Gettin' Started

"You're nuts! You're doing that on a crotch rocket?

Seems to be the majority consensus on a response to this next adventure. I find it interesting paying attention to who thinks its cool, and who thinks I'm crazy.

I really could n0t wait for this adventure. I've been really looking forward to it and just knew that it would be a good story. So we'll see. Already its been eventful.

I'm technically in my second leg of the journey. I left Friday from Fort Wayne, Indiana to head down to Evansville, Indiana. A trip that should have taken between 5 and 7 hours, ended up taking about 11 to 12 hours.

I started heading out around 11am. First place was the gas station to fill up and reset the mileage gauge so I could keep tabs on when to stop. After filling up and messing with getting the helmet on and keeping the earbuds in place, which can be a daunting task at times, the bike would not start. Totally acted like the battery just died.

I made severeal attempts at push starting it but could not get enough speed up to get it to flip. Thankfully, the support van was there. Dawn was driving down to Evansville at the same time to go to the airshow with me. So I hopped in the van adn went back to the hosue for tools.

Lesson 1 for a motorcycle journey: Have at least a basic set of tools with you for soem basic emergencies. like jump starting, replacing teh battery, etc.

It was 90 degrees out and it took forever to get the seat off. fortunately the #10 Metric wrench fit. After ab out an hour of messing with it, I got the bike started by jumping it off the van. I put the bike back together adn we went in search of a new battery to replace the one that was in there ust in case that one was shot.

Finally get rolling around 1pm. The first leg was to Indy, to meet up with Ryan at the hangar to grab soem of Billy's Grayout stuff for him since he flew the plane and had no storage space. The plane has basically the same storage space as a motorcycle. Just outside of Indy I hit my first encounter with rain. I was getting a littel nervous after seeing another biker pull over to get his raingear on. I got off the highway and Dawn told me that we had actually just missed the storm and it was only a little spinkle that was lingering. So we pressed on and I only got a little wet. Enough to clean the bugs off the visor.

After stopping for the stuff at the hangar, we stopped at a Subway to grab a sub before making the next 3 hour leg. after debating on which way to go to avoid the storms, we decided that straight south to Louisville, Kentucky and then straight West on 64 to Evansville would be the best way to avoid the storms that were headed our way on a North Easternly path.

That all went smoothly. I was REALLY starting to feel the right hand at this point. I was begging for a cruise control clamp. I had to constantly adjust my hand position because my hand was cramping up consistently. the inside nad back of my thighs was also feeling rather tender as well. Turns out, no matter how much bicycle riding I can do, the seats are totally different and thus, my ass feels totally different. After the 5th hour I I was pretty much constantly switching positions on the seat and with my hand.

After stopping for gas about an hour outside of Evansville, Dawn tells me that we gotta haul ass in order to beat a really nasty storm that's racing us to Evansville from the West. So we got up on the highway again and just hauled ass. I had no idea teh minivan could move like that. Im rather impressed actually. It's a Chrysler Town and Country and that puppy can move. As we got to about 15 miles out of the Evansville exit, the sky got pretty gnarly lookin. Very black, with this ridge of clouds swirling as the leading edge of storm rolled our way.

After passing the second to last exit it became clear to me that we weren't going to make it. I started thinking it might be best to find a spot to flip a uturn in the median and out run it the other way and just wait it out and whatever was at the last exit. Just then, the wind went nuts, the rain started and I got whooshed over almost into the other lane. At that moment, I was done. I needed to pull over that instant, and it may already be too late to save the pants. I stopped the bike, pulled as close to the van as I could and got in.

We sat there and watched an amazing thunderstorm. Kept in touch with Billy back at teh hotel, who said teh power was out at teh hotel, there were tornado sirens going off like crazy. Great way to end the first leg of the journy.

After about an hour I decided to try to give it a whirl and see if I could make it to the next exist after all. This is where having great gear came in REALLY handy. My Powertrip Diablo Jacket with inside rain liner was awesome, I stayed bone dry and comfy even though I was soaked on the outside. I also didn't get sweaty and sticky either, which I expected. The FieldSheer pants were also a treat. Again, not a drop on me.

We made it to the next exit and met up with Billy for a few minutes before heading towards the hotel...well, actually, we missed an exit and ended up down in Kentucky again, but eventually, we did make it to the hotel. Checked in under candle light since the power was still out. Decided to change and head out to find food.

Went to O'Brians in Evansville, which was a great little bar with live music and moderately healthy food still serv ing at 11:45pm. The corner chair at the bar, we are convinced, was some kind of portal to or from another dimension because very strange people kept sitting there.

Back at the hotel, after a few minutes the power came back on and we could then, turn the lights back off to sleep. Or attempt to anyway, on that rock hard bed and with my allergies completely raging at this point.

I think I got an hour or two that night.

In the morning, checked out and immedaite went to check out the Marriott, which had much nicer beds. Got a room there instead.

So today, after being at the airshow long enough to video tape Billy's performance, we went back to the hangar to pack up, change my battery and take a ride in the PITTS before heading out.

We got to do some crazy upsidedown flying and then broke for our rides.

My ride thru the north west part of Kentucky was awesome. Curvy turning country roads for hours. I loved every second of it. Still feelin the grip cramping though. Totally gotta find something for that on the journey. I was going to make it to Springfield today but after the late start and the bugs that felt like rain in the Kentucky night sky were too much to push to SPringfield tonight.

The bugs sounded like a whoel line of little tap dancers on the visor. It was pretty gross. I posted up camp at a Drury Hotel on the corner of Interstate 55 in Sikeston.

Looking forward to getting up early tomorrow and getting a few miles in before the work day starts.