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Anyone travel coast to coast on Route 50? I just learned about this road, it sounds interesting but would like some first hand observations/impressions.
I rode US 50 from eastern Kansas to Sacramento. Great road! First thing I should mention is that there were enough gas stations along the way so we didn't need to worry about fuel. I wouldn't pass one up, though. Keep it as full as you can...just in case...especially with today's oil problems.
We took our chances along the way and found motels as we traveled. The most interesting place we stayed was the Border Inn at the NV/UT border. Nothing fancy, but it was quiet, clean and comfortable. There is a truck stop style restaurant there, as well as a gas station and convenience store. As I recall, the motel is in Utah while the rest of the place is in Nevada. I was there in 2010, and at the time there was no cell phone service there. Just a pay phone by the gas station, but that was 12 years ago. There is nothing else there. At night it was as dark as the inside of a basketball. No lights other than the motel and store as far as I could see. That night I grabbed a glass of sipping whiskey and went to the yellow line on the highway and stood on the NV/UT border for about 20 minutes. No cars came by the entire time. There was hardly a sound. It was kinda weird. <insert Twilight Zone music here>
There is a lot of long, flat roads in the west part. At one point we decided to speed it up a bit and began cruising at about 90 MPH. After about 5 minutes we saw a car way up ahead coming our way. Before we could slow down we saw that it was a State Trooper. I figured we were going to get stopped, but he just kept on going. He probably figured that if we crashed we wouldn't hurt anyone but ourselves. We slowed down to 80 MPH after that close encounter. The photo below was taken then. If you look close you can see the bike that was leading.
Other than that, there isn't anything that sticks out in my mind that would be a problem. There is plenty of beautiful scenery between KS and CA, too. Take some pictures!
The second photo is several of the guys trying to decide which way to go. The two in the middle are from Australia, and the guy on the far right is from Amsterdam, Netherlands. The rest of the pictures are some random shots along the way.
"Haulin' the mail" in Arizona.
A couple of Aussies and a Dutchman.
We stopped in Grand Junction CO for a photo op.
Self explanatory
Lake Tahoe Don't remember where.
Me at...at...well, I don't recall the exact spot for this one, either.
Duh.
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Last edited by Frank the Real Biker; Apr 16, 2022 at 05:01 PM.
I've been on a couple sections of it fairly recently. In 2020 we took a trip from IA to ride Skyline Drive, the Blue Ridge Parkway, Tail of the Dragon, etc.. We picked up US-50 at Chillicothe OH and rode east staying the night at a Best Western Plus in Bridgeport WV. It was good road as I recall and a fun ride but was even better the next day as it rolled through the hills in WV and cut through a small section of Maryland. We dropped south though at Mt Storm and headed towards US-48.
I've probably been on sections of it here and there but in 2021, while looking for our new home out West, we took it from Pueblo up to Grand Junction CO. That is a very interesting and scenic section through the Rockies. I remember we saw some mountain goats munching grass on what looked like an impossible cliff along the road. It got a bit more congested from Montrose to Grand Junction with traffic and some construction and I remember it being a bit weird finding our way back to I-70 in Grand Junction but nothing we couldn't handle. We went out of our way to take that route because of the intermittent shut-downs occurring on I-70 due to the Grizzly Creek burn scar mud slides.
Done 50 from Kansas City. to Ca. and rode some parts of it going east back in the late 70's & early 80's. Small town hoping from DC to the Kansas border then it starts to stretch out a bit with time between towns. Get west of the Rocky's don't pass a gas stop, even if it's just to top off, stations can and do close suddenly on rural routes.
Reviewing the map it turns out that US-50 goes through several other interesting places I've been to.
It goes through downtown Cincinnati where the Carew Tower Observation Deck is really fun to go up, a great outdoors view 49 floors up...
Not far away just off of I-75 is the Cincinnati Museum Center, a former grand central station building that is a fantastic museum totally worth seeing...
In Indiana it goes through Seymour, known as the hometown of John Mellencamp there's the Jackson County Visitor Center, a little former train depot with some memorabilia. I was able to see it once but the last time we passed through on the bike we hit on the wrong day and it was closed...
In central Missouri it passes through Jefferson City, just a couple of blocks away from the state capital building. We spent some quality time riding throughout the state in September of 2020 after the mandatory helmet law was finally defeated thanks to ABATE..
In Kansas it rounds Dodge City, a great museum there that needs no explanation...
Near the west border of Colorado, in Grand Junction, it rolls into I-70 for a long ways across Utah. You don't dare pass up Green River to fill the tank and we always stop at Ray's Tavern for a burger and refreshments..
There are several great observation stops along 1-70 west of Green River and then in Salina UT is where you get off the interstate. We stopped at a Sinclair to fill up there and had to get a photo of the sign at Subway...
That's the extent of US-50 for me however. We got back on I-70 and I haven't seen anything of US-50 west of that point yet.
Route 50
