Day Eleven – Laramie WY to Des Moines IA
Miles: 683
Elapsed Time: 11:48
We had another big day in front of us so we rode 263 miles right out of the chute after gassing up in Laramie upon our 7:15 departure. It was all interstate to Ogallala before we stopped for gas. We jumped off the interstate at North Platte and ran north on US83 before heading east on NE92. Nebraska isn't all that bad of scenery as long as the ride is not on the interstate. Small towns break up the monotony and the two lane roads make it much more enjoyable. We made it to just outside Loup City at 1:00 and decided to stop for a break and eat some snacks we had been carrying. Not much for lunch but we were slightly more than halfway and we wanted to hit some breweries in Des Moines so we were motivated to keep things moving, and we were also losing an hour today as we moved further east. The nicer scenery in the western portion of NE had given way to the flat farm land of central and eastern NE, and on top of that it had gotten rather hot. We made our second gas stop in Columbus NE and downed a couple of bottles of Gatorade before continuing on. It was 4:00 and we had covered 474 miles but still had a little more than 200 miles to cover. We stayed on back roads making good time until we reached the northern portion of Omaha where we jumped back on the Interstate and also made a brief stop at a rest area on I-680. We reached our hotel just before 8:00. Not a significant amount of time but enough to hit some breweries. We did our best to hit more than one but we only made it to the Iowa Tap Room. We needed to eat some and by the time we walked out of the place it was too late to continue as we had another big day in front of us. Although we only lost one hour, it is hard to ride just under 700 miles leaving at 7:00 in the morning and trying to do anything at night upon arrival, but we gave it a good run today. Jim was going to be leaving us tomorrow to make a straight run home so we had a farewell and last cheers of the trip in the hotel lobby.
