Day Nine

Dirk was first up and he was an hour behind the schedule he had in his head when he went to bed. I urged him to leave ahead of me and wished him well as he took off in a terrible storm. I went about my preparations with my normal deliberation and was blessed with the storm easing to a light shower by the time I was loaded and ready. I left the hotel wanting to fill up before I got on the freeway but there turned out to be no gas stations between there and the highway. I rode along for a couple of miles and got off on the first exit, filled up at a BP and was soon on my way in a now heavy downpour.

The drenching lasted for about thirty minutes and for the rest of the first tank I rode in dry conditions, staying minimally ahead of the storm. I arrived in the southern suburbs of Chicago about four hours later and gassed up. I wanted to eat but the storm didn’t look too far behind so I got back on the freeway for about another hour before pulling off for lunch. I ate a quick lunch and just as I got my helmet back on the rain started to fall.

I rode again in the rain but this time only for about half an hour and then the horizon cleared up though the skies overhead were laden with heavy clouds. At lunch the first shadow of a cord was teasing through the tire and I hoped that I would be able to nurse the tire back home. This tank took me all the way across Indiana and past Toledo, Ohio where I filled up and checked the tire. To my pleasant surprise it was not much different than it had been back in Illinois so I opted to ride on.

Still ahead of the storm, I had enough gas to make it home but it was hot and I was chugging the water so I had to stop short of the destination to answer a call of nature that any of us would ignore only to our embarrassment. I was only twenty miles from home and managed to get the bike in the garage with daylight to spare.

With the kickstand down and the luggage inside I was glad to have made it safely to the end of another wonderful adventure. I gave Dirk a call and he too had made it home with no incident. All is well that ends well!!

I tore the bike apart for service, tire change, oil change and such. There are a couple of parts for the windshield I had to order and those will take a few days to get in so that will mean a good week + of rest for the bike before it is pressed forward in search of new adventures at the urging of my wanderlust.