Boulder CO to Hays KS - This May Take a While

Got a late start since I was up late with Laura jabbering about old dead relatives. Thanks Laura for dinner and great Miller info!!
I just headed east right out of Boulder and got a nice tour of the suburbs of Boulder. Laura says the city bought a lot of the open land to provide large areas of natural space around it and limit growth, and so it is lovely outside of Boulder.
I had to get on RT470 to bypass all the ugly Denver suburbs and the usual stuff you see outside cities. Anything to avoid the Rt25 - Rt70 intersection. Denver seems to have a lot of smog, which I remember from 1978 as well. Lots of cars (and BMW motorcycles of course) and no mass transit.

I finally got on Rt70 and went east until I hit Byers. I wanted to get off the interstate to find a remote back road. Rt 36 provided such and it was peaceful and extremely remote. Having a 19 year old motorcycle with almost 100K on the clock makes me a little nervous about being this far off the beaten path. So I stayed on 30 until I found the next turn south back to the interstate. I rode through a huge wind turbine farm and they were majestic, out in the wheat and corn fields. Best crop they got growing out here I would guess.
Then time to pay my dues, so back on I70 and drop into that deep meditative trance.
My first clue that this was going to take a while was the fact that at 2pm, I was still in Colorado. Rocky Mountains my keister!

Finally I hit Kansas and it was almost time to plan where to stay tonight. By 4pm the humidity started rising, no more dry western air. It was very warm as well and overcast. So I was getting hot and sticky so Hays seemed to be the place to stop. Lots of empty motels and places for cold beer within walking distance (I can have two!).
I met a retired guidance counselor from upstate NY heading to Moab to meet his kids for a 2 week holiday. We walked to the steak place up the the street and had a couple cold beers and a great evening exchanging notes about our families and the inevitable topic, retirement. Wish I could run into at least one person who did not like being retired. OK, sleep calls me. Storms east of me so I gotta figure out where to go tomorrow.