Mad Dogs and Motorcyclistas Out In The Noonday Chill

Usually, I spend a good bit of time ensuring as much air as possible gets in my jacket. Yesterday and today, I spent a good bit of time ensuring as little air as possible got in my jacket.

We wore the rain suits yesterday and today in spite of dry skies. It was an effort to fend off the cold and it worked pretty well. I am so glad I brought my "winter" jacket along. We wore our long sleeved shirts. Now I am out of long sleeved shirts and I do not believe we will see temps get much above 55 tomorrow. A cold front is moving through. Funny, I thought it already had, it was so chilly.

For breakfast yesterday we again had the Grandpa John's Cafe breakfast buffet (only place in Nauvoo except for the gas station that's open for breakfast except for the other buffet and we got a discount at Grandpa's that lowered the cost to reasonable) After eating buffets for 3 days, even the sight of a buffet sign makes me queasy. Not that the food was bad, it was just that 3 days of buffet is a tad overwhelming. I don't think I care if I don't see another buffet for some months to come.

Yesterday we traveled on an allegedly obscure road, Highway 2. Said road was occasionally paved badly and someone apparently left some speed bumps here and there under the wavy concrete. The majority of it was nice enough surface. We took an Iowa scenic route, a road that split off 2 and eventually rejoined it. We thought 2 was just as scenic as the scenic road, but then one corn field looks pretty much like another.

The surprise was all the signeage warning us to be on the lookout for horses and buggies and to share the road with them. We didn't know the Amish live in southern Iowa. We did pass much evidence of horses but only once did we encounter an Amish farmer on the road with his rig and that was in the small town of Leon. We stopped at the Dairy Queen for lunch and they had an elephant. Please do not ask me why as I do not know.



After lunch we passed the horse and buggy, very respectfully and as quietly as we could. I am sure the farmer found us as much of a curiosity as we did him. People in Leon were very friendly. In fact, people all across Iowa and middle Illinois were very friendly. Even without Norman we are still, occasionally, the traveling road show.

Southern Iowa is very hilly and has more deciduous trees. The farms seem split between corn/soybean and stock. It was very pretty. Many many of next year's Big Macs are now a-growing in southern Iowa. The roads were still mostly straight but also up and down. In contrast to Minnesota where the farms are all perfect, in Iowa there are many unused farm buildings.




We made it to our destination in good time and chose Godfather's Pizza for supper. It's been years since we had a Godfather's and it sounded really good to us. We walked in and guess what! They run a pizza buffet! But you can also just order one, so we did, and sat well away from the buffet. Our motel was a Day's Inn in Shenandoah, Iowa, and we were just about the only people in our wing. There was a lovely overstuffed recliner for Ray and plenty of room to stash the bags. I did some laundry and we repacked and went to bed.

This morning we found out our expensive bike covers cover bikes but do not keep the dew or fog off the bike. Harumph. I can only imagine how ineffective they'd be in a thunderstorm. O well, we hauled out the bike drying towels and dried them off. Breakfast at the motel being limited to dry cereal and toast, we went down the road to Mickey D's and indulged in some salty Sausage McMuffins. Protein! lol At least they are little and we didn't feel overstuffed, just thirsty.

We had a really short day planned today and Ray hauled me out of bed at 6 am, so we got here about 1:30. I was surprised they let us in our room that early. But they did. We're in a Holiday Inn in Grand Island, Nebraska and our room is very nice. We lunched at a Burger King for a change of pace. We picked up I-80 in Lincoln, Nebraska and battled a stiff breeze and passing semi turbulence for what seemed an interminable time, but at least it had warmed up enough to take off the rain suits. Suddenly, there was Highway 2 again and we spent the last 10 miles on a lovely, quiet country road. It's much flatter around here. I can't remember exactly when it got that way, I just suddenly noticed it. You can see a long, long way.

It was supposed to be thunderstormy but wasn't. Again. But the weather guessers still say thunderstorms tonight and some left over tomorrow. The percentage tomorrow ranges from 40% to 10% depending where on the route we are. We will not be on the interstate tomorrow. Yay! Back to the obscure country roads. They are really much nicer traveling than the interstates and when you stop you get to meet and talk with local people. We are often the only motorcyclists on those roads,it's rare we meet another, even at the gas station. But everyone else wants to talk to us, so that's fine. Most of them wish they could do what we're doing. We are so lucky!

Don't know what supper will be tonight, I only know it will not be a buffet. Tomorrow we head to Alliance, Nebraska. It is in the middle of Just About Nowhere, like many of the places we've been lately. But there's a Holiday Inn Express there too and an Arby's next door.