Wednesday, September 5, 2018

Colorado and Nebraska Road Trip Plan

Out of the 49 states that I have visited, Nebraska is the only one that I have yet to do something significant.  In all of my other non-race states, I have stopped at a tourist attraction and in most cases, I have spent at least one night.  In Nebraska, I took a short detour from Cheyenne, Wyoming to the town of Kimball.  All told, I spent about 30 minutes in the state and all but 5 were in the car.  I did stop at a grocery store and made a small purchase.  It counts for the lenient standards but definitely not for the strict.  I had planned to make it a double with Iowa but there are a few issues with that plan.  There's too much dead time between races.  It's too much driving and it will cost an arm and a leg to rent from O'Hare in Chicago.  This year, I've got an opportunity to race in Nebraska and make a nice trip out of it without missing any time at work.

Saturday 10/6- Fly out of Birmingham to Denver first thing in the morning.  It's very important to get in at a decent hour because I've got to get to North Platte, Nebraska (3.5-4 hours) by the end of the day.  Part of me is thinking to take a Friday flight to be safe.  If there is a long delay, I'll miss the race.  Upon further review, yes I will take the Friday afternoon flight.  At any rate, the drive into Nebraska will not be very exciting but I expect the people will be very nice. 

Sunday 10/7- Small race in North Platte, Nebraska.  They have a 5K and half marathon with essentially no time limit so even if I am very sick and have to walk, I can get credit for a finish.  From there, it will be back to Colorado.  I'll stay in Estes Park, just outside of Rocky Mountain National Park and gain an hour going back to Mountain Time Zone.  Figure, if I can get out of North Platte by 10 AM Central, I can get in by 2 PM Mountain even with a lunch stop.  I can be flexible here.  If it's good weather, I'll take Trail Ridge Road, one of the most scenic in the country that goes up to 12,000 feet elevation.  Only 1-2 weeks later, the road will be closed for the winter.  I was here back in 2010 and loved it but I didn't have a good camera phone at the time so I have no pictures. If it's a cloudy day or I am running late, I'll go to Denver instead.  I've been there twice and really like the city. 

Monday 10/8- I'll have the day off work for Columbus Day so I will do whatever I do not do the previous day.  It will either be Trail Ridge at dawn or I sleep in a bit and chill in Denver before my flight back.  Aside from the money, I don't see a downside to this trip so I'm leaning towards doing it.  It will be 2 weeks prior to Detroit and 3 weeks after DC so it's a heavy schedule but not terribly taxing.  I really want to do Nebraska sooner rather than later so I can shore up state #49.  Again, Hawaii is state number 50 and it will wait until race state number 50.

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