Day Forty Two - Divergenge

Well, today My riding buddy Larry and I parted ways. Larry got off on an early start for today's route, while I waited an hour and then went directly to a local Honda dealer for service on my bike. The diagnosis wasn't what I had hoped. My radiator is leaking and needs to be replaced, along with the fans that caused the problem in the first place. Apparently they rubbed against the radiator enough before going inoperable that they damaged the fins which finally gave way over time. The repair parts are ordered for overnight delivery and hopefully, I be fixed up late tomorrow and can get underway gain on Thursday morning.

In the meantime, Larry completed today's route as planned, though he did run into some rain. I don't have his pictures yet because he's got no internet at his hotel, but I will update whenever I get them.

Stay tuned!

Update: 8/7/14

Today, I started out, and completed the Day 42 route. In order to keep the blog in sequence, I am updating the ride on the day it was run by Larry. Even though I am running it 2 days behind, it is still my Day 42 of actual riding on the tour so I will report that here.

Day 42 Track

I didn't set an alarm for this morning, and must be getting used to the time change because I slept in a bit late. I got on the road at 7:24 AM. The initial leg was south on I-75, back through Dayton and then down to Cincinnati, where I took the beltway around the east side , getting off on US-52. That would take me down along the Ohio river and into Point Pleasant, OH and the site of Ulysses S. Grant's birth. This is a bonus point for the Presidential Tour. It was a 125 mile leg to get here and it took 2:19, including a stop on the way for fuel, coffee and to shed a layer of gear as it wasn't too cool this morning and it warmed up quickly.

Grant's Birthplace - Presidential Tour

From there, I headed northeast on US-232 through Bethel and then Williamsburg where I turned east on Hwy 32. Along this road I would come to the Adams County line, another for the Presidential Tour.

Adams County - Presidential Tour

From here we would continue on 32 over to just south of Waverly where we would get onto US-23 up to Chillicothe and from there onto Hwy 159 where shortly after Chillicothe we got the town of Kingston - another IBEW waypoint.

I've Been Everywhere Man - Kingston

From Kingston, I continued on 159 up through Lancaster  where I got onto 158 and took that on into Baltimore, OH - for another I've Been Everywhere Man Tour checkpoint.

I've Been Everywhere Man - Baltimore

From Baltimore, it was a short hop up to I-70 and then west to the beltway around Columbus. I got off the beltway at US-23 northbound for Delaware where we'd find the next Presidential Tour bonus  -

Rutherford B. Hayes Memorial site - Presidential Tour

Frlm here, I took US-36 back over to I-71 for a 111 mile, 2 hour leg up to Akron and the Canal Park baseball field (fo rthe Baseball tour)

Canal Park - Baseball Tour

Larry went on to get the next two checkpoints on his day through, but I stopped for the night in Richland so I won't get those two until tomorrow.

My Stats for today: 457.1 miles in 10:47 elapsed time, 8:26 saddle time.

Day Forty One - 4 States today - Kentucky, Tennessee, Indiana & Ohio

We got another nice early start today - on the road at 6:43 AM. It was a cool 61 degrees, but just a few miles down the road we ran into some heavy low fog and the temps dropped into the mid 50's. The dampness of the fog made it feel colder than it was but our gear was adequate.

Day 41 Track

We started out heading south on US-27 headed for he Tennessee border. We would cut right through the Daniel Boone National Forest on Hwy 438 which was a very twisty road. It was posted 35 MPH and the early part was thickly settled so we had to keep the speeds down at first. After a while it was less congested and we got some good running in. At one point as I came around a curve there was a chicken standing right in the middle of my lane. He didn't budge a bit as I swerved around him, nor even as Larry came around on the other side! A little further I came up on two dogs on the edge of the road. One was laying down and the other was walking next to him. They both looked hard at me as I went by, and the dog laying down got up and made a half hearted attempt to chase Larry as he went by. After that fun, we turned onto I-75 southbound for the Tennessee border which we needed for the I've Been Everywhere Man Tour.

