Trip 5: Day 38 (Frisco & Grand Junction)

I wrote a long post for this day with pictures, but Blogger erased it. It said it was saving but would not publish. When I went back to the post list to try and refresh it, it was gone.
And now Blogger will be gone. The interface is awful and it keeps causing me problems, so I'm going to host my own. I'll post the link shortly.

Trip 5: Day 37 (Denver & Frisco)

I can't post pictures at this point, because I'm at a coffee shop in the town where I stayed last night. The wifi was worthless at the motel, so I couldn't get anything done. I'll edit and upload pictures later today.

The snow finally caught up with me yesterday afternoon. I had reached Frisco well before I had originally intended, but late enough that I felt like I didn't waste the day. The fact is that, in early May, there's very little to do in the Rockies. Most of the ski areas are closed (though Arapahoe Basin is still open), hiking is icy and muddy, biking is icy and the trails are often closed, boating is not possible, and most of the ski towns - like Frisco - are virtually shut down. But I followed a few older sections of US 6, and had a great find in Dillon.

US 6 currently follows I-70 to I-25, then follows that south through Downtown Denver to the 6th Avenue Freeway. The 6th Avenue Freeway opened as an expressway in the mid-1950's with at-grade intersections, but was gradually upgraded to the full freeway it is today throughout the early 1960's. Today, it has a 65mph speed limit - high for an urban area - and serves an alternative to I-70 for commuters coming in from the west side.

Originally, US 6 followed US 40 down West Colfax. Colfax Avenue, even back in the days of Kerouac's time in Denver, has always been a somewhat scummy strip of roadway. Today, the eastern portion, near Sheridan, is lined with cheap shops, flophouse motels and fast food restaurants. The western portion is much the same, though it's a little newer construction but just as run-down.

I followed Colfax as far as Sheridan, where I cut south to see the new "W" light rail line, which opened just over a year ago, and to get onto the 6th Avenue Freeway. The "W" line runs from Golden to Downtown Denver, creating a much-needed transit link between the two towns, and servicing Lakewood.

In Golden, US 6 once followed US 40's current path, south from Colfax and through Mount Vernon Canyon. Up until the early 1950's, Clear Creek Canyon, through which US 6 is currently routed, contained the tracks that were once part of the Colorado Central Railroad, which linked Central City and Golden. Originally built at the time when Golden and Denver were rivals for the state capital site, the railroad was eventually absorbed by Union Pacific and declined with the price of silver. After WWII, the land was apparently donated to the state, and US 6's path, complete with the tunnels that were formerly a part of the railroad, was set by 1957. As far as I can come up with, the tunnels that are along the route today are not original, but were rebuilt - or at least expanded - over the years. The abandoned structures along the route lend credit to the mining history, but there doesn't appear to be any sign of the former railroad.

At Idaho Springs, there is a Main Street where US 6 likely ran, but the bypass that exists today as both I-70 and US 6 was complete by 1957. There is another original section that starts at the Dumont exit (#235) and follows the interstate on both sides until the US 40 interchange, where it continues straight to rejoin I-70. This was always the US 6/40 split.

In Georgetown, the original US 6 runs along Clear Creek (it's followed Clear Creek this whole time) as Argentine Street, then going to the right onto Loop Drive. Loop Drive is named after the Georgetown Loop Railroad, which still exists today as a historical railroad tourist attraction operating in the summer. It was called the "loop" because of its switchback climb up the canyon at the southern end of Georgetown toward Silver Plume, at one point going over itself. Up until I-70 was constructed here though, US 6 also had several switchbacks, avoiding the steep incline that is a problem here today for large trucks. I'm not going to write much about this, because there's an excellent posting about this on the "US Ends" site.

At the Silver Plume exit (#226), you can get off again to follow a more original section of the route, along Water Street, though there is no way to get back on the interstate once you reach the end of the original route. There is a road that runs on the south side of Clear Creek, called Silver Valley Road, but this was never a part of US 6.

