop to borrow a tool for the bike and we were off. If you’ve ever been to Western Kansas you know that it’s one of the flattest and most boring places to drive through with the exception of Nevada. (Sorry to those of you who live in WK and actually like it there) I think I fell asleep a couple times but woke up when the wind tried to blow me off the bike. As we neared the Nebraska border, the scenery picked up. We cruised on in to Nebraska where rolling green hills greeted us. As we rode through, we noticed old cowboy boots covering the fence posts. We learned this is an old...

We took off for Topeka Friday morning. It was bright and sunny; the warmest it had been our entire trip– 67*. Six hours later we made it to the capitol just in time for the last tour of the day. We parked beside the capitol and quietly argued about where to park because we didn’t have enough quarters for the meter. The building was beautifully done, everything was new and polished. We quickly got our stamp, and then RJ had to scramble to find some quarters to put in our meter before we got a ticket. I waited in the lobby for the tour to start. The tour started without RJ, I think I could see him running around periodically. The tour guide was a charming old man with bad delivery in his jokes which made it all the more endearing. Half way through the tour I found out this specific tour was not going to take us up to the dome which was rather...

We camped along a beautiful river near Steamboat Springs. It rained through the night and stopped just in time for us to take down our tent and pack everything up.  We drove into Steamboat Springs, the cutest little town nestled in the Colorado mountains. RJ found a coffee shop so he could get some work done and I could get a lovely cup of coffee. He went into the bathroom and came out 15 minutes later and quietly exclaimed “it’s time to go!” I’m guessing those pepper flakes caught up to him. That boy has issues…. We took off through the snow covered mountains on our way to Cheyenne. It was so cold! The temperature dropped below freezing and I shivered and my teeth chattered praying for the sun to warm the earth.  After dropping a mile or two in elevation it finally started warming up. We made it to Cheyenne around noon but alas, the capitol was...

     Saturday morning we said goodbye to our neighbors, gave Scooter one last hug, hopped on our bike and took off for Kansas. It was a beautiful ride on the 70 along the Feather River. RJ only pooped his pants once when we scraped going around a curve. “Bad news is- we scraped. Good news is- I no longer have to poop.” We stopped in Reno at a burger joint for lunch. The burger was as big as my face, filled with mozzarella sticks, ravioli, and other food not normally found on a burger. I think the shack itself was only 100 square ft. No joke, it was tiny. As we were pulling into the street, a average build man sitting on a bench kindly graced us with a view of his rather large butt crack. RJ and I debated whether or not it was considered mooning at that point. The icing on the cake was when we saw a lady down that same street wearing a shirt 10 sizes too...

We took this trip several weeks ago on one of the only days it wasn’t raining. The temperature never got above 50* so I froze there and back, even with three pairs of pants, three jackets, gloves, hat, and neck warmer. RJ, on the other hand, had one layer and was toasty warm. I think I must be cold blooded.  We stopped for breakfast in Quincy.   Drove through downtown Reno.   We saw a sign for a chocolate factory so of course I told rj we had to stop. Off to the side of the factory was this dude whose arm had fallen off and no one had bothered to fix it. It was quite a funny site.  We made it to Carson City around noon, deciding to tour the capitol building before eating lunch.  We met the “Secretary of State’s secretary”, who didn’t seem too pleased with the title RJ gave her. We made friends with one of the security guards who...