Leg I: Spearfish, SD to Fort Collins, CO

Nebraska is STEEP! Who woulda thunk? Well, anyway, we are sitting here in our motel room in Bloomfield after a small hitch in our plans...the highway we were planning to take beyond Niobrara (after camping at the pleasant Niobrara State Park) is flooded! So we changed our route and ended up on an extremely hilly road through Creighton that led us, eventually, here...some of the biggest hills we've seen since leaving SD. Anyway, we had a fun day though it was steep and HOT, and we thought we'd look back on the earlier part of our trip and share it with you!!

Here was our intended route:

View Wedding Ride I in a larger map

Starting off in front of the Meyers house in Spearfish. Derek's  dad, Kent, his brother Jordan, his Aunt Nancie, and our friend John rode with us up the canyon to Cheyenne Crossing...

...where we met a big group of friends and family to have a bon voyage breakfast!

Outside Cheyenne Crossing after some delectable sourdough pancakes!

The Hills are so incredibly green after so much rainfall!

In Hill City, we stayed at an adorable B&B called Mountains and Plains--it is also the Smiling Bear Gift Shop. The owners, Sam and Linda, were incredibly sweet and wonderful, and made us omelettes in the morning to send us off!!

Here are some more pics of the B&B on their website.

Geology Rocks!

From Hill City, we had beautiful weather heading south on the Michelson Trail , until  we were nearing Edgemont. The skies started threatening rain, and we ditched the gravel trail for the shorter, faster road...as we came within a mile or two of Edgemont, the skies opened up. Our original plan was to camp on the southwest side of Edgemont in the Buffalo Gap Grasslands, but instead we opted for a motel (The Rainbow) . What would we expect to see over the hotel office on our way back from a big steak and potato dinner...?

After Edgemont, we had three hot and hilly days through eastern Wyoming, staying one night in Lusk, and then two nights in Torrington (one night camping, and the second, after Laura woke up with a nasty cold, in the Days Inn, our second decision to stray from our plan!)

Finally, we reached Cheyenne, again just before an enormous storm began brewing over the top of us. By that time, though, we were having AMAZING Italian food  at a little place called L'Osteria Mondello! It really was spectacularly good.  The front of the place was a little pizzeria, but then in the back they had a full menu with wait service.  And not only was the food spectacular, but they also gave us free cannolis!  So, if you're ever in Cheyenne, we highly recommend it.

The next morning, bright and early, we had breakfast in this old fashioned diner, which was also our hotel's front office.  Here's Derek looking a bit groggy, probably waiting on his coffee.

 

After about 10 miles of riding, we caught our first glimpse of the Rockies.  Little did we know, that the service road we thought would take us nicely alongside the interstate would soon turn to gravel.  This meant that we had to spend about 10 miles slowly riding or walking the bike along county roads until we were able to pick up Terry Lake Road into Fort Collins (the third change in our route).  The riding after that, though, was simply grand.  We cruised into town again just before the rain hit.  So, all in all it was a rather smooth trip.  We made some adjustments and got to our destination right on time!