DAY 20 Saturday, May 21, 2011

It was another late night last night! I finally got to bed at 1:00 AM. Bruce was sound asleep and had been since about 11 PM. My alarm was set to go off at 6:30 AM, however, I woke up at 6:18 AM. I noticed that Bruce was sitting on his bed so I got up and turned off the alarm. I got dressed and packed. I was out of the room before Bruce had finished packing. I took a bag out to my Motor and got it ready for today's ride. After I was done with my Motor, I walked to the lobby and got a cup of coffee. Bruce had made his way to the lobby also and was sitting on one of the couches reading the newspaper. I sat with him and read some of the newspaper and drank my coffee. I got up and walked to the restaurant and met C.E. and Chuck coming in from their room. Bruce met us and we all went into the restaurant. Jan and Ken joined us. We had a good breakfast and after we finished, we needed to talk about where we were going today. A couple of suggestions were thrown out and we all decided that we would get on Highway 34 and head west for home. We returned to our rooms and gathered our stuff and finished loading our Motors. There happened to be a Harley dealership not more that 800 yards away. Jan needed to go and buy a quart of oil for his Motor and Bruce wanted to go and buy a t-shirt. They left ahead of us while the rest of us rode to the front of the hotel and walked in to check out. We left and met the other two at the Harley dealership...oh joy! Jan bought his oil and Bruce didn't buy a t-shirt. We were getting ready to leave and it started to sprinkle. There was a large awning so we all rode our Motors under it and put on our rain gear. Ken was able to put on his "new" rain pants. If you remember the earlier blog, Ken blew out the crotch of his rain pants! The new rain pants were a bright blue color and it was so loud that you can be a block away, close your eyes and hear him coming. I took a picture of it and Ken objected. Too late! We were all ready and left at 9:19 AM.

Chuck was leading and we needed to get to Highway 34, which was about two miles to the north of us. For some reason, Chuck was very "turned around" this morning. He couldn't even figure which way north was, even after I told him where it was. I told him that we needed to go to the stop sign, turn left and turn right at I-74. I-74 is the interstate that we rode in on yesterday. We needed to go west (south) on I-74 for two miles. Chuck led us to I-74, went under the interstate and turned onto the on ramp to go east (south). This is similar to I-10 between Phoenix and Tucson. I-10 is an east/west interstate. When going to Tucson from Phoenix, you are going east (south). We all stopped at the entrance and Chuck continued about 100 yards. Jan rode up next to me and agreed that we were going the wrong way. I made a u-turn on the on ramp, it was clear, and rode the wrong way on the on ramp and made a right turn. Everyone followed me and we went back under the interstate and got on the on ramp to go west, or north. It is very confusing! Any way, we were now headed in the right direction, and it's raining. We rode for two miles and exited to go west on Highway 34. Chuck's mind started to clear up and it now looked familiar to him...about time! We headed west on Highway 34 and after about 15 minutes of riding, it stopped raining. We rode for 53 miles, most of it in cloudy and dry weather, and stopped at a gas station/mini-mart at 10:13 AM in Gulfport, ILL. We started to strip our rain gear off and packed them. It was 75 degrees by this time and most of us also packed away our jackets. We went in to the mini-mart and used the facilities...pit stop. We also reloaded by drinking more water and coffee! We left at 11:42 AM.

Chuck lead again and soon after leaving, we crossed the Mississippi River and we were now in Iowa. The weather was very nice without our jackets. We rode on, in Iowa, and noticed that it was primarily farmland. The colors I saw were green, brown and tan. There weren't many more colors for the landscape. Of course, there could have been more colors. I am a bit color blind! There were small hills and crappy pavement. We rode on Highway 34 and soon Chuck got off and headed for a town called Fairfield, ILL. There was a sign indicating that there was a Phillips 66 gas station there. We rode on "Business 34" and after riding 56 miles, we stopped at the gas station in Fairfield at 11:23 AM. We gassed up, made a pit stop, drank more water and coffee, (reloaded our systems) and looked at the map. We left at 11:42 AM.

