Trans-Canada - Day 14

Start Location: Boonville, MO
Ending Location: Sioux City, IA
Miles Today: 401
Trip Miles: 4229
States Visited: 7
Provinces Visited: 5
Low Temp: 72° F
High Temp: 85° F
Min Elevation: 644'
Max Elevation: 1180'

Route Map:

Whew - today was much better than the last two days. The temperature was fine all day. We did have a few rain showers but never enough to put our rain gear on and we think that if you don't put on rain gear - it doesn't really count. Actually, at 65 or 70 miles an hour, the faring and windshield on the bike punch a big enough hole in the weather that it has to rain really hard to get very wet although we have been in some of those type of rains. We have our leathers back on and feel much better about that as well.

We added two more states to our list today. This morning we crossed out of Missouri and entered Kansas. While we were only in Kansas for 40 or 50 miles, we decided that that counts. Unfortunately, since we were not on a major interstate, we didn't really get a chance to get a good picture of a Kansas sign. We did however get a couple of shots of the Kansas City Royals baseball field just to prove we were here. From Kansas we followed the Missouri border north until we crossed over into Iowa and then followed the Iowa border north to Sioux City where we stopped for the night. You'll see that the scenery was far from interesting. We really get spoiled riding through states like Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico - not to mention Washington and Oregon.

Interestingly enough, the portion of I-29 we traveled through Iowa is officially designated as part of the Lewis and Clark Trail System. Two years ago during our 4 Corners Trip we followed a significant portion of this trail through Washington, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota.

Tomorrow we get off the Interstates and follow Highway 20 through Nebraska. We have no idea what this road will be like but it heads west, and that's the direction we ultimately need to go. There's not much along the way so we'll have to keep an eye on our gas guage and keep the tank relatively full. We have come close to running out a couple of times on previous trips when taking back roads and we don't want to do that again. With any luck we'll get to the Crazy Horse Monument sometime Friday morning.

We've sort of made a commitment tonight. We're washing clothes and we don't plan to do it again so it looks like we'll be back home no later than Tuesday.