I've Been Everywhere Man - Tennessee

Right after crossing into Tennessee, we got off  on US-20W and ran down into the town of Jellico which we needed for the I've Been Everywhere Man Tour. We first went to the post office, but it was another where there was no city or state name listed. Plan B was the police station which did list the city name which was all we needed for this one.

I've Been Everywhere Man - Jellico

From Jellico, we would reverse direction and head back north, but we decided to take an early coffee break to give the fog a chance to lift. You can see some of the fog in the Tennessee border photo. It did lift somewhat, at least the sky was a little brighter and it was a couple of degrees warmer. It would be a long haul to our next checkpoint - Boston, IN for the I've Been Everywhere Man Tour. It would be 255 miles! We did run some secondary roads, but it would be more interstate 75 than anything else. We ran clear back up through Kentucky and into Indiana before we broke for lunch. It was here that I noticed that my bike was leaking coolant onto the ground. I checked the level and added some, but this problem is getting worse and threatens completing the trip. We got of I-75 and onto IN-1 and then IN-101 and ran up these secondary roads to get into Boston, IN where we took this photo.

I've Been Everywhere Man - Boston

From Boston, we headed north into Richmond where we turned east on 121 and crossed over into Ohio. We continued on into New Paris and then got on some "really back roads" to get us over to the post office in Eldorado for the I've Been Everywhere Man Tour. I mean these roads were through and between corn fields on narrow roads with names like "Paul McKee Rd", and "B road". Somehow we did come out to the post office and got our photos. We got in here at 1:30 PM.

I've Been Everywhere Man - Eldorado

From Boston we would jump onto  I-75 again for the final leg of the day up into Dayton. We originally planned on going to the hotel and then getting the downtown Dayton checkpoints early tomorrow morning, but since we got in so early we opted to go for them this afternoon. First up was the Fifth Third Field, home of the minor league team Dayton Dragons for the Baseball Tour.

Baseball Tour - Fifth Third Field (Dayton, OH)

From ther we headed over to the Dayton Post office, but the first one we went to had a sign - CLOSED - and no city or state listed on it. We searched for the next nearest one and found it .3 miles away. It was open but the lettering for the name was in small print on the doors inside the vestibule. We took two photos, one from away showing the post office insignia and the vestibule, and then the other a close-up of the door with the city/state names on it. While running around here in town I did have my temperature gauge showing elevated engine temps so I was shutting it off at red lights.

I've Been Everywhere Man - Dayton

Close-up showing Dayton OH on the post office door from above photo

From here we headed on over to the hotel and checked in. I looked closely at my bike and it was still leaking coolant, so the problem is getting worse and we really needed to consider what to do next. Once checked in, I looked up Honda Dealers and found one 16 miles north of our hotel. It was even better that they were open today (most are closed on Sundays and Mondays). I called and spoke to the service manager and explained my situation. He assured me that they would do their very best to get me fixed up if I came in tomorrow morning. Larry and I discussed the options and decided that I would go get the bike serviced while he rides on the scheduled route tomorrow. With a little luck, I'll get fixed up and either catch up with him tomorrow or the following day. I will miss some checkpoints, but will still complete the tours, just with fewer points than planned.

With that decided, we went to the Cracker Barrel next door for dinner.

Today's Stats: 405.1 miles in 9:32 elapsed time, 7:43 saddle time.

Day Forty - 2nd half of Indiana and Kentucky

We got off to a flying start this morning at 6:45 AM. That's important because we are getting anxious to get home and the more miles we can get in a day, the less days we have to be out on the road.
We did need to fuel up, but that was right on the way out. It was 61 degrees at the hotel, but it dropped down into the mid 50's several miles down the road. Our extra layer of gear was good enough to handle that.

Day 40 Track

We had just a 4 mile hop on I-69 until we turned west on Hwy 26. We would ride a LOT of back roads today, many of them county roads so I won't name every single road in the blog. It took us just another 20 minutes from the interstate exit to get to our first checkpoint for today - the Madison County line for the Presidential Tour.

Madison County - Presidential Tour

Just another 40 minutes later, as we were headed west on IN-28 we would capture our 2nd checkpoint of the day - the Clinton County line - for the Presidential Tour. It's 8:00 AM and we already have 2 of our checkpoints - life is good!

