Rain for a Motorcycle Rider

While driving a motorcycle on a long trip you become very aware of the weather, particularly the issue of rain. Its not so much the actual rain; rather, it is the potential arrival or departure of rain that really triggers the emotions.
If you are driving along and the skies begin to darken on the horizon you become a little anxious. You wonder - are those cumulous clouds? Is my rain gear easy to get in a hurry? The darker the clouds get the more worried you become. Sometimes the dark clouds are off to the side so the questions become - will we miss the rain? which way is the road turning? are the skies getting darker? - hope mixes with apprehension. You watch the cars coming from the other direction and look for the dreaded tell tale sign of windshield wipers and the other bikers (headed to bright skies), do they have rain gear on? If this occurs, there is no more uncertainty you know you are going to get wet. By this point the only thing left to do is pull over and put on rain gear - apprehension has turned into resignation. And the questions become - where can I pull over? how long do I have? did I put Rain-X on the windshield?
Actually driving in the rain is not that bad as long as you have decent rain gear and it is not raining too hard. If the tire ruts in the road fill with water then you have drive in the oil slick between the two tire tracks (created by the fluids that drip off of travelling vehicles). Both of these situations are dangerous and definitely not pleasant.
Rain is also really scarey on busy interstates where you have to travel more slowly due to the above challenges. This creates another worry - how many trucks will be passing us and cascading us with dirty spray?
When driving in the rain the brightening of skies on the horizon brings hope. The brighter the skies become the more hopeful the rider becomes. Finally a strip of blue sky appears ahead and it is only a matter of time until the wipers on the oncoming cars have stopped and happiness returns. When on a long bike trip, you have to be prepared for all kinds of weather and you know that you WILL drive through everything....and so the question becomes - when will it change?? and the answer is - quit worrying and enjoy!!

St. Louis and The Ozarks

It was really hot in St Louis so we parked in a downtown parking garage and, behind a parked car, changed out of our heavy bike clothing into shorts and flip flops. We went up to the old court house and to the top of the Gateway to the West Arch. Unfortunately Dave pressed the wrong button on the camera and deleted all our photos so this is a rather boring post (just one picture). After St Louis we headed down into the Ozarks. This part of the US has rolling hills and many great motorcycle roads. We went through Jefferson City and Lake of the Ozarks on Route 54 with the day ending in Nevada Missouri near the Kansas border.

The National Road

Tuesday morning dawned hot, humid and drizzling. Interstates are not fun in the rain so we took Route 40 -The National Road. It was originally built in the early 1800's to connect Maryland to St Louis. It parallels Interstate 70 but has gentle hills and sweeping curves and was very relaxing as all the trucks and most of the traffic were over on the interstate. After a while the rain stopped and it turned into a perfect day. Along the way we stopped for coffee in Greenup which is home to the longest span covered bridge in America. The original covered bridge was buit in the 1800's along with the road. The current version shown in the photos was built in 1998.

Indianapolis Speedway

We have driven around Indianapolis on the ring freeway many times coming and going from Wichita over the years and often thought of stopping at the Speedway but never seemed to have the time. Well today we did finally stop to visit the Museum and to take a lap around the track on a tour bus...yes a bit embarrassing but there is only one day they allow the public on with their vehicles and we missed it. The track sure would have been fun on the bikes....imagine, with that track maybe we'd not have to bank them. We are staying in a little town called Terre Haute on the Indiana/Illinois border.....been lucky today, no rain and our bikes remain clean which makes Bev happy. She doesn't mind riding in the rain, just doesn't like the bike getting dirty!

We are off

With packing, cleaning the pool and mowing the lawn we did not get off till after lunch on Saturday. We headed west down the 401 and then on down the 402 to Sarnia where we spent the night. Just our luck, it was "Bayfest" in Sarnia where we got to spend $175 for a room in a Super 8 Motel. The place was full of young people all excited about that evening's "WEESER" (sp?) concert. Who is Weeser anyway? We got up bright and early Sunday morning and crossed into the US. We stuck to US 69 and finished our day when rain forced us to take cover in a motel between Fort Wayne and Indianapolis. Driving the interstates is boring, compared to the scenic drives we are used to and to where we are headed, but you sure can cover the miles. Hopefullly we can find somthing interesting to do tomorrow (and we promise some pictures too!)

Summer of 2010

Our 2010 summer plans are shortened to one month....darn, STILL not retired! Awaiting a stronger economy and a better pension.
We are going through Chicago to visit a cousin and then on down to Wichita, Kansas, to pick up a friend (he has a Goldwing) and then the three of us are travelling to northern Colorado (we want to get up to 14,500 feet this time before the snow hits) and then on down to New Mexico.
We leave on July 10th and get back to Toronto on August 7th.
AND, lets hope there is less rain then we encountered the summer of 2009 on the east coast!

Home and Time to Dry Out

We arrived home on July 9th, a few day ahead of schedule. Of the 25 days on the road we encountered rain on about 20 of them. Perhaps this was payback for a trip to Yellowstone several years ago where we encountered no rain at all during a month on the road.
From this experience we have learned several important lessons. Namely: that rain in not so bad as long as you have good rain gear; it doesn't rain so hard that you can not see the road; and, that it is not raining when you pack up in the morning. Also on this trip we decided that we are getting too old to camp so we abandoned our camping gear in favour of motels.
One thing we noted was that in recent trips we we have met fewer interesting people. Upon further reflection, we realized that have met the most interesting folk in local bars. So in future, after a long day on the road, we resolved to hang out in bars rather than restaurants.