Route 66: 2010 Day 16

Today is 6/27/10,

Today we have breakfast and say goodbye to our "family" we have known over the last two weeks.  Hans and I had originally planned to ride all the way to Chicago, Illinois.  Unfortunately, things didn't quite work out as we would have liked.  With a group of this size, it's tough to stay exactly on track, so we ended up being about 2 days behind OR I'm an idiot and didn't have the timing correct.

So, the original plan was to leave Chicago and head to Galva, Illinois to visit my older brother Dave and then head to Buffalo, Iowa to spend a night at Mom & Dad's.  We (3), Dave, Hans & I were then going to head to Kansas City. 

The group gassed up and were on their way.  I must say, I was surprised at how I felt to see everyone leave.  All in all, this group was lots of fun.  Of course, I hated to see Morten leave.  I feel like we became good friends and I miss the lug...:)

Shortly after the group headed East, the sky opened up and Poured rain.  Hans & I waited it out for a few minutes and then head West.  We are working our way towards Kansas City, Missouri tonight.  The weather was OK for awhile, but then as we kept going West, it started getting really ugly - black and windy.  We pulled off to suit up in our rain-gear and within a few minutes of leaving that area, the skies Opened Up!  We rode in rain so bad, we could barely see.  It was a bit unnerving.

We finally rode out of the rain; of course I can't remember the name of this town either.  After gassing up, we decided to grab some coffee and something to eat.  We were both pretty worn out.  Naturally, things are seldom "uneventful" and this was no different.  The fast food joint we ate in was weird.  The roof was leaking and the service was WAY beyond slow.  "Fast Food", yeah, not so much.

By the time we finished up lunch, it was pretty well dry and sunny, so we dumped the rain gear and finished out our ride in relative peace.  We finish up today's ride at a reasonable hour and checked into the Fairfield Inn in Kansas City and spend some time in the pool & hot tub.  Dinner at a nearby pub and a good night's sleep.

This was the first night in two weeks that I didn't have to wear ear plugs to cut the level of snoring.  Yay!  Tomorrow is the Harley Davidson factory tour.

Postscript for the actual  Route 66 ride:  I recently heard that one of our group passed away shortly after his return to Norway.  This is dedicated to Johan.  I'm glad he was able to spend his last few weeks doing what he seemed to really enjoy and with his family.

Be safe and have fun everyone.  Remember, those two items are NOT mutually exclusive.