Clinton County - Presidential Tour

We would continue west on IN-28 out to Frankfort where we then turned south onto IN-39. We stayed on 39 down to IN-47 where we turned west towards our next checkpoint - Thorntown, IN. That will be the "t" in Strange for the Team Strange Airheads 30 tour.

Thorntown, IN - "t" in Strange for ts30gt

Coming out of Thorntown, we are running south on IN-75. There would be some jogs and actual curves in the road as we went by interstates and crossed over railroad tracks. We would go through he towns of Advance, Jamestown, North Salem and Coatsville.  We rolled into Fillmore at 9:35 AM. While we were getting our photos, a nice local driver passing by asked if we wanted him to take a photo of us together. We gratefully declined but it was nice chatting with him even though briefly.

Fillmore, IN - Presidential Tour

From Fillmore we would start working back south-easterly, mostly by going south a bit, then east for a bit longer, etc. There were no diagonal roads going southeast, that is, until we got to Martinsville where we were supposed to run on I-252 which was a diagonal road, but as we were coming out of of the town we ran into a detour for 252, so we ended running east for quite a way on IN-44 all the way out to IN-135 before then dropping south and then 135 turned back westerly and eventually met us back up with 252 in Morgantown. The detour ended up actually being a pretty nice road to ride, and it ran us right into our next checkpoint - the Johnson County line for the Presidential Tour.

Johnson County - Presidential Tour

We would continue south on 135 on down through Nashville and it was all nice riding. 135 would now take us along the edge of the Hoosier National Forest. Once again we would run into another detour and it also turned out to be as nice a road as the one we got routed around. Eventually, we came through a section of the forest and along here we caught our next checkpoint - the Jackson County line - for the Presidential Tour.

Jackson County - Presidential Tour

 After the Jackson line we would exit out the south side of the National Forest and then run east over to the town of Brownstown.  There we found a nice little home town cafe and got an honest to goodness real meal complete with choice of three vegetables. It was quick too, thanks to the fact that we ordered the daily special. That meant we were back on the road pretty quickly.

After lunch we continued south on 135 all the way down through Salem and into the town of Palmyra where we would pick up US-150 and head south-east towards Louisville, KY where two more checkpoints awaited us.

We crossed over the Ohio River and into Kentucky at 2:12 PM. It didn't take long to find the post office and get our photos of that - Louisville for the I've Been Everywhere tour.

Louisville - I've Been Everywhere Man Tour

Then, just less than a mile away we got the Louisville Slugger Museum for our Baseball tour.

Louisville Slugger Museum - Baseball Tour

That would be the last checkpoint for this day. We rode out the rest of the day rolling towards the Tennessee border, but that would have to wait for tomorrow as we stopped for the night in Somerset, KY.

It ended up being a near perfect riding day. It warmed up nicely, but never got too hot. A few clouds appeared from time to time, but it never rained. We rode probably less than 30 miles of interstate so we were pretty happy riders.

Today's Stats: 414.6 miles in 10:58 elapsed time, 8:36 saddle time.

Day Thirty Nine - Michigan 2nd half and Indiana 1st half

After a great nights sleep we got up early and our hosts made us a nice breakfast of hot oatmeal (NOT instant!), coffee, juice and fruit. We were really getting spoiled compared to the hotel breakfasts. All too soon it was time to shove off, so we said our goodbyes and got onto the road at 6:54 AM. It was a cool 55 though it felt colder than that. We had an extra layer of gear on, but I wasn't sure if I should have added another layer. We would run east for a bit before getting onto Hwy 66 headed directly south.

Day 39 Track

We would cover the 68 miles to our first checkpoint in 1:26. Nashville is for the I've Been Everywhere Man Tour.

I've Been Everywhere Man Tour - Nashville

From Nashville, we'd head another 25 miles down 66 to Battle Creek and then over to the northwest side of the city to catch our next checkpoint - Springfield - for the I've Been Everywhere Man Tour.

