Flagstaff, Arizona

Unloaded 8-9 miles west of Flagstaff then took my required 34 hr. reset at a nearby truckstop. Rode into town during my time off....followed the railroad service road 4 miles to connect to a vehicle road.
Just cruised around some, had a great taco (strawberry/salsa??...yum!) and got a broken spoke repaired....glad I found it and got it fixed before the 100 mile race I'm entered in, the High Cascades 100, in Bend, OR.

RR service road.

Riding back to the truck came up on a bull elk near the road but he got away before I could take a picture, hid behind some trees.

Taken in a grill-your-own-steak place near the truck stop.

Nevada desert sunrise, heading north to Oregon.

This was about 3-4 hours north of Las Vegas. During the night a young guy from West Virginia who is biking from the Atlantic to the Pacific stopped in to camp. We talked a bit sharing some stories.
He has a blog, thought it was "therollingmango" but I can't find it.

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

After leaving KC I thought about taking some time while passing through Oklahoma City to visit the bombing Memorial. My wife had visited it some years ago and said it was well worth it. I plugged the address into my GPS but there weren't any truck stops or obvious places at the number of exits near the Memorial to park the truck, so I kept on route until I came to the first truck stop and pulled in.

It was a bit out of/on the edge of town. I googled mapped the location and there was a street bike trail spur right at the truck stop that in a mile lead to a main bike trail along a river and around a reservoir.

Looked like a nice ride....with temps in the low 90's and high humidity, it looked to be a decent workout.

Was hoping for some single track but there wasn't any. Instead I traveled off path on a kind of levee trail.
The far side of the lake in the background.

Pano shot with the dam, far shore and levee trail. This was the loop. Headed off on the right went around the water and returned on the left which is the top of the dam.

On the back-side of the lake rode on dirt car trails where people drive in to fish and to get closer to the water.

On the levee between the main shore and the lake.....people standup paddling and kayaking.

Below the dam.

Almost around the end I came up to a fishing pier out in the water and started talking to a guy fishing....George. A retired Air Force guy and also a retired Pastor....when I quipped he's a Pastor out to pasture, he kinda chuckled. We talked fishing some, he was after bass and catfish. I could have talked to George a long time, but I had to get going to get the load further down the road.

Kansas City, Missouri

Got the load from WI to AZ which means the plan to get to OR and do a Mtn. Bike race with my son Chris is in the works.
First stop along the 3 day drive to AZ was in Kansas City, Mo. I started out to try to get to the Missouri River, but ran into a power plant and looking at google maps, there wasn't any bike trail along it anyway. I decided to head west towards town to get to a park that looked like it might have some possibility.
Once I got 3-4 miles down the road I decided to text my nephew and his wife that live in KC to see if they were home and how far I was from them.
It turned out to only be 3.5 miles so I took off for downtown.

I was in a RR switch yard area looking downtown.

My nephew and I have done a ton of camping and canoeing together along with his brother and dad and my other sons. He told me about volunteering at a local school with an 8th grade class. They talked about careers and truck driving came up. That sparked some ideas I hope will work to share this blog. Stay tuned.

It got a bit late so Jon gave me a ride back to the truck.

Downtown. KC, MO.

Russel Road, Illinois

Russel Road is the first exit in Illinois heading south from Wisconsin, also affectionately know as Wolding South, as at any given there can be a number of Wolding trucks fueling up or parked there.

I stopped to do both....fuel and spend the night to be staged to head into downtown Chicago in the AM. The client advised me not to park on-site where I was to unload due to safety concerns.

I noticed a Wolding truck right in front of me in the first line as I was fueling. After fueling, I drove over to him and asked if he was "camping out" or taking a break. He replied he had 8 minutes to go on his required 30 minute break, so I whipped around the line and I was getting into position, he pulled out and I pulled in. There weren't any free spots I could see, so this was perfect timing.

I looked at my cell phone map and noticed a Park and bike trails less than a mile to the east so I get the bike together and changed clothes and headed over the over-pass to get a nice couple hour ride in.

Van Patten Woods.

Some local history.

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Spent the night near the Mississippi River north of downtown after unloading.

Cruised around on some of the trails on the west side of the river then headed south to Theodore Wirth Park to get in some singletrack riding.

Mississippi River looking towards downtown.

Singletrack at Theo Wirth.

Lake Mills, Wisconsin

I accidentally deleted the pics of this ride.
Lake Mills has the Glacial Drumlin Trail passing through it.  Well worth the stop. I went to the East on the trail for a few miles and turned around at the Crawfish River. I then went west and circumnavigated Rock Lake which made a nice loop back to the truck.

Very nice ride.

Topeka, Kansas

Mars Candy factory....home of M&M's.
A little night riding and warm summer's night....with the smell of chocolate in the air.