At the Loveland Pass exit (#216), US 6 officially separates from Interstate 70. Just west of here are the Eisenhower-Johnson Tunnels, locally known as the "twin tunnels." The westbound side (Eisenhower) opened in 1973, and the eastbound side (Johnson) opened in 1979. The tunnels provide an easier way to cross the Continental Divide, which was previously done via the nearly 11,000-foot Loveland Pass, or by the much more northern 9,600-foot Rabbit Ears Pass via US 40. When completed, they laid the last piece of Interstate 70 (though the highway's planned eastern end, in Baltimore, has never been built), and one of the last pieces of the main interstate highway system to be built. Today, there are signs approaching the tunnels warning very large and wide loads, and trucks hauling hazardous materials, to exit here and use US 6 as an alternative.

I've been over the pass in the summer, and it's mostly full of tourists looking for scenery. However, this day, the road was very quiet. There were a few cars, but it seemed to be mostly tanker trucks, possibly hauling oil or gas. Even they were few and far between though, and the top of the pass was very quiet (and not as cold as you'd think, by the pictures).

Coming back down the pass, you hit the Arapahoe Basin Ski Area, which I had been told by someone in Boulder was now closed. However, it was very much open, with the parking lot mostly full and a snowboarder descending in front of me every few seconds. The traffic was not as bad as it would have normally been, possibly because it was a Thursday, and Keystone, the closest town to Arapahoe Basin, was absolutely dead. I was surprised the stores were open at all.

Leaving Keystone for Dillon, US 6 makes a wide northern turn to go around the lake. I covered it in a previous blog post, but the original path for the route had it running almost directly west-southwest to the original Dillon townsite, which is now under Dillon Reservoir. I had a theory on US 6's original path taking what is now a left at Swan Mountain Road and, after just a few meters, diving into the lake. I was right, and was able to prove it by the lake being very, very low. I walked out to where I thought the road was going into the lake and - lo and behold - found crumbling asphalt, some of it clearly in a line where the roadbed had once been. As far as signs or markers though, I didn't see anything. The grading, as it jumps off of current road's grading, is pretty obvious, and it's an easy place to find, just as I pointed it out on the map.

Reaching Frisco, I got a late lunch at Backcountry Brewing, which ended up being a really good brewery with an excellent happy hour. However, the altitude was already getting to me. When I had walked around at Loveland Pass, I had already noticed the shortness of breath, which seemed strange since I had biked almost forty miles over the past two days in Denver and Boulder. But, as I drank my beer, I definitely noticed the difference, and my high alcohol tolerance could not offset the change in altitude, so I left before I got completely wasted, and checked into the motel.

By then, it had started snowing, killing any desire I had to explore further, so I spent the night watching TV and being stoned. Since I may be in Utah this evening, I thought it prudent to consume the rest of my brownie so as not to cause any problems there. I'm sure Utah, just like Nebraska, is paranoid of this. This time, I took it earlier in the evening, and had a nice enough time. Though I was reminded of why I don't smoke: I cannot get a damn thing done. I could barely play games on the computer. All I want to do is lie around and watch TV, and that's what I did. The snow came down past dusk though, and covered my car, so I don't think I missed too much.

Today I continue west past Vail, Glenwood Springs and into Grand Junction, where I'll at least do laundry. This is the section of the highway that I'm going to revisit this summer, when it's warmer and easier to explore, so I'm not terribly worried about missing things. The temperature on the Western Slope is predicted to get down into the high 40's, so I may just be sleeping in my car in the desert tonight, maybe even right on the Utah/Colorado border which, along the historic routing of US 6 north of I-70, is extremely isolated and sees very little traffic.