I've Been Everywhere Man Tour - Springfield

It would be a short hop on Hwy 83 westbound over to Richland - the "r" in Strange for the TS30GT.

Team Strange Grand Tour - Richland, MI - "r" in Strange

Right after this photo, we stopped for our morning coffee break at a local McDonalds. We'd spend just 20 minutes here before heading out for yet another short hop - this one over to Kalamazoo for the I've Been Everywhere Man Tour.

I've Been Everywhere Man Tour - Kalamazoo

From Kalamazoo it was another short hop south to get to our next checkpoint - Vicksburg - for the I've Been Everywhere Man Tour.

I've Been Everywhere Man Tour - Vicksburg

Vicksburg would be our last checkpoint for Michigan, but we were far from done today! We would soon cross the state border into Indiana and we would stop in Warsaw for lunch at the Chicago Dog House. There we got authentic Chicago style hot dogs - which were pretty good! After lunch we headed west on Hwy 25/110 which would take us to our next checkpoint - Monterey - for the I've Been Everywhere Man Tour.

I've Been Everywhere Man Tour - Monterey

It was 1:30 PM when we left Monterey. It would take us another hour to get to our next checkpoint - Buffalo for the I've Been Everywhere Man Tour.

I've Been Everywhere Man Tour - Buffalo

We were really clicking them off today It's 2:28 PM and we've got seven checkpoints already! Our last two for the day will be Presidential - one county line and one city. From Buffalo we would start heading east again to get over to Logansport where we would join onto US-24. We would continue east on that over through Peru where we stopped for an ice cream cone break :-) After the break we continued on 24 over to Wabash where we got on IN-15 headed south and east until we turned south on CR-300W where we grabbed the Grant County line for the Presidential tour.

Presidential Tour - Grant County line

Just a few miles from the county line we got our last point for the day - The Van Buren post office for the Presidential tour.

Presidential Tour - Van Buren (city)

We were now just 12 miles from our hotel destination, but we had been watching the darkening skies with hopes that we would not have a repeat of yesterday. A few miles down the road and it did start raining on us, though lightly enough as to not require putting on the rain gear just yet. We held out for a few minutes and the rain tapered off and then ended. By the time we rolled into the hotel, the sun was back out and all was well with the world!

Today's Stats: 375.1 miles in 10:05 elapsed time, 7:56 saddle time.

Day Thirty Eight - 1st half of Michigan

We arose this morning and got on the road at 6:54 AM and started out running 60 miles on I-94.It  was a cool morning at 56 degrees but we had an extra layer of gear on and the sun was coming up nicely. The only "problem" for the day at this point was that just 23 miles down the road we crossed the state border into Michigan where the time zone changed and we LOST an hour, so 23 minutes into the ride, we are now at 8:17 AM. Not a disaster as we knew this would happen, but it works oh so much better when heading west as opposed to east.

Day 38 Track

From I-94, we would get off and head north on I-196 for a bit before we would snag our first checkpoint for the day - the Van Buren County line for our Presidential Tour.

Van Buren County line - Presidential Tour

We would get off the interstate at exit 13 and head east to 140 and then a short jog north and turn east again on  CR-378. Along this stretch of country road we would spot a large flock of turkeys on the side of the road. Then further down, I had a driver pull out of a side road directly in front of me, forcing me to brake hard. Don't know what she was thinking, but she just continued on down the road like nothing happened... Next we came to a construction zone that we had to work through before finally entering the town of Bangor where we grabbed this photo.

Bangor - I've Been Everywhere Man Tour

From Bangor we would head east on Hwy 43 and then north on Hwy 40 up to the town of Tamarack where we turned east onto 116th ave to then get on US-131 northbound. Somewhere along here we stopped to shed a layer as the temp had risen into the low 70s by now. Later we stopped again for a morning coffee break at a McDonald's in Wayland. From there, we called some friends who planned on meeting us up in Cadillac to let them know what time we would get there. We then continued on up 131 through Grand Rapids where just north of town we got onto Hwy 37. We would stay on that all the way up to Grant, MI which was our next checkpoint for the Presidential tour.

