Saturday, September 16, 2006

Day 17 - Ames, IA to Merrillville, IN

I had a good ride today through mostly flat Iowa and Illinois countryside. The high point was finding Ash's scooter patch jacket by the side of the road. He'd lost it a few hours earlier as he flew down the road in a strong crosswind. Alas, he did not realize it until later, so he put out an all points bulletin for it. It has all of his embroidered patches from 5 years of scooter rallies. I knew how important it was to him, so finding it was a great thrill. I thought about quietly showing up at the motel tonight and modeling my new jacket, but that would have meant his wife and everyone else looking for it all day, so I nixed that prank. He and his wife Devon were very appreciative.

We knew we were in Chicagoland near the end of the ride today when the gas station attendant was behind bulletproof glass. This is routine at home on the east coast, but after being in the western land of easy living for days, it hit hard to be back in the world of bulletproof security.

As usual, I left the motel in the morning well after most others. I caught up with the slower scooters in the first few hours. In the afternoon I rode with Noe and Heather. My roommate, John, was with us for a while but his scooter could not keep up with us. This was a shame because he got lost, went through a rough part of Joliet after dark, and made it to the motel hours after everyone else. Our biggest mistake was arriving in Joliet, Illinois at Friday evening rush hour. It took more than an hour to get through town.

Ashrat crashed today on a bad patch of road, but she's OK. So far the roads in Iowa and Illinois have been maintained much less well than the roads farther west.

Tomorrow it's on to Cleveland. We are still expecting good weather.

I haven't posted a link to the main Scooter Cannonball page, so here it is: www.scootercannonball.com. It is mainly info about the people who are racing, which I am not doing.

I am still trying to get pictures posted. I took a lot of them in Wyoming 2 days ago, and fewer since then. There are only so many grain elevators, cows and cornstalks to snap before the picture starts to look the same ...

Miles today - 358
Miles total - 6885

1 Comments:

At 7:41 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hey Bobo! I'm catching up again! What an adventure--I am so happy to get caught up with the trek. And your comment about leaving the West and into the East is so true..I'm finding the same thing after relocating from the Northeast to Home in the South!! So far, no bullet-proof glass here yet! Take care and Love to you and Loriann! Helen

 

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