​​​​​COCI Western Tour - Day 11~13 07/22-24
Heading Back Home

Thursday was the first day of the group heading home. Four of the group, Wylie & Rita, John & Ruth, Randy & Sherry, and Paul & Londa got an early start with breakfast at 7 and were soon on the road heading as far East as they could go. Bill & Erika were heading to Broomfield CO to visit some friends before heading towards home. Before leaving they washed Blue as there was a car wash about 100 yards West of the motel. Once gassed up and on the road around 9 the EDC (Erika Data Recorder) saw a hot air balloon and got a few pictures of it. From their lunch visit they headed toward St. Joseph MO on US 36 an basically beautiful unused 2 lane road through Colorado, Kansas, and into Missouri where it goes to 4 lane after St. Joe. They even saw a sign when entering Norton KS that proclaimed "36 the Quickest Route to Indianapolis", but found that the local motel was full. They got a room and dinner 20 miles further on just as the sun went down. The thought had been for them to stop by a friend in St. Joe on Friday, but found that he would not be getting home until 9pm and didn't want to wait from noon until then so kept on going. They ended up stopping in Decatur IL as they started seeing deer along the roadside and it was getting near dark. One close encounter with roadside wildlife was enough for one trip. On the Thursday the other group got near Kansas City and then made their way home on Friday afternoon. Meanwhile Tom & Nancy worked their way across I80 from Rock Springs taking a few days and also getting home on Saturday.