Jan took over the lead. We were on Business 34 and headed west. The only agenda we had was to get to Omaha, Nebraska. I had set my navigation system for Omaha. We rode through downtown Fairfield and eventually got out of the town and back to the highway. We headed out and saw more farms, cows, calves, horses, baby horsies and tractors. Jan was going to go about 50 to 60 miles more before we stopped for lunch. Bruce had made a suggestion that we should stop at a sit down Mom & Pop restaurant so that we all can order a pork tenderloin sandwich. He has raved about them. He told us that that is Iowa's specialty. We rode through the town of Ottumwa, IA. I'm sure those of you who have watched the TV program, MASH, are familiar with Ottumwa. It is supposed to be the birthplace of Corporal Radar O'Reilly. Ottumwa was larger than I had expected. We continued and after riding 76 miles, we stopped in Chariton, IA at 12:57 PM. We stopped at Pennington's Grill. Bruce entered the restaurant and asked them if they served pork tenderloin sandwiches. He came outside and gave us the "nod" so we went inside. It was a family owned restaurant and the owner, Mom, was the cook. We all ordered the pork tenderloin sandwiches and, they were good. What made them taste better is that Bruce picked up the bill for our lunches. We suggested that maybe he could suggest another restaurant to eat at and he could again pick up the bill. I doubt that we will see that happen again on this trip! OK, so with full bellies, we left at 1:47 PM.

We continued on with more of the same scenery. We rode for another 60 miles and stopped at 2:45 PM in Creston, IA at a Kum & Go gas station/mini-mart. Strange name! We made our pit stop and had some water. Chuck asked me if he had enough time to get some coffee. I told him to go for it! We took the map out and looked at it. Ken was going to lead soon and he wanted to study it. Jan looked at the map also to see what town we could stop to get gas. Chuck would probably need gas for his Motor in 40 to 60 miles. Jan told us that we were going to stop in Red Oak, IA for gas. We left at 3:03 PM.

We continued riding on Highway 34 with basically the same scenery. We rode 50 more miles and we stopped...in Red Oak! We stopped at 3:51 PM and gassed up. We had some water and snacks. Ken looked at the map again and got the route that he was going to take. We decided that we would head for Lincoln, Nebraska instead of Omaha. Ken got my Dry Erase Marker and wrote the route on his windshield. We were ready to go. We left at 4:14 PM.

Ken, the Wild Man, led the group like he was on a mission. The speed limit was posted at 55 mph and we hit speeds of 70 mph. We made good time and soon reached the end of Highway 34 where we wanted to turn. We turned north on I-29 for 7 miles, which was under construction. We reached Highway 370 and turned west. We rode over the Missouri River, over a bridge and at the other side, we had to stop to pay a toll. It was 50 cents per Motor and Ken paid the $3. That's the rule! The leader pays the tolls for the Group. On the 4 Corner's Ride, I got stuck with $80 in tolls in one day. That hurt! Just past the bridge, there was the sign: Welcome to Nebraska. This is one of the States that the original 4 have not traveled together. Now we need only three: North Dakota, New Jersey and Delaware. Those will be taken care of in another ride. We rode Highway 370 for a few more miles before we transitioned to I-80 east. Now we can make up some time! The speed limit was posted at 65 MPH. Thanks to the Wild Man, we were going about 75 and sometimes 80 mph. The clouds looked very dark to the north of us, however, they were moving eastbound. We were OK. At one point, Bruce rode next to Ken and asked him to stop for a pit stop. After riding 52 miles, we stopped in Papillon, NE at 5:09 PM at a BP gas station. After parking our Motors, Chuck got off his Motor and hurried to the restroom to beat Bruce. Hey Chuck, that's against the rules! The one who asks for the stop gets to go first. Don't worry. Bruce made it. We left at 5:19 PM.

Ken started again and it seems like we were riding like a bat out of hell! We had a mission. The clouds looked threatening and we wanted to get to the hotel before we got caught in the rain again. We rode another 50 miles. Ken's directions were to ride to Lincoln and stop at the first Holiday Inn Express that he came upon. He did just that. We pulled off of I-80 at a Holiday Inn Express at Exit 399 at 6:04 PM. Chuck, Jan, C.E. and Bruce went in to make the deal. Chuck did most of the talking, who would have guessed! A deal was made and we checked in. We got our bags from our Motors and took them inside to our rooms. We went back downstairs, moved our Motors to the parking lot and tucked them in for the night. We later walked to Lucky's Sports Bar & Grill, not too far, and had dinner. We returned to the hotel and Chuck, Jan, Ken and Bruce went into the hot tub. C.E. stayed in his room while I worked on my Blog. I was determined to make this an early night.

Today we rode 397 miles. We have ridden a total of 6,542 miles. We still have a ways to go. Tomorrow we will ride into Colorado. We will head for the Denver area. Like I have written before, plans change. We really never know where we will end up. So, until tomorrow...