Day 42: Headed Home

Some days nothing much happens.  Today was one of those days.

I only scheduled a 325 mile ride today and the single challenge was getting through St. Louis, which, with the help of the GPS, we did easily.  The GPS routed me differently than I’ve gone in the past, and I think it was a better route.  It was a little longer by a few miles, but it avoided the worst of downtown St. Louis traffic.

Rain threatened this morning as we left our Boonville lodging, so we donned rain gear once again and kept it on until we stopped for gas about 10:30.  We checked the weather radar at the gas stop and saw that storms were developing south and east of us, precisely the direction we would be traveling.  After coffee, we got back on the road, put the bikes on cruise control and had an uneventful ride until we reached Marion, Illinois, and saw ominous black storm clouds barring our way.  We exited the Interstate to put our wet weather gear back on and to check the radar.

Looking for a place to park temporarily, Mark led us to a Menards where we checked the radar and discovered lots of red, orange and yellow rain headed our way.  But since the pie selection at Menards (a home improvement store) was sorely lacking, we moved on to a Bob Evans restaurant which at least had some pies.  I selected French Silk while Mark attacked a slice of apple pie and we waited for an hour for the storm to pass.

As it turned out, our timing was perfect and we missed all the rain.  The temperature , however, did climb above 90 and we were still in our rain gear, so we were each a little damp from our traveling sauna when we finally pulled into our Paducah motel.

See, I told you nothing much happened.  With luck, tomorrow will be the same for each of us.  Mark will depart early (i.e. 5 a.m.) and head to Orange Park, 730 miles away.  I only have a 400 mile trip ahead of me to Maggie Valley, so my departure will be  a few hours later.

Tomorrow night, I’ll write a short post and then, as I always do, I’ll compose a summary post of this year’s adventure and various miscellaneous thoughts.