Monday, June 23, 2008

Dodging the Rain and Stuff

My apologies for the late post. I know somewhere out there I have a fan (and family!) or two that has been patiently waiting for another post on this sometimes boring, other times rambling blog! Here we go again - yes on the road, of course!

This time we had a definite destination and a legitimate excuse to put the two wheels to the road and get some quality time on the Harley. After waiting for the rain to let up at home, we donned the rain suits and headed to Missouri. Luckily, all we faced were a few sprinkles and lots of grey clouds. We headed up to US 50 to see some new scenery as we crossed Indiana. The western part of the state in that area is quite pretty. Lots of trees and rolling hills. Of course, they have had a lot of rain in that area so everything is very green with a few wild flowers peeking out here and there. As we crossed over into Illinois, we saw that the Wabash River is still overflowing its banks and causing problems for the farmers in that area.
But the skies finally cleared and we saw lots of uncut wheat fields. Hopefully, they will be able to get the combines in the fields in spite of all the rain. Other than that, central Illinois is pretty boring. Their roads leave lots to be desired. In fact, after hitting a few of the pot holes, one of our saddle bags (which evidently someone,me, didn't latch securely) popped open and my rain suit pants are now somewhere in a field in the middle of Illinois! At least that was all we lost, and now I have an excuse to go shopping. Then there was the train track. D always slows down a little when crossing them as you never expect them to be smooth, but there is one near Olney that could be used as a launch ramp for Mr. Knievel himself! I swear I must have left the seat at least a foot and if I hadn't had the back rest, I'd been sitting on US 50! But at least we made it safely to St. Louis. Crossing into Missouri, the Mississippi River was also overflowing its banks. This is a pretty shot with the trees and clouds reflected in the water, but the river was still rising and when we came home on Sunday, it was up quite a bit more. We ended up getting on I 70 and taking that on into St. Louis instead of the back roads. We weren't sure what we'd find there so it was best to stay clear.
Our goal of this trip was for Dad to help J with the doors in his basement. He has done an excellent job of finishing it off so they'll have more living area when Grandbaby #1 arrives (in about 6 weeks or less!) He's had great help from some neighbors including T shown below. They are almost ready for carpet and then they can move things downstairs and finish decorating the nursery. He hopes to have that done by the time we come back in two weeks to have the baby shower, but if he doesn't, maybe he can get some more help from Dad!
While the guys worked hard in the basement on Saturday, J and I did some shopping. Surprise, surprise! We did the normal mall routine and then stopped by a couple of furniture stores so she could look for a new couch. This funny chair will not fit in their little house, but it did make a good resting place for an expectant mom.
After a long day of work (and shopping) we headed out to dinner at Chevy's for tex-mex. I 'm not sure that I've ever seen J eat like this! Her doctor says he'd like for her to gain 3o pounds and if she keeps this up........! No problem! The rest of us wouldn't have any problem with that and I guess we didn't here because we did our share to help! My son and I were the only ones to enjoy the margaritas. Mine was watermelon! Tart, but pretty good. Here's the food photo of the day coming up, so pay close attention because it didn't last long! The smoked steak taco was excellent - and it wasn't even my plate! I just got a photo and a bite.Thanks for dinner J! Poor guy looks tired though doesn't he? I think he's just practicing for those late night feedings!
Does anyone need a new kitty in the family? Tray is looking for a new home. He is a super friendly hefty fellow with a purr that rocks the walls. He is de-clawed, gets along well with kids, dogs and other cats, just not so sure about babies. He's thinks he'll move out when they bring that new kid home. Email me if you know of somewhere he can call home.

After waiting for the rain to pass again, we headed home on Sunday. We stopped and put on our rain suits (what was left of them) but ended up we didn't need them. Traveling the entire trip on the interstate is not something we normally do on the bike, but in the best interest of time we stayed on I-64.



Some of you who question the safety of motorcycles can now exit the blog.



What you are about to see next could possibly have been my last photo. A lot of the time I ride with my little digital camera in my hand, the cord wrapped securely around my wrist, ready for that one great wildlife or scenery shot. As we were in a line of traffic passing several trucks and this van, the driver decides to pass the trucks too, without signaling and without looking in his rear view or side mirror and certainly not double checking his blind spots. As he was veering over into our lane of traffic and as I was shouting to D (in the headsets, D said I was quite loud!) and to the driver, who of course couldn't hear me, I accidentally pressed the button and took this photo. Now, wouldn't you think that someone who was driving a van load of kids would be more careful? Anyway, D sped up and got out of the guys way and all was well. I hope he was scared when he saw us go by. You would have thought that the three lights on the front of the bike and the sound of the Harley would have gotten his attention before that. Now I know why some bikers like to have that loud exhaust system. Maybe we should be in the market for that now!But back safe and sound we are, waiting for the next big adventure! Thanks for your patience and thanks for stopping by!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the update! I really do enjoy reading your blog. When Dad is ready to walk around I'll bring him over so he can read the Father's Day one. What a nice thing for you to say.
See you soon.
Pat