Grant, MI - Presidential Tour

After we got the Grant photo we stopped for fuel.  We then headed north again on 37 and then turned east on 82 which we took along through the Manistee National Forest. Eventually we turned north on US-131 which would take us all the way up to Cadillac, MI. which was our next checkpoint for the I've Been Everywhere Man Tour.

Cadillac - I've Been Everywhere Man Tour

When we got up to Cadillac we met our friends Jim & Carol Krieger, who are summering at a campground up in Traverse City. It was good to see some familiar faces after so long out on the road. We had lunch with them and then we took photos of our Post Office and got them in too! This was our last checkpoint for the day, now we just needed to make it to some other friends from Florida who invited us to stay the night in their summer home in Lakeview, MI.

From there we headed southeast on Hwy 115 where we would then pick up Hwy 66 south for a 41 mile leg. Things were going well, but as we got to about 20 miles out when we noted the skies darkening and knew it was only a matter of time before the rain would start falling. We got to just 7 miles from the destination when we spotted the road ahead was wet so we pulled over and put on our rain gear. Just a mile down the road we'd turn west on Howard City-Edmore Rd and the skies just opened up in a deluge. It was raining so hard that visibility dropped to almost nil. To make matters worse, Larry's GPS and my GPS had conflicting directions on getting to our destination, so he was trying to direct me (I was leading). He had another problem in that his glasses were so fogged up that he needed to stop to take them off so he could see to continue. We managed to keep going and after a few more minutes the rain lightened up considerably and we managed to find our way to our friends Tim & Penny's home. Then, just as we were pulling down their street we came upon the fire department who was there to put out a fire on a combine in the field right in front of their house. We managed to get by that and pulled into a nice dry garage where we were cheerfully greeted and got to shed our rain gear and start to dry off the bikes. We spent a real enjoyable evening there, complete with some great home cooking which was Oh so appreciated after all the days of commercial food out on the road.  Eventually we all went to bed, got a good nights sleep and were up again the next morning to start all over again!

Today's Stats: 333.9 miles in 8:05 elapsed time, 5:58 saddle time.

Day Thirty Seven - Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana - A day of challenges

Poor WiFi connection and late getting into hotel so text for today's blog will likely be delayed. Will try to load the pictures first and then write the commentary later, or maybe even tomorrow or maybe Saturday!.

Today was one of those days where everything we planned went NOT according to plan...

Day 37 Track

Our "plan" was to get an early start so that we would get down through Chicago around mid-day to alleviate the stress of trying to go through at rush hour... It started out well with us leaving the hotel at 6:15 AM. It was just an 18 mile ride up Hwy 69 to get to our first waypoint in New Glarus, WI which gave us the "n" in Strange for the TS30GT Tour.

New Glarus, WI - "n" in Strange for TS30GT

From there we headed up to Madison to get our 2nd waypoint of the day. As you can see below the Post Office didn't have the city/state showing prominently, but it was on the door, so we took a 2nd photo to show that. But getting there wasn't so easy. There was a large bridge construction project going on and between that and the routine morning rush hour traffic in the capitol city, it took us 20 minutes to go the last 5 miles to the post office!

Madison, WI - Presidential Tour

Closeup of Madison, WI Post Office Door

I wish I could say this was our biggest problem, but it wasn't. When I opened my side case to get my "flag" it wasn't there. I knew right away what happened. I forgot to stow it after I took the picture in New Glarus which meant it was somewhere back in New Glarus - about 30 miles back... If it were just the flag, we might have blown it off and had a new one made, but in the green clip-case that I was using to hold the flag, I also have my checkbook and passport - so we HAD to go back. This also meant going back through the traffic nightmare we had just done getting in! When we finally got back, the case wasn't right there in front of the post office, but after a while we retraced our route and about 1/4 mile from the post office, out on the highway, I spotted the broken remnants of the case. We pulled over and picked up everything we could find and when done, I had the flag, my passport, and my checkbook! We grabbed a quick breakfast here in town but this episode would set our plans back by nearly 2 hours which meant we would be getting to Chicago later than we'd hoped.