Trip 5: Day 36 (Denver & Boulder)

Boulder was never on US 6 but, for the past several years, I've come to Boulder at least once in the year. 2013 was a miss though, so it was time for a make-up.
May is not the best time to visit the Rockies, as evidenced by the hail storm that greeted me this afternoon. The intent was to tour the US Mint in Denver, which is a tough reservation to make during the busier summer months, but I was able to snag one for the last tour this afternoon. To reach it in time, I had to catch the 2pm bus back from Boulder but, almost as if on queue once I mentioned having to catch the bus, it began raining (and soon hailing). But that's fine: Boulder was fun. I mostly drank, but I have a good time drinking in Boulder. Avery Brewing, on the city's east side, has set up an almost new brewery district, with at least five breweries within just a few blocks of one another, mostly in nondescript industrial parks and strip malls.

Even before the hail storm, it was cold. The bike ride in to Downtown Denver was a bit rough, making me wish I had brought a jacket. Denver's bike path and lane system is better than that of many cities, but it's not enough where I would rely solely on my bike to get around. There are more bikes on the roads, and drivers are more aware of them, it seems, but you're still often forced to ride with traffic in the travel lanes, or right next to it in a small bike lane. The Denver area however has what I consider to be an excellent bus system.


 For 30 years, an underground bus terminal, sitting under the Regional Transportation District (RTD) office on Market & 16th Streets, was the hub of the area's bus system. The inner building can get cramped at rush hour, it's difficult to get a bike down to the bays and outside the doors to the buses, and connection to the light rail involves a 3-4 block walk, or transferring to another bus, like the free 16th Street Mallride. But the legacy of the Market Street Terminal is ending. On May 11, after years of construction, Denver opens its Union Station Terminal; an integrated, multi-modal transit hub built around the historic Union Station, where light rail, Amtrak, each of the three types of bus service (local, regional and SkyRide) and the new FasTracks train service will all meet. The site also has easy access to the interstate system, bike paths and the local sporting venues. This does push the site farther west, away from the center of Downtown Denver though. The bus terminal was only unveiled publicly two weeks ago, after the $500 million project was mostly already completed.

When I passed by it, there was still a buzz of activity, with construction workers in hats and orange shirts going in and out of the building. It makes you wonder if it will really be done in three days.

Most of my time in Boulder was spent along Boulder Creek, which is the centerpiece of the city's bike path network. The path can get very busy, suffering the same rush hour crunch that any transportation network suffers. Two bicyclists hit each other just in front of me, as they were trying to cross a street in opposite directions. When they hit, the older man's face winced up but the younger guy just looked down. It was the younger guy's fault. He seemed to be a bit stoned as he was having trouble keeping the bike straight, and had swerved into the left side of the path. They didn't say anything to each other as I passed though. I just said something like "Watch out there, guys." I know how helpful that is.

This was the rambling mission
statement attached to the menu at
FATE Brewing.

Boulder is, at its core, a very pretentious town. I don't think it necessarily comes out to the casual tourist, who will see the natural beauty, the safety, the Pearl Street Mall and its charming shops, and the quaint college town atmosphere. Boulder saw an influx of counter-culture transients in the 1960's, and though there's somewhat of an effort to keep that spirit alive in the city, housing prices are mainly what's keeping it from being more of a reality. It's extremely expensive to live in Boulder as restrictions on development, both in terms of redeveloping older properties and new construction, have kept things very quiet, thus driving the prices up and the people out into the suburbs. Most people who work in Boulder do not seem to live in Boulder. Instead, they live in the cheaper towns like Longmont, Loveland, Erie and Louisville. These towns don't have the charm that Boulder does, but they certainly have cheaper housing.
I stopped at FATE Brewing first to get lunch. They looked like they had a good tap list. Even at almost 1pm, the place was busy, with a wait to get a table on the patio. I sat at the bar and ordered their burger with a side salad for $9.50, then two tastes (free) of a "Cascadian Dark" and their Biere de Mars. Neither were awful, but they were also not good. I requested a taster (full 5oz pour, $1.50) of their standard IPA, which was really bad. The burger was overcooked and the salad dressing, called a "lime cilantro vinaigrette," tasted like lime juice, which was just gross. I should have eaten at the next place I went to, Bru, about 14 blocks down Arapahoe. Bru features a seasonally-changing menu with a focus on locally-sourced ingredients, though they had a "banh mi" that appeared to be served on ciabatta. I liked the beer there though. They had four IPAs, including two that were just vehicles to showcase a single hop. The trippel, which was one of the pricier beers I can recall drinking at $9, was excellent.
Then it was to Avery, another 7 blocks down Arapahoe. While Bru was quiet and I could talk with the staff, Avery was a madhouse. I've come here almost every time I've been in Boulder, and I've seen a dramatic change within the past two years. In 2009, I stopped here on my ill-fated "bike beer tour" of the northern suburbs, and ended up spending quite a bit of time here. I was alone at first and, by the time I left a couple of hours later, the bar was still only about half full. Now, each recent time I've gone, the place has been packed at all hours. I very much enjoy their beer though and really wanted to go there just as much as I wanted to go to Boulder.

