Day Eight started off with me passing out on the couch in mid conversation with our hosts in Nebraska… After 20 minutes (+) of cat napping in public, I excused myself and went off to a much more comfortable bed.

The next morning we awoke to delicious smoothies and some fun conversation, before plugging in to the internet and taking care of some business/ blogging. As the morning progressed, I shot a couple of photos of the Crothers and their Math-U-See operation, ate some tasty Mexican food and then took off for Colorado.
“In the Office”

And our new tradition of bag signing was fulfilled of course:

Because of our busy morning, we weren’t able to leave until a bit later than planned. Once we hit the open road (and I mean OPEN! Nothing for miles, and miles) we decided to make up for it.

That’s when we truly discovered how much of a hit our gas milage takes when we kick our speed up a notch (or two )… The miles slid by beneath us like nothing I’d ever seen, just a short while outside of McCook we passed into Mountain Time Zone… Another big accomplishment for us.

The fun almost ended shortly thereafter though… Shortly after passing into the new time zone, we started watching our fuel gauges like hawks as they ventured into, and below the “E” portion of the gauge.

“Not to worry” we thought, “There’s a town 13 miles ahead”.
Well, I don’t know what they call a town in Kansas, but this surely wasn’t much of one! After driving through it twice (in about a minute and a half) we spotted a couple of people who after giving our “new fangled machinery” some inquisitive stares, told us where we “might could” get some fuel as long as we had cash.

Of course we DID have cash… $6.00 whole dollars worth!
But, that was enough to get us to the next town, and out of the beautiful wasteland where we were nearly stranded.

Ethan, wondering “What do I do!?!?”

And a quick shot, looking away from the pumps… BIG sky out here folks (and not much else!)

It didn’t take us much more than an hour before we were settled on a course to see my “family” in Colorado Springs, CO. As the countryside rolled it’s way underneath our tires and we continued Westward, we kept seeing an ever increasing number of Harley’s enroute to Sturgis, SD for their notorious annual rally.

Our last stop for fuel on Day 8 was at an ancient Flying J. That’s where Ethan spotted this “Homeland Security – Warning Level” sign in the window which we both thought was pretty odd.

According to our map, we had less than 2 hours to go to the Springs, and we were definitely ready to see some big mountains.

And did we ever!!

40 minutes outside of the city, I couldn’t take it any more… Between the 4 liters of water I’d had to drink, the beauty of the sky, mountains and our pressing need for detailed directions, I turned off the main road and we quickly found ourselves beside a tiny airstrip with an amazing view of the Rocky Mountains.

We were literally slap happy, and after we took care of our other “pressing” needs, we had a miniature photo shoot with the dark clouds and the mountains as a backdrop. I haven’t had that much fun in a terribly long time.

From our most recent conversations, Ethan’s REALLY glad that he didn’t choose to criss-cross the country THIS way (though he might try it someday).

Me… Acting like… Well, Me.

Ethan’s soon to be new profile picture (I think).

My new profile picture

(Great angle Ethan, Thanks!)

And to the tune of one of our favorites, Ethan “Walks the Line”

Too much fun, seriously.
The next two days were full of wonderful times with some of my all time favorite people, in one of my all time favorite places. The Ewings are LONG time family friends, to the point where I’ve only ever known them as family themselves.

Colorado Springs is also near and dear to my heart from the many trips we’ve made to visit “Uncle Ken and Aunt Jan”… Plus, it’s gorgeous!

As Ethan mentioned in his post, we were blessed to have Wireless network access, there were about 10 networks near by, but the nest one to use seemed to be “Lesbians Rock” and it had only had a working signal if you were sitting on the back porch.

It’s a pity they had such a terrible view

After two days there, we had to make fast time to Wyoming for our next stop, so we packed up the bikes, said our goodbyes and headed North.

But, before I go tonight, here’s a picture of Wyatt on my fully loaded bike (He’ll grow into it, right?) and of course, our “signing picture”.
“I’m almost big enough!”

Uncle Ken Signing Ethan’s Givi for his family:

Signed!

I’m off to bed folks… Keep us in a lot of Prayer, especially the next few days of our journey.

From Mile Zero of the Alaskan Highway (only 1,500 miles to go!)