Day 2, Part 1
Dayton, OH to St. Louis, MO
Because I have not landed yet…
I had to wait a bit this morning for fog to burn off, but once it did, it was a beautiful ride thru southern Ohio and then southern Indiana. Missi DeBord Shoemaker and I were going to try to meet up when I passed through the Indy area, and she gave me a way nicer route through her state. Some windy roads, mixed with some nice straight ones, I made great time. Unfortunately she couldn’t make the meetup, but hopefully on my way back through.
Lulled into the bliss of the roads, and a bike that was finally behaving, I was starting to relax out of the ball of anxiety I have been getting ready for this trip. Sadly, it was short lived. Heading down a 90 mile stretch of route 50 in southern IL, and the skies turned Wicked Witch of the West black. I had already been dealing with a heavy head wind, so I pulled off the shoulder and geared up. Bsck on the bike it dawned on me that I forgot to cover my seat and luggage, but there was a gas station – apparently the last outpost of humanity – so I rolled in, topped off my tanks, covered luggage and seat… Back on the road.
The rain started almost immediately. Splat, splat, pause, splat, splat…. And then it all came down at once. I have never ridden in such bad rain, and I have done a lot of rain. It was so bad, my rain jacket failed. My T-shirt was soaked. I could not see anything but the white line to my right. There was nowhere to pull over – no way I was turning back. I did 15 miles at about 40mph white knuckling it. I kept to the right side of the lane, and just pressed on. Finally the rain let up a bit, and I was able to speed up to 50. But it started getting bad again, and by some miracle, I spotted a motel with an AWNING!!! Careful right turn in, and here I sit. There have been probably 20 emergency vehicles that have flown by in the opposite direction. Thankfully they are not for me. 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼
I am just going to wait this one out. Holy crap what a storm! In the south we called these frog stranglers… And I definitely felt like a strangled frog!
Day 2, Part 2
Dayton, OH to St. Louis, MO
Whence last I checked in, I was debating staying put in Salem, IL due to the massive washout rain storm, or pushing on to make my goal of St. Louis… Well if you know me even a little bit, you know I am a planner, I am stubborn, and I hate admitting defeat. (Although I am forced to do so from time to time.) So of course I pushed on and made it to my comfy room downtown by the arch. I will have to take arch pics in the morning before I leave. The Atomic Shovel is nicely bedded down in the Valet portion of the parking garage, which gives me a lot more comfort than it just being in the garage’s gen pop.
Today. Wow. Crazy weather and sketchy roads day. Morning fog – burned off, but reappeared as I rode thru the Ohio countryside. No visibility issues, but fog nonetheless. Then beautiful sun! Grateful to see that break through. Until the aforementioned storm from hell. Even when I got back out on the road it was raining, but just normal rain, not le deluge. It finally tapered off as I got closer to MO.
Sketchy roads… A really long stretch of one road was chipped – they do that in NY too, but they do a shitty job, and the stone stays loose forever. In Indiana, they were doing a really good job. It was really compacted, so right off the git go, the road is rideable. There wasn’t a lot of loose scrabble, but I was still a little cautious.
Route 50 would have beat the crap out of me if I had been on a frame mounted seat. As it was, it only beat the crap out of my bike. Everything seems to be staying ON the bike tho. But 50 was rough. Concrete, patched a zillion times, little heaved “speed bumps.”
But the best part was the detour off of 50. That put me on a narrow, paved farm road. A turn onto the same, then the pavement disappeared. But again, the surface was stone but it was packed so well, no ruts or holes, and pretty flat, but crowned. I stuck to the middle mostly, and a couple places it was flooded, so I stayed in the middle to lessen the pressure washing the underside of my fenders received.
I don’t even want to check weather radar for tomorrow…
The Atomic Shovel 