Downtown Denver from US 36 at
Federal Boulevard

The bus ride back was very, very slow. US 36 is currently being upgraded to support an additional "express" lane that will be open to commuters, a bike lane (hopefully away from the freeway), a bus rapid transit lane, and right-of-way for the new FasTracks' Northwest Rail Line. US 36 was always slow-going, but it seems worse now with the construction. It was nice to sit back and doze off for a while though.

World of Beer coming soon to LoDo. Someone I spoke with
at a beer bar a block away was confident that this would
have no effect on the business there. We'll see...

Trip 5: Day 35 (Denver)

The weather today brought out the city. Everyone wanted to be on the patio. The light was low thanks to high clouds, and the temperature was just perfect. I spent the afternoon biking through the city.
I can only classify my start this morning as "sluggish." I ate the free breakfast downstairs, served by a stoned waiter, in the midst of one of the first times I can recall having a "pot hangover." A pot hangover is not nearly as bad as an alcohol hangover; you're just kind of tired and slow to respond. You're basically still a little stoned. And it causes some issues. I didn't end up leaving the hotel until after 2pm today, just because I felt so uninspired.
But it's one of those things where, I didn't feel like exercising, but I'm so glad that I did. Close to 18 miles on the bike: down to East Colfax, then off to Parker Road near Mississippi for a brewery, then to another brewery closer to my hotel, on 38th Avenue.
I know I said I wasn't going to drink but, thinking about it today, I realized that it's my duty to do so. It's my duty to get out and explore these new breweries and sample what they're offering. Part of my trip is beer-oriented, and has been since the onset, so cutting that out now would be silly. However, I don't need to get drunk, and that's what I tried to avoid tonight. Five tasters at the first brewery, Copper Kettle, then three at the next, Station 26. And none of it made me regret deciding to limit my drinking: the beer wasn't that great.
Station 26 featured a "Derby Day" barleywine with spearmint, in honor of the mint julep. However, this tasted like a "menthol barleywine" more than anything, and was about as tasty as that sounds. The black IPA was disappointing, but their main IPA was just bad. Copper Kettle was not a lot better, though the styles were more interesting. They had a wine barrel-aged grand cru. I liked the grand cru at Thunderhead in Kearney, Nebraska better, ironically. This one had very little character. They had an imperial red that came in at 9%, and tasted like it with the amount of sugar they had. But, on the plus side, both places were really friendly. It's making me appreciate being here more, because all of the four establishments I stopped at today (lunch, dinner and two breweries) had really friendly staff. That's just how Denver is though, in my experience.
And you may think: that's a lot of beer. But, fuck you, I burned over 1000 calories on my bike ride, so I'm going to enjoy the beer.

