A Mobile Nation

In 1956 the Federal Aid Highway Act unified what had been a mixture of separate and rather ineffective highway funding bills.  Although President Eisenhower is historically given the lion's share of credit for America's Interstate system, it had been in the works for years prior.  What Eisenhower's administration did do for our impressive roadways was help consolidate the dozen or so separate highway bills into one comprehensive program.  The Federal Aid Highway Act called for 41,000 miles of quality, high speed road ways making it easy for people to travel from coast to coast, expanding commerce, and making our nation more mobile.

Now the United States boasts over 46,000 miles of Interstate and is by far the most mobile nation of it's size.  Our interstates are used by families, truckers, the military, tour buses, and bicycles.  For the past few days and for many days to come we have been on I-80 and each hill we crest gives way to a view of seemingly endless, perfectly straight roads that are a product of the Federal Aid Highway Act.  I am just amazed at this country with every mile we cover.

Today we drove into Wendover, Nevada which is the last city for our tour in Nevada.  As we crested the hill and descended into Wendover a storm brewed ahead.  From the top of the hill you can see the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah which are so vast you can see the curvature of the Earth, and today, as the storm ahead rained on the salt flats we were treated to the brightest, most full rainbow I have ever seen.

I did not agree to come on this trip in search for anything specific.  Some of the riders are here for charity, a few are here in honor of a friend that passed, and some just to see America, but I have no specific goal.  I have tried to learn as much as I can about this great nation while on this trip because there is no better education than one that is hands on.  The Interstate has become a staple of my everyday thoughts.  I am impressed by our roadways.  I apologize for the history lesson but we really take advantage of our roadways without ever stopping to realize that we have enough miles of interstate in America to circle the Earth twice.  Ok, I'm done with the educational crap.  Im off to bed because we lose an hour tonight as we ended our journey for the day crossing into the Central Time Zone.  It's kinda crazy that we've ridden our bikes across a time zone.