Glacier NP & Canada; Day 1

We're off again. This time we're headed to Glacier National Park and the Banff area in Alberta, Canada.

Before departing this morning we checked in with our good friends and neighbors, Beth and Jerry.  Beth told us she felt the earthquake this morning but Chris and I must be numb nuts because we felt nothing.  Judging from Facebook chatter and contacts with family members I think Chris and I are the only two people in the KC area who did not feel anything.  We said our goodbyes and departed at 8:30.  It was 68 under mostly sunny skies..

We rode west on I-70 to exit 328 where we jumped on Highway 99 northbound.  This was a pretty stretch of highway all the way north to Hwy 36.  It could have been I was just excited about being on the road again making it look better than it really was.  Either way, I enjoyed the ride.  Between I-70 and Wamego we saw a crop duster working on fields right along the highway.  Had we been a little further down the road this crop duster would have been spraying us.

We rode through Marysville and then Highway 77 took us north into Nebraska and we immediately turned onto Highway 8 westbound towards Fairbury, NE.  We saw dark clouds on the horizon.

Fairbury has a Rock Island Depot Railroad Museum and Chris' Dad worked on the Rock Island back in the day, so we stopped to take a couple pics of the old depot.

We found our place for lunch, the Pla-Mor Cafe, which is associated with a bowling alley.  We'd never been here before but it looked like our kind of place.  It was LARRAPIN good.

While eating I attempted to score a motel room in Grand Island, where we intended to spend the night.  Some motels were completely booked and those that had rooms were charging exorbitant room rates.  I called and found out that the Nebraska State Fair was going on there.  We did some checking and ended up booking a room in Kearney, NE.

It rained off and on from Fairbury to Minden, NE so we stopped to put on our rain gear.  It was just enough rain to grunge up our motorcycle.  From Fairbury we rode through the towns of Gilead, Ruskin, Nelson, Fairfield, Ayr and Minden on our way to Kearney.

After checking into our motel we went out for a walk and were happy to discover a paved walking path near the motel that paralleled a narrow stream.

The path led to Yanney Park where there was a small lake and an observation tower.  It was a pretty walk and the rain was nowhere to be seen.

view from the observation tower

We rode 349 miles today and our high temperature was 77.  Other than the rain it was a great day for riding.

To see all the pictures taken today click on the following link:
Day 1 pics