Sturgis Adventures – Halfway

What a very long day.  We arrived at our halfway mark at 8:45pm CST, or 9:45 pm EST. 15 hour ride. I lost track of how many times we were rained on. It seemed as if every time my pantlegs and boots dried out, Mother Nature decided we needed another dose.

This is what we ran into at the start.

Rather than ride directly into the impending doom hovering over Lake Michigan, we opted for 69 south and pick up 80/90 west in Indiana. We still got wet about ten minutes of pretty hard rain, it was difficult to see at times.  And when the rain cleared we were greeted with a detour for 80 west, which was 90/94.

I hate riding around Chicago. Always have, always will. Too much traffic, no one pays attention to what they’re doing (you mean actually LOOK before changing lanes??  Silly!) So I was hoping maybe this route was an improvement over our normal route taking 94. Nope. The only cool thing is you can see the Chicago skyline, which looked pretty cool in the fog. Of course I didn’t have my camera out. Which was fine since I had to focus on not being killed. And we paid upwards of $13 each in tolls, as opposed to $1 per bike. Needless to say, never again.

So we made it around Chicago, passed a Harley Davidson tractor trailer (we gave the thumbs up and they honked!) and proceeded to ride into more off and on rain all along 80. At least it was hot enough that things dried out almost instantly. Even my socks!

We stopped somewhere in Davenport at a gas station surrounded by cornfields, and were greeted by the sound of cicadas. The sun was hot, and the cornfields rustled in the wind. Iowa, how we’ve missed you!

The rest of the day held scattered clouds and the sun felt great after being rained on all morning. It made for some decent road shots.

Thanks for coming along for the ride with us!  We look forward to sharing more with you in the days to come.