That's all I have to offer: a boring description of the bike ride and a couple of pictures. I'm likely staying in the rest of the night with the intent of getting up early in order to bike Downtown tomorrow to catch the bus to Boulder.
I should offer two interesting things about this hotel, the Doubletree Stapleton South: the breakfast buffet this morning featured apple blintzes; and they offered to put my bike in a closet so that I didn't have to leave it outside.

The Elm, where I ate lunch, on East Colfax (former US 40)

A repurposed Stapleton International Airport building

Trip 5: Day 35 (Fort Morgan & Denver)

Just to put it out there: I consumed about 1/4 of a THC-infused brownie ten minutes ago. Honestly, I don't feel much, so I'm going to let it settle a bit more, then see how I feel. I can't even remember the last time I smoked, and I didn't really want to smoke this time. For one, I can't roll to save my life. I've never been able to roll, probably because I've never really smoked pot much. I don't have a pipe, and those can cost quite a bit new (and who wants a used pipe). And, anyway, even if I did have something in which to smoke it, I don't have place where I can smoke it. Smoking of any kind is banned in my hotel room, and, from what I understand, most hotels that allowed smoking have added policies banning the smoking of marijuana. You can't smoke it in public, per state law, and smoking in your car would likely lead to a DUI (I don't know the law here, but, in some states, you can get charged even if you're just sitting in your car). So I'm left with the handy "edible."
Funny things about this brave new world of legalization. Dispensaries are quite common, but they're not everywhere. The neighborhood where I'm staying, by Denver's former Stapleton Airport, a dividing line of upscale New Urbanist-inspired mixed-use developments and a low-density, majority African American neighborhood, has none. I had to drive about 4 miles, to East Colfax Avenue. The first place I found was called Frosted Leaf. I checked out their web site in advance, and it looked quite good: extensive selection of edibles with good prices. When I got there though, a sign on the door clearly states "Medical Marijuana License Required for Entry."
It turns out that, if you're a stupid tourist like me, you have to go to a dispensary that's licensed to sell recreational marijuana, a license doled out by the City of Denver to (at press time) only 47 establishments in the city limits. That may sound like a lot, but Denver's a pretty large city, both geographically and demographically, and it's easy to spread those 47 out, especially since most seem to be in the Downtown area.
Luckily, a recreational-licensed facility was just down the street: Gaia. When you walk in, you first see the signs: no one under 21, no consumption on premises, and no photography. You see a booth behind protective glass and a door with a security code. The person in the booth asks for your ID, then buzzes you in, telling you to take a seat and someone will be with you shortly. The seating area looks just like that of a doctor's office, complete with magazines (though these were all cannabis-related) and fake plats. The room next to it is where the business happens, and only one party (they apparently do groups, because two girls went in together before me) is allowed in at a time. When your name is called, you go into the room, where little jars of buds sit, labelled with white cards. The edibles were on the right side, in a glass display case. The selection was not as good as what I had seen online with the other place, and they were out of my first choice, a chocolate, but the brownie sounded good too.
They take credit cards and, a $24 swipe later, my brownie was put into what looks like a larger white pill bottle, then into a small paper bag, and stapled with the receipt.
It's obviously a pot brownie. I mean, they have a technique of sort of boiling it to remove the THC and add it to the butter, but it still smells and tastes like marijuana. But not that bad. If I didn't know, I would ask "What's that funny taste?" and say "This kinda smells like pot" and probably not eat it again by choice, if it did not, in fact, have any THC.

All I could think about on the drive in, through the small towns of the Plains in Northeast Colorado, was that I probably looked like I was a weed tourist. My big beard, flip-flops, and scraggly hair tucked haphazardly under a UA hat. I mean, I'm obviously not a rep from a fertilizer company. I can't imagine that the people in these small towns, with no dispensaries, enjoy the change in the Colorado law. There's been a movement in this region for many years to split off from the rest of the state, since the mostly agricultural and rural Plains has very little in common with the mining- and tourist-driven western two-thirds.