After breakfast we headed back out, this time detouring around Madison by running up Hwy 83 through towns named Mt. Horeb, Black Earth and Sauk City where we got on US-12 to get up to our next checkpoint - Baraboo -  for the I've Been Everywhere Man tour.

Baraboo - I've Been Everywhere Man Tour

From Baraboo we headed east on Hwy 33 out through Portage, Randolph and then Waupun where we got on US-151 to get up to our next checkpoint in Fond Du Lac. We were doing OK progress wise until we got to within just a half a mile of the post office when we got to be in line for a railroad crossing with a train that seemed to go on forever. It actually was only a 3 minute wait but it seemed longer. We then got our photos. It was now 12:34.

Fond Du Lac - I've Been Everywhere Man Tour

From Fond Du Lac we headed south, first on US-41 through Lomira and then on Hwy 83 just north of Hartford. At this point we were on secondary city roads that while scenic had posted speeds of just 35 mph so we weren't making very good time. We continued down through Chenequa and Genessee Twp and Mukwonago. From Fond Du Lac to Mukwonago was a 67 mile stretch that took us 1:44 to cover, averaging just 39 MPH. Now that did include an 18 minute lunch stop where 83 crossed I-94. At any rate, we finally got down to the state border and entered Illinois just north of Antioch which was our next checkpoint. We rolled into town and got the post office only to find yet another example of a post office with no city or state names on the outside. And since this was for the ts30gt tour we HAD to get something with both city and state names listed. We searched the GPS and found the police station was right across the street, but even that only had the city name in big letters!

Antioch, IL - "a" in Strange for TS30GT

While over there taking the photo of the police station, I noted the police SUV parked on the left of the above photo, and I could see that IT listed the Antioch Police and had an Illinois tag so I figured that should work!

Proof that Antioch is in Illinois!

So now we're off headed for Chicago, but it is already 3:06 PM. I'll spare you the blow by blow details, but suffice it to say the traffic to and through Chicago was beyond un-believable. It would take us 60 minutes to cover the last 6 miles into the post office location in town. Aside from the time issue, there was another problem. My bike had developed a cooling problem where the fans that kick on when I'm not moving enough to cool the engine weren't working. That meant I either HAD to stay moving at 30+ MPH or stop and let the bike cool down when the temperature gauge showed too high a temperature. Even Larry's air-cooled bike was having elevated temperature warnings, so we did have to stop a few times to let the engines cool a bit. When we finally got to the post office waypoint - it was nowhere to be found! We both did GPS searches for alternatives and I found another PO listed just .3 miles from where we were so we headed over there and were rewarded with the following photo.

Chicago - I've Been Everywhere Man Tour

OK, so it's now 6:00 PM and we need to get OUT of downtown Chicago! Again, sparing the detailed blow by blow, we tried to work out to Lakeshore Blvd, along Lake Michigan but the access to that was limited. Then we ran into a detour due to a closed bridge. We finally did get on, but it was very congested so some more stop and go and cool off, and finally we got to where it did open up a bit more and eventually got to where we could run mostly unrestricted and finally my engine temperature came back down to normal. From the "good" post office to where we got open running was 27 miles that took us another 1:27 to cover (Avg Speed 16 mph). It's now 7:30 PM. We're only 30 miles from the hotel now and we managed to get there in another 42 minutes, getting in just as the sun was setting at 8:08 PM...

So, it was a TOUGH day. I don't know how much better it would have been had I not lost the flag and had to go back, but that certainly made it worse, though I suspect it still would have been tough regardless. Anyway, nobody broke down and had to be towed away so we had that. Hopefully tomorrow would be better.

Today's Stats: 418 miles in 14:06 elapsed time, 10:18 saddle time. 

Day Thirty Six - Missouri to Wisconsin via Illinois

So here we are at day 36 - and back east the roads get crowded and the cities more congested so we need to plan carefully to time when we will arrive where so as to avoid the most congested places/times. Chicago is looming so we had to plan some long days in the run up to ensure we would hit downtown Chicago near noontime.

We got off early again today at 6:49 AM. It was a nice start to the day with partly cloudy skies and temps in the mid 60's.

