Pre-National G8 Meet: Day 3

Boy am I glad that I drove the extra miles yesterday! The weather today wasn’t the greatest and most of the morning I was driving through spitting rain. This was a bit of a concern since I had planned on driving some twisty roads; and didn’t know if they would be effected.

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Fortunately Wyoming has an awesome website for tracking road conditions (Wyoming Travel Information Map). I was even able to pull-up a webcam for each of the twisty roads I planned on driving so I could monitor road conditions. I was also able to see one area of WY-70 that was under construction after a landslide… and that the detour was appropriate for the lowered suspension of the G8.

I’ve been spending far too much time driving on I-80 the past few days, but today I made a detour to drive some twisty roads. It felt a little weird getting off the interstate to drive 48 minutes the wrong way, but when I turned onto Wyoming 70 it was totally worth it.

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WY-70 is mostly sweeping curves, and climbs nearly 3000ft into the mountains. The best sections are in the Medicine Bow National Forest, where the road winds through a mixture of birch and pine forests. The weather today resulted in most of the views being obstructed, but it was very cool driving though the fog/rain.

The posted 55 mph speed limit was very obtainable in the corners, but the wet roads made things a little challenging… it was fun having to dodge the standing water in the curves. My favorite part of this drive was the complete lack of people on the road. I think I counted a total of three cars driving in the same direction as me, all of which were very easy to pass. For about half an hour I must have had a stupid grin on my face… the drive was quite euphoric!

The last 150 miles of my day was back on I-80 cruising at 75mph. There was a little rain at first, and I was surprised to see signs saying “Wet Pavement Turn off Cruise Control”… I guess it makes you pay attention a little more (and keeps your car from running away if your wheels start to spin). Fortunately the rain didn’t last too long and I was able to enjoy the nearly empty road a little more.

So far on this trip I’ve been very good about filling-up on gas early; as I don’t want to get stranded in the middle of nowhere. As I approached Nebraska I started looking at my fuel gauge and where the next gas station was. I found myself ~35 miles from my stopping point for the day with a little over 1/8th of a tank left… and figured I’d be able to make it.

Just as I pasted the “last gas” sign the “Low Fuel” indicator turned on and I had no choice but to push it! I started looking at the numbers, trying to see if my instantaneous fuel economy would increase if I slowed down to 65 mph… or if I drafted a semi-truck. The last few miles were a little nerve-wracking, but I pulled into the gas station with the gauge hovering just above empty (I didn’t get the “Very Low Fuel” alarm, and took 16.738 gallons to fill-up).

After getting gas I headed-out to find a place to take a photo that said “Welcome to Nebraska”. As I drove down the street I found the perfect thing… What else says Nebraska better than a harvester?

Today I logged 529 miles and had a very enjoyable time. I only have ~700 miles left to drive until I reach Bettendorf, IA for the National G8 Meet. I don’t have any more twisty roads planned (there are no mountains in these areas of Nebraska and Iowa), so will be traveling on I-80. While I could go crazy and drive all the way to Bettendorf tomorrow, one of the reasons I left a day early was so that I could take my time.