Holyoke

Holyoke, Paoli and Huxton are the only three towns you hit in Phillips County along US 6, and those make up 3/4 of the total number of towns in the county. This is a very isolated and lowly populated region.
Holyoke is the county seat and largest town. The downtown area was quite bustling that morning.

View of the Platte Valley and Sterling
from US 6

The plan was to stop in Sterling for a while to get online and get food. I've never thought much of Sterling. It's almost like it's big enough to be kind of crappy where the smaller towns are at least quiet and charming. Sterling has mostly chains and fast food. Village Inn was one of the better food options. I had stopped at a Burger King here years ago, and I was again for looking for that, but I couldn't find it. So I just kept driving, down to Brush, where I stopped at what was called a coffee shop.

The first thing you notice there are the signs: "Restrooms for customers only;" "No running;" "Children must be accompanied by an adult;" etc. Not a way to set up a fun place. The guy was loud, kept trying to sell me more stuff, and had a lot of questions. There was only one other guy in there who was supposedly working on the lights, but mostly sat around, getting up once to almost destroy the place with a long ladder. I paid $9 for a sub that was on Safeway bread, and made with frozen meatballs. Normally I like to support these sort of small town places, but I took a picture of the sign, because I knew that this would not be open if and when I ever come back to Brush.
Brush is where US 6 and US 34 reunite, at least historically. When US 6 encounters I-76 just east of Brush, it actually gets on to I-76 and never intersects US 34, which is coming in from the south. Instead, the road that continues from I-76 southwest to meet US 34 is signed "Spur 34," and only US 34 continues through both Brush and Fort Morgan.
I did finally find a Burger King in Fort Morgan. I sat there for a couple of hours finally finishing the blog post and doing research. Fort Morgan is a larger town and the seat of Morgan County. There's a Safeway, the first one you encounter on US 6, and a small downtown area. The theater there was the first theater I had seen in a couple of days that was not playing "God's Not Dead," apparently a very popular movie in the Plains region.
West of Fort Morgan, US 34 reaches I-76 and US 6 officially. This ends the I-76 Business Loop that's been on the old route the whole time through Brush and Fort Morgan. Strangely, signs indicate that you can either continue straight or go left to stay on US 34.

US 34 leaves I-76 and US 6 for the last time, going to Greeley. Between the two exits for US 34, there is a frontage road on the north side of the expressway that could be the original roadway, though it was so far from the railroad tracks that I doubted it.

Painter R. meeting old US 6 in Wiggins

Asphalted section of old US 6

As US 34 leaves to the west though, the original route comes off of the interstate at exit 66A to go through Wiggins, but then rejoins it after a couple of miles. At exit 49, signed as "Painter Rd" and only on the westbound side, you can get off again and reach the old version of US 6, as it goes through Roggen. Roggen had a large grain elevator and a few horse farms. There was, strangely, an Israeli flag in one of the windows, something I wasn't expecting in a small Colorado town. At the west end of Roggen, the frontage road on the south side of the interstate is, at least in theory, the old route, though it becomes dirt and gravel here, and does not look particularly promising if you're coming from the east. However, about a mile down it, I found a genuine old asphalted section of the route, complete with very faded white center lines. The asphalt only lasts the length of a curve, but then goes back to a rough washboard road.
The map here shows the town of Tampa, but there really isn't a town. Instead, there's a brand new rail crude oil terminal. Crude oil hasn't been shipped by rail in the area for many years, instead relying on pipelines. However, the demand is apparently now too large for the pipelines, and this terminal was built to link up with a pipeline coming from California.
Past the rail terminal, the road is new and asphalted. Between it and the railroad tracks, there's what looks like an older roadbed. It was hard to tell. I found chunks of asphalt along it, but it was also the bed of a buried pipeline, so I couldn't really be sure, though the road did shift to be closer to the tracks farther down.
After a power plant, you reach Keenesburg, which is a slightly larger town where the area's high school sits. In Keenesburg, the local street signs still say "US 6," and the original route continues west out of the small town.
It's only when you reach the gas stop town of Hudson that the road ends, and you must rejoin I-76.

