I have a couple of bicycling friends who did the cross country thing 10 years ago from San Francisco to New Hampshire. Kelly met them when we arrived in Washington DC from a different trip. They both say that if you could skip The entire Kansas to Pennsylvania Thing it would be a nice trip.
They spent two + weeks riding along the side of I-70 In the midwest and all you could see was a wall of corn on both sides of the highway - It was like riding through a never ending canyon of green. All they could do was listen to podcasts and grind out the miles, 10 hours and 120 miles a day. It didn’t get interesting again until Columbus, Ohio.
I’ve ridden Bicycle along/around/under I-70 west of Denver from Breckenridge to Glenwood Hot Springs and it is stunningly beautiful going through the mountains. We even saw a group of bears scampering across the highway. Colorado Black bears are really big compared to our diminutive New England bears, especially when they run across right in front of you! They always looked up in surprise as the bikes don’t make any noise to warn them.
Here's the bike trail next to I-70. Sometimes the trail is under the interstate's elevated sections as it winds through the mountains:
A different guy from that cross-country bike trip back in 2010 is currently riding an mountain bike on the Continental Divide Trail up the spine of the Rockies from New Mexico to Canada. He’s aiming for 32 days and should be done early next month. He's both younger and crazier than me.
