I was out of the motel by 6:25 am. Google Maps took me east out of the Colorado Springs area on US-24. While the drive time is slightly shorter (in good traffic) going back through Denver, I would be hitting the worst of the Denver-area rush hour if I went that route. And Denver’s rush hour traffic has become absolutely horrible.
US-24 is co-signed with I-70, but exited where US-24 splits off from I-70 in Kansas, and took the two-lane US highways and state roads through Kansas to get to Kearney, Nebraska, where I would grab lunch at a Runza (not bad, surprisingly) and rejoin I-80.
I made good time, as the timeline shows I had 11 hours, 51 minutes of drive time over 827 miles. I ended the day’s mileage disposal in Iowa City, not too far from the Quad Cities area. As with my last visit to Iowa City, I ate at the Fiesta Mexican Restaurant, located in a small strip shopping mall just five minutes from the Sleep Inn I stayed at. Despite arriving after 8:00 pm, the place was packed–I had the only empty table in the place. A good night to have a chimichanga!
Being a college town (Iowa City is home to the University of Iowa), it was not too surprising to find the restaurant busy at such a late hour.
The Sleep Inn lived up to its name, and I headed back to the room to check messages, and prepare to be out the door the next morning again at an early hour.