The original US 6 leaves at the State Route 2 interchange. In 1950, this was where US 6 met with State Route 70, which continued north to Brighton as Route 2 now does, though it was solely US 6 to the south of here. This area is a popular area for new homes, and the tract housing developments lined the route up to where the east side of the road enters Rocky Mountain National Wildlife Refuge. As you enter Commerce City, the neighborhood becomes mostly Latino and partially industrial, with a number of run-down but still open motor court motels along the route.
In Commerce City, the old US 6 merged here with US 85 and, today, the current US 6. This is Vasquez Boulevard, around since at least 1950. A few blocks later, State Route 2 separates to go south, this the path of the former State Route 83. As you reach the Interstate 70 interchange though, US 6 and Vasquez Boulevard veer to the right, toward 46th Avenue. 46th Avenue runs below I-70 on a lower deck. As you're traveling along I-70 above, you would probably never even notice this. I didn't know it existed until I started researching it, even though I've driven that part of I-70 several times.
46th Avenue intersects a few streets, then curves to the north to go around I-70 ramps and intersect Brighton Boulevard, ending the lower deck. Here, US 6 turned left to go south on Brighton Boulevard toward Downtown Denver. Now though, US 6 is routed back onto I-70, then south on I-25 to the 6th Avenue Freeway just south of Downtown. I turned around here, and headed back to the hotel.

I like the Stapleton area because it has cheap hotels, a lot of shopping with some decent restaurants, and is still relatively close to Downtown Denver. Stapleton was the name of Denver's former airport, which was closed in 1995 when the new airport, northeast of the city, opened. Stapleton was completely redeveloped as a mixed-use development, with only a few of the original airport buildings being reused. One of them is the control tower. Though it still sits vacant, just as a symbol of the area's history, there has been recent planning to reuse the former airport office portion of the lower floors as offices for the community development association.

Edibles evidently take a bit longer to take effect. I was pretty annihilated by 9 or 9:30. My picking at the brownie because nothing was happening resulted in a pretty intense experience, that lasted well into my sleep. It was a lot like having fever dreams, but they were much more colorful and there were no nightmares.
Pot tends to make me paranoid, though I've smoked some before that had very little paranoia. This was very little paranoia, though anxieties creep up still, and I realized I had missed the deadline to pay my Illinois Tollway violation from over a week ago.

Trip 5: Day 34 (Holdrege, McCook, Imperial)

Started out yesterday with a bad breakfast that got my stomach upset for a while, but I eventually worked through it. The drinking the night before probably didn't help much either. I made a bit of a pledge to stop drinking for at least the rest of the trip. If anything, I may get some THC products, like the pot chocolate, while in Denver, because why not.

The turn-off for Kearney, strangely, is a very popular turn-off. Most of the traffic in both directions on US 6 seemed to be turning there. The first town west of the turn-off for Kearney is Axtell. Approaching Axtell, and looking directly west (US 6 is on a west-southwest course here), you'll see a few larger buildings. This is Mosaic at Bethpage, a Lutheran ministry dedicated to helping disabled people live full lives. Though the actual church and housing complex is located here, there is also a very large thrift store in Holdrege that supports the organization. It was very peaceful here, just in walking around. There is a museum (the "Talbot Museum") and a gift shop, but neither were open on this Sunday. I guess I was supposed to be in church...

The Funk School

The next town was one that I had written down for a stop: Funk. I wanted a picture of Downtown Funk. It was a bit sad -just three buildings - but none of the few businesses there took advantage of their town's name.

