Nancy Webb...Pat Bonetar

And the day started out so nice, too.

At 07:00 I rolled out of the hotel wearing an extra long-sleeve shirt to stave off the 62°F and lower wind chill. A couple of hundred miles later, I pulled off I-70 to take that shirt off and found myself surrounded by little birds. They were nesting under the overpass. Hundreds of parents taking food to their chicks in the nest. Watching them was like seeing in super fast motion. They were everywhere.

I kept rolling towards my day's halfway destination outside of Lebanon, Kansas, but absolutely had to stop in Cawker City for the World's Largest Ball of Sisal Twine. How could I not stop? Then it was off to the middle of nowhere. Actually, I suppose it's the middle of everywhere since it's the Geographic Center of the Continental United States. It's also one of Harley's 10 Rides for 2022, which gives me 5 so far. Woohoo!

After a quick snack, I headed towards Colorado. Just after I passed under a cropduster plane and considered (😉) passing under a huge piece of farm equipment, I made it into Colorado, and the Centennial State greeted me with a monster of a storm. My weather app showed it moving due east straight down I-70, so I figured I could skirt it.

My weather app sucks. 40 miles south and 10 miles west, I found myself on a crappy two-lane road surrounded by cows and passing stormchasers parked on the sides of the road with their cameras on tripods. As I was looking in vain for any type of shelter, the rain began. As I'm slowing down, I'm thinking if a tornado drops out of the sky, I can run the bike down the embankment and dive into a drainage culvert. Before I could plan any further...or think about why I was stupid enough to get myself into this situation...did I say my weather app sucks?...the hail began.

Slower, slower, slower I went, all the way down to first gear and about 10 mph. Ouch, ouch, ouch. Still not a single dwelling or structure anywhere to be seen. Finally, I see two SUVs stopped right next to the road. I stop, leave Willie at the edge of the lane with his hazards on, and run to jump in the backseat of one of the trucks. The guy's name is Jay and he's a freelance storm chaser. The guy in the other car is Tony Laubach, who appeared in the TV show Storm Chasers (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Laubach).

I couldn't stay in the car for long though; Jay was working and Tony had already left. So I was on my own again just as the hail was ending. Man, even though it was a mix of pea size and small marble size--there are official names for sizes of hail (https://www.weather.gov/lwx/skywarn_hail)--it all really hurts going any speed at all. One piece smashed my finger so hard I lost feeling in it for a while, and I have a couple of welts on my arms that will stay with me for a while. At least I wear a fullface helmet.

But the hail passed, as did the rain. The road was less and less wet and, as I began to dry out, I was less and less cold (so thankful for my heated grips, again). I could even see sunlight where the clouds ended. The proverbial light at the end of the tunnel...that turned into a train. I came over a rise and almost cried. Another huge storm was dead ahead.

I kept going; there weren't any other roads and still nothing to hide under except cows. Fortunately, the storm passed south of the highway before I got there. I just had to deal with a horribly bumpy and now wet road. Behind a semi truck that had passed me on said road. But I did it.

After I left Jay's truck, it took me about two hours to go the final 70 miles to the hotel near the Colorado Springs airport. I counted out increments on the five as I reached them. Actually, I think I yelled them out loud with glee. "65 miles to go! Yippee! 60 miles to go! Yeehaw!" You get the picture 🤣.

Right now, while my clothes and leathers are hanging up to dry, I'm lying in my warm bed with the air conditioning on full blast enjoying my full belly from the Thai place next door and being thankful that the shower was extremely hot.

Actually, the day ended pretty well, too.

So long [for now], and thanks for all the fish! ✌️

Day 68 mileage: 639.3 (total 17535.5)
HD Dealerships: 1 (total 183)
National Parks: 0 (total 33 in 18 states)
10 Rides for 2022: 1 (total 5 of 10)
MCGTTX Stops: 0 (total 23 of 50)Les mer