Weather on Friday was rotten in NJ and PA. I could have left; but, I would have been a drown rat in no time. I elected to take my contingency time up front and spend the day with my father.
Saturday, I got an early start..a little later than I wanted; but, my kickstand was up at 5:15am. The idea was to maximize the amount of daylight available and get as far as I could. I had my sights set on Waterloo IA by way of Dayton OH, where I would meet with an old friend for lunch.
The first half of the ride didn't go exactly as planned. I seem to watch the arrival time on the GPS and try to battle it backward enough to account for my fuel times, giving me an actual arrival time that is spot on with the GPS. Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn't. I'm very cautious to not get too far over the speed limit and get a roadside speed certificate from Barney Fife. Everything was fine, right up until I got off I-70 onto I-75 to meet my friend Scot. The exit was closed to get me to the restaurant and GPS re-routed me...right into some development. I was 10 minutes away. Scot, was able to find me and came to get me. Instead of a 30 minute lunch, we were there for 2 hours! I don't regret a minute of it. Scot is a great friend, interesting guy and it was great catching up with him after many years. That said, I was headed for trouble.
My mom called while I was enroute and warned of a severe line of thunderstorms out west. They were in Iowa and stretched down to Texas. Hrmph! It was questionable how far I would get. At some point Bill, my step-dad was able to tell me that the line was only a few miles east of I-35. This was great news because I would likely make it through Illinois and into Iowa before I had to stop. The sooner I stopped, the more I had to ride on Sunday and the more likely weather would impact my arrival. Lots-o-rain was forecast for Sunday.
I was still in Illinois when the sun dipped below the horizon. I was headed north on I-74 and 50 miles from the turn to I-80 in Davenport IA. I knew I had about a half hour of twilight. I don't really like riding at night when I've been riding a full day. I tend to get tired quick. Interestingly enough, I was full of energy though. I have to attribute that to having a long break right in the middle of my ride. I checked the weather in Davenport and saw that rain was closing in on Cedar Rapids. The question was which of us would get there first. It wasn't possible to see the clouds any longer, so my first sign of trouble would be rain. I felt pretty comfortable with that since the more severe weather was further north and what was in front of me was rain only.
As it worked out, I made it past Cedar Rapids a little and ended up pulling in to Urbana Inn and Suites at 11pm on the nose. There were two Harley riders sitting there by their bikes talking. I got my room and joined them. I had stopped down the street for dinner. Yes, I know it was late and yes, I know fried chicken isn't good for you...ever; but, it was great at 11pm after not having had anything for the last 7 hours. These guys were riding out of Minneapolis/St. Paul and headed to Louisiana for some vacation. I looked outside while I was getting my room and they were checking out my ride. They were very impressed and, in breaking with Hog etiquette told me they really liked it. I was impressed. It wasn't long before one of them asked me where I was coming from and going. When I told him I left NJ at 5am, he asked me what took me so long. I answered with "a 2 hour lunch." We had a great laugh about that. After talking about riding adventures for nearly an hour, it was time to say good night and get out of my riding gear. I did a quick check of the weather, which indicated I was screwed for tomorrow; and with that, I went to bed.
I woke up at 6. I didn't want to wake up at 6; but, I did and couldn't go back to sleep. Looking at the weather again, there was a thunderstorm nearly on top of us and a line of thunderstorms between me and my destination. Weather in motion went out as far as 12:45 and showed that at 12:45, there entire route was clear. That said, I packed the bike and cleaned a billion bug guts off my windshield. Bike prepped and breakfast eaten, I decided to look at the weather again. This time, weather in motion showed fresh thunderstorms moving into Cedar Rapids at 1pm. Motion also showed that if I left now, I would probably be behind the storms as they advanced east. I geared up for rain and planned to ride in rain at least half the time. At this point Cedar Rapids was showing beautiful blue skies with puffy white clouds scattered about and very gusty winds out of the south. The question was how far it would last. The answer was 100 miles. I didn't hit clouds for 100 miles. When I did, they were low with ragged bottoms; but, not terribly dark. Looking around, I could see blue skies to the west; but more clouds north. As time marched on, and heat started to build, the clouds got lighter and started to break up. By the time I was 50 miles out of Minneapolis, the skies were a beautiful blue with white puffy clouds, just like in Cedar Rapids. Just a few hours ago, there were horrible thunderstorms here. In fact, last night, they shut the airport down. I managed to make the entire route without rain. In fact, I had 1,000 more bug guts on my bike than drops of water from the sky.
The 1400 mile trip:
netted me one state that I haven't traveled to yet; but, reunited me with my bike so I can go on and get more!
Sorry, no video for this run, or Spot tracker for that matter. I left both in my truck!
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