Downtown Funk

Old railway station, now a
professional building
Downtown Holdrege

In Holdrege, I stopped at the McDonald's, which seemed to be one of the only places in town with wifi. And the wifi was quite good. I've begun to rely on McDonald's for wifi access, particularly on Sundays.
Sundays are tough in small towns. Most businesses are closed, except for a couple of restaurants that serve after-church crowds. Even supermarkets are sometimes closed. So, even if there is a coffee shop, local museum, brewpub, or something else of interest, it's likely to be closed. Holdrege was no different. I ended up eating at a Runza, as I thought this was the place time I would be able to get it. Runza is a Nebraska chain that serves the namesake style of pocket sandwich that is found mostly in Eastern Europe. Most of the sandwiches are ground beef based and contain some cheese. The Runza chain also has regular burgers, sandwiches, french fries, etc. I don't usually eat here. It's pricey and I like to say that you will always end up with the name of the place in the end ("the runs-a"). But it's probably better than McDonald's, which was my other choice, and I had already spent enough time there for one day.



McCook was the next major town. I had intended on visiting a museum there - Museum of the High Plains - but it was closed until Tuesday. Everything else was closed and, again, I ended up at a McDonald's. It's too bad, because I had been there before and really liked the town. It has a little German bakery in its downtown area that has wifi and some excellent pastries. But, strangely, McCook's brewery is open Sundays. Loop Brewing has been there for several years, and sits in what looks like an old BNSF building right along the tracks. They had five beers plus a root beer on tap when I was there.

US 6/34 split

West of McCook, US 34 and US 6 finally split. The most direct way to Denver is US 34, to the left but, of course, I took US 6. The result was a shockingly low amount of traffic. I would go for several minutes at a time and never see any cars. This allowed me to basically stand in the middle of the highway at times and take pictures of the evening. I'm sure that US 34 is not exactly bustling. The I-80/I-76 route has taken most of the traffic from both of these routes, and all that's left is the little bit of traffic that runs between the various small towns along it.

This part of the Plains is my favorite. The landscape is of grassy, broken canyons and hills with almost endless vistas. Homes are few and far between, and the irrigated farms that have dotted the highway up to this point mostly drop off, leaving fenced ranchland. This is essentially the same landscape you find to the north in the Dakota Badlands but not quite as dramatic. However, tourists never venture into this area. They have no reason to.

Past the 6/34 split, you go into an especially desolate area, where the few towns that exist are over 10 miles apart. Palisade is first. Aside from a saloon, much of the town is empty and extremely quiet.

The next town, Wauneta, is larger, and is where US 6 once turned to the north, before Enders Reservoir was constructed and US 6 was rerouted west to reach it. There is no indication of the historic routing here from signs. The former turn is now used as a public truck parking area, as indicated by a sign when entering into town, and the old path is obvious.
I stopped a bit after Wauneta onto what looked like an old routing of US 6 closer to the railroad track. It was not or, if it was, it was so old that there was no longer any evidence of grading. Thinking of it now though, since I was west of the original northern turn of US 6, this wasn't the original routing anyway. I got closer to some of the dramatic, sandy cliffs that you get in this part of the Plains though.

Before going to the campground, I stopped at Imperial to buy a candy bar. Imperial is one of my favorite towns in the country. It's cute, people are generally friendly, and it's in a beautiful setting. Frenchman Creek, which US 6 follows west from here, forms the long Frenchman Valley, making Imperial a bit flatter than the surrounding areas.

Camping was at Champion Lake, also a part of Frenchman Creek, west of Imperial. Strangely, I had originally intended on camping here when I first came through in 2009, but tornado warnings drove me to the small Northside Motel in Imperial, where I ended up having a pretty decent night. Camping worked out though. I was alone, it was quiet, and it was not excessively cold. I had pulled out both the lighter bag and the mummy bag, and began the night on top of the mummy bag for padding with the lighter bag draped over me. At about 3am though, it got cold enough to warrant the mummy bag, so I got inside - pushing the lighter bag to the bottom to use as padding - and slept fairly well for the rest of the night.
Camping pictures. It was a beautiful sunset.