Some people view flat, straight roads as the enemy of the motorcycle. They're just too boring. Personally, I find solace in the rhythm of a big Harley (or any motorcycle really) just eating up miles on a big open road.

From my previous experiences in Kansas, I was sure that US 50 would deliver this solace. I was looking forward to getting out and just putting some miles under the Harley on our trip towards Colorado.

We woke up that morning, packed up the motorcycle, and hit the Starbucks in Emporia on the way out. The sun was just beginning to rise and I couldn't see a cloud in the sky. This was looking like the makings of a great day.

You can't really be verbose when describing this portion of US 50 through Kansas. It was simply flat, straight, and had very little traffic. I find the flat expanse of prairies in Kansas to be beautiful and almost hypnotic.. The rustic sites along the way, like abandoned school houses that are right off US 50, also offer lots of opportunities to explore while still putting some serious road behind your motorcycle.

Another interesting thing along US 50 in Kansas is the feed ranches. While the smell isn't exactly the most pleasant, it is impressive to stop along the side of the road and gaze out over millions of cattle on a prairie.

In particular, there is one spot along the way where you will see signs for a scenic overlook. At the top of a lone hill, there is a pull-off where you can stop and look out over a particularly large feeding ranch - there must have been literally millions of cows out there!

As we motored away my wife said she didn't like the idea of a feed ranch at all, while all that I could think of was finding a juicy t-bone as soon as possible!

Kansas does a great job of putting a lot of easily accessible historic markers along US 50 ,Most of them were dedicated to the Santa Fe Trail and various battles. You could easily pick up a lot of history along the way without even getting off the motorcycle! Typically, we would spend a little more time exploring, but we had a destination to make!

The pavement along US 50 in Kansas is great. This fact, combined with straight roads, and the company of a couple of other motorcyclists (one on a Harley, the other on a Hyabusa) meant that we found ourselves averaging around the 90 mph range through a large part of Kansas.

A quick breakfast, lunch, and dinner had us crossing into Colorado with 517 miles between us and Emporia, KS by the end of the day. We rolled into La Junta, Co in the late afternoon, and then decided to take a quick detour and see if we could find anyplace to camp off of highway US 350 through the Comanche National Grasslands.

The Comanche National Grasslands is incredible! But it was getting dark, and we didn't have much time to see the sites. After confirming that there really wasn't anywhere to camp, we turned around and headed back to La Junta to stay at the Holiday Inn Express we had passed. We were both hungry and I didn't want to get caught in the dark with no hotel room on a motorcycle. This ended up being a smart move; we got the last hotel room in the Holiday Inn!

As we went to bed, I made a mental note that we needed to explore US 350 through the Grasslands tomorrow. With the state of Colorado in front of us, we discarded the idea of sticking only to US 50 just as we had planned on. But, we did decide that we would take US 50 through Colorado on the way back home.

One thing to note about US 50 for the camping motorcyclist is that there are very few decent camping sites along the way in Kansas. There were a few RV camps, but personally, we try to steer clear of these when camping as they usually don't provide a nice experience for those not in RV's.