Before I start talking about the ride I want to address a comment that a friend had made to me the other day. Earlier I had talked about how I was getting 300 miles to a tank of gas on my bike, he called up up after reading that and was astounded that I claimed that and what kind of bike I was talking about. Wild Cat as I call him already knew what bike I had so he was just claiming that there was no way that I was getting that mileage when he could only get about 150 miles on his bike. Lets do the math on this and answer this question once and for all, I calculated my gas mileage by both the counter on my bike and the mileage I could travel per how many gallons I put in my bike (if you can do simple math it isn't that hard). My bike had a 5.5 gal tank and would get between 52-55 MPG while traveling on the highway/interstate, 5.5 x 53 = 291.5 miles per tank. So OK maybe I wasn't getting exactly 300 miles, but 291.5 miles is close enough damnit! So WildCat when you read this, up yours! Ok so lets get back to the matter at hand...
It has been awhile since I made a post I do apologize for that but we are going to continue my epic journey today.... So I am back on the road in Nebraska, remember I just left a rest stop from trying to get some sleep. I am heading west on the interstate with the sun at my back, it was summer time so it was chilly in the morning but not too much that all I had to wear was a long sleeve shirt and pants. I remember pulling into a McDonald's to grab a bite to eat and charge my ipod; I'll tell you what, when you are traveling on a bike with a setup like I had on the back you will get a lot of people interested in what you are doing and where you are going, I must have had at least 7 people going up to my bike and checking it out, and another 5 people coming up to me asking about my trip. One local guy who was on a Harley was astonished that I was making this trip on a sport bike, he said that there was no way he would make it on his cruiser. Now I'm sure he was exaggerating a little bit but most people were a little wowed about the whole thing, I still to this day don't see the big deal lol.
After breakfast I was back on the road, after passing through Lincoln Nebraska the only thing you see on both sides of you are corn fields and farms; there is however a clean smell in the air (most of the time when there is no cow poo) that was very refreshing and relaxing. If your living in the city then you forget what its like to be out in the open with the wind in your hair and the sun on your face, even in a car you don't get to feel the freshness you do on a bike. If your not a bike rider I need you to picture this for a second... Pretend that you are riding a bicycle down a dirt road in the middle of a field with tall grass and flowers on both sides of you, all of a sudden you come to a hill as you ride down the hill you stop pedaling and let gravity take you, you lift your head and feel the sun warming your face and the wind rushing past your face and through your hair. All the problems and worries of the real world leave your mind for the time that you are enjoying the thrilling ride, and that is what it is like riding through Nebraska on a warm sunny day.
It takes a few hours to get all the way through Nebraska but its great that you can do it going 75-80 MPH the whole way with little or no traffic, I have to say the only bummer was all the road work they were doing. By the time I got to Colorado it was mid-day, I had taken the occasional break when I would get gas I would stretch my legs, charge my ipod, and maybe take down a snack or two. As I approached Colorado I saw dark blue clouds way off in the distance, I knew they were in my path but I had been hoping that they were traveling west at a faster speed than me but if not I was prepared.
Riding in the rain in a whole other world of riding, the rules all change and your alertness has to go up. Let me paint you another picture using my scenario, I was riding through Denver, it started out as light sprinkles of rain, just enough to the point where you have to where your visor down because the rain feels like nails stinging your face if you don't. The road is wet so you have to take extra care with control, not only that but the rain mixes with the dirt and muck on the road; the vehicles in front of you throw this up into your face so your visor gets dirty quickly. You cant slow down because people will just pass you so you lift up your visor and get the shit in your eyes, mouth, and nose. It really doesn't sound like much fun does it? Well I guess its an acquired taste because I am still enjoying myself, until the heavy rain starts. The rain starts coming down so hard that I have to ride with my visor half open, the rain makes the visor so blurry that you don't know whats going on and when you lift it up to see it stings like you wouldn't believe. The roads are filled with so much water that I can't ever see what lane I am in, cars are passing me so fast the wind blast pushes me in all different directions. I had to look foolish out there to the other drivers, a biker riding his bike in the middle of the interstate in the heaviest rain fall I have ever seen. It was fun for about 2 sec after that all started then I just wanted it to stop, I was in the middle of what seemed to be an industrial zone so I had to keep riding until I could find a place to get some shelter; I couldn't have been going more then 25-25 MPH by this point, I don't get scared on my bike too often but this was defiantly a point where I was beginning to worry about someone hitting me. I had some red LED lights integrated throughout my bike so I turned them on hoping it would help the drivers see me.
I rode for about 1 hour in this shit weather until my luck changed and I saw hotels in the distance. This takes me back to the time my dad had told me about his bike trip across the country and when he had run into a rain storm; he told me that when it got dark and it started to rain on him he pulled into a motel and pulled his bike into the room with him for the night. He did this for two reasons, 1. to keep his bike dry and 2. to keep it safe from theft or vandalism. I exited the interstate and started scouting the nearby hotels and motels looking for one that was one level and had room doors accessible from the outside so I could roll my bike in. I was having a hard time finding one, I even stopped and asked a cop for some help but he was about as useful as tits on a boar. I eventually gave up and just pulled into a Hampton Inn, I pulled my bike under the awning and walking in dripping wet. There was a cute girl in her late 20's standing behind the counter, she was really puzzled at why I was so wet but I was able to sweet talk her into getting me a corner room on the ground floor next to an exit and permission to pull my bike inside.
I went back to my bike and went to pull into my room. I got it through the door into the stairwell but the angle was too extreme for the bike so I had to leave it in the stairwell. It was only steps from my room but I had to leave it there, because of this I had to unsecure all of my gear from the bike and bring everything into the room. That was no easy task, when I put everything on I made sure that it would all be there when I got to my destination, I had spent hours making sure everything was on right and I just knew I was not going to get that kind of time when I need to put it all back on. I finally got into my room and just dropped everything on the floor, I had been on the road for over 24 hours and the feeling of being in a nice cozy room with no road ahead of me for awhile overwhelmed me. I took off my leather jacket and felt that it was so wet the rain saturated through the jacket, my pants were like a wet sponge and my shoes were just filled to the brim. Tired, cold, wet, and hungry I ordered Chinese food and took a long hot bath; when the food came I laid on the bed eating and watching the weather channel for what was coming up. FYI I did check the weather before I started the trip and I knew that there was a chance that I was going to hit rain, I didn't know how bad but I did know that I was tired of waiting around and I just wanted to get there so I was just going to suck it up. Apparently I had just entered into the middle of two storms, the storm that I hit on the way there was the first one heading due west the same as I; the other had formed behind me and was also heading west. I remember looking at the clock and seeing 5:00 PM, the news said the next morning was going to be raining and that's the way it would stay through most of the day. I made a plan, to sleep until night time and check the weather, if it changed I could sleep until morning, if not I would be riding at night.
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