Day 36 Track

We left Kingdom City MO and headed north on US-54 towards Mexico where 54 jogs east, then north, and then east again until it crosses the Mississippi and the border to Illinois. Our first waypoint of the day would be Louisiana, MO - for the I've Been Everywhere Man Tour - and it's right at the border to Illinois. That was a 75 mile leg and it took us 1 hr 25 minutes to get there. It was a nice ride, but no twisties - just lots of farmland with never ending corn and soybean fields.

I've Been Everywhere Man - Louisiana

From Louisiana we crossed over the Mississippi River on one of the narrowest two lane bridges I've ever been on and just 30 minutes later we were pulled up in front of the Pittsfield, IL post office for the I've Been Everywhere Man tour.

I've Been Everywhere Man - Pittsfield

After Pittsfield, we continued north on US-54 up where it crosses I-72 and turns into Hwy 107. We would continue on that until just south of Mt Sterling where Larry had a little detour on some back country roads through the corn fields on 550, 400 and 300. These were some slightly twisty country roads but we saw lots of action on them. Almost immediately, I got dive bombed by a bird - a Cardinal I think, that just barely missed my head. Shortly after that, I saw a small fox run across the road quite a way ahead of me. Not too far after that, I had a deer run across from right to left. I slowed quickly and let it pass, all the while on the lookout for more to follow. We finally got back onto to "normal roads" like US-24 near Mound Station. That would take us up to Clayton where we split north on 2903rd lane which would take us up to Augusta where it turned into Hwy 61 which we took up to Plymouth where we finally stopped for coffee and to shed a layer of gear. It was now 10:00 AM and it had warmed up to the low 70's.

After coffee at Plymouth, we stayed on 61 until we caught 136 and just after that turn eastward we would snag our next I've Been Everywhere Man waypoint - Tennessee.

I've Been Everywhere Man - Tennessee

We then continued on 136 and would take that on up into Macomb, IL. which was the biggest town we'd been in all day. From there we zig-zagged on some back roads up to Avon where we picked up Hwy 41 which we took north on up through St. Augustine and Abingdon and just short of Galesburg we turned east on CR-10 which would take us into our next waypoint - Knoxville - Where we would also fuel up the bikes.

I've Been Everywhere Man - Knoxville

After Knoxville we would get on I-74E which would take us down and over to Peoria, across Peoria Lake and onto US-24 which we'd take up into our next waypoint - Washington - again for the I've Been Everywhere Man tour.

I've Been Everywhere Man - Washington

Since it was now 1:12 PM local tome we would stop at a McDonalds for lunch on the way out on Hwy 89 in Metamora IL. After lunch we continue on 89 up to Magnolia where we turn east on Hwy 18 to get over to I-39 for a short hop up to Tonica where we head northeast on some back roads to get up to our next waypoint - Ottawa - for the I've Been Everywhere Man Tour.

I've Been Everywhere Man - Ottawa

From Ottawa we jump onto I-80 westbound to get back over to I35 which we then take north all the way up to Rockford, IL and then turn west again on US-20 to get over to Freeport where we get on Hwy 26 north which we take up to our last wapoint of the day - Monroe, WI for the Presidential tour. Monroe is another of those "problem post offices" where the city name is not on the face of the building - instead it is in tiny lettering on the door. We took two photos to try to document this one.

Monroe Post Office - Presidential Tour

See just under the red sticker

We thought we were home free now, but that wouldn't be the case. We had expected to stay at the Super8 in Monroe, but when we got there they had no rooms. They did call around and find us a room at another hotel in town so it wasn't a total loss, but we picked the Super8 because they have guest laundries and we NEEDED to do laundry. The alternate hotel didn't have a guest laundry so we were forced to go to a laundromat to do the laundry. On top of that when we left to go to the laundry Larry;s headlight blew out AGAIN (3rd one this trip!). After the laundry and some dinner we got back tothe hotel, changed Larry's headlight and I finally go to work on this blog!

Today's Stats: 482.6 miles in 112:34 elapsed time (includes running around after arrival for dinner & laundry) and 9:03 saddle time