Day One

It was raining when I woke up in the wee hours of the morning so I had steeled myself for a long and wet ride. By the time I had logged into my work computer the rain had stopped but I didn’t bother to check the radar. It was not until later in the morning that I looked and saw that it didn’t look too bad.

My plan had been to leave at 11:00 but, as is annoyingly normal, work got in the way of life and I didn’t finish my last task until well after the top of the hour. A rather irritated me got on the road at quarter to noon.

The worries started to pile up about the prospect of getting stuck in Indianapolis, IN rush hour. The skies were heavily overcast and it was a chilly 55 degrees. Not really the best way to start the trip but, it could be worse.

As I rode south on I-71 the clouds let up and then spots of blue started to show. Pretty soon all the clouds were gone and I was riding in the glorious sun. I made one short stop to take an apple out of the saddle bag and then kept riding until the bike needed gas. I was amused to recognize the gas station from stopping there on my other trips. I guess the bike is pretty consistent in consumption and so far has used the same amount of fuel for that part of the trip.

When I pulled in there was an SUV that had been banged up and apparently it was a hit and run. Someone had run into the rear and pushed it two parking spaces over. There was an officer there speaking to what appeared to be the owner and who also seemed to be an employee.

After filling up the bike I parked near the SUV and went in to use the facilities. On returning I chatted with the officer and learned that it was his vehicle and his wife had driven it to work that day so he had to figure out how he was going to deal with it and what he would do as far as the investigation was concerned since he was both an injured party and the investigating officer (it was a small town and only one office on duty on a shift so he could not recuse himself from the case.

Having had my fill of legalese that morning working through a number of contracts I left him to muddle his way through the conundrum that the incident had brought into his life.

The rest of the trip into St. Louis was otherwise uneventful. As, may I add, was the scenery. I stopped somewhere in Illinois to eat at a Cracker Barrel and fill up and then finished up the day with an arrival at the hotel in daylight and ahead of Dirk.

Oh, I almost forgot!! As I turned off I-270 back onto I-70 I got a few minutes look at an absolutely beautiful blood-red sun as it was about a quarter dipped over the horizon. A red sunset is supposed to signal good weather for the next day. I am keeping my fingers crossed, hoping the sun is more accurate than the weather man!!

I checked in and just as I returned downstairs to park the bike he walked in. We got his bike unloaded and then went up to the local Steak and Shake so that he could infuse his body with a load of artery-clogging grease.

We are now back at the ranch with both bikes gassed up and ready for the road. Our planned departure time is 4:00 am. It looks like clear skies to Kansas and then things might get dicey. Oh well, we will saddle up, head west and take it as it comes.