August 10th
05:30-18:18
Shelbyville IN to Rochester MN
568 Miles
At about 4am I got up and packed up the bike. When I got her loaded I realized that the other tenters had bailed in the night. They may have been the other side of the fight or the lady who ran the place kicked them all out.
I started the bike at 05:30 and let her warm up hopefully giving the revelers a rude awakening.
I bailed and headed out to the freeway. After a couple of miles I pulled into a Denny’s to grab breakfast. I made my order and then hit the restroom. I checked myself in the mirror and noticed that I had a mosquito bite on my upper left cheek and either a bite or a welt from the whack yesterday on the road (from the rock). I know I looked a little beat since the cop sitting at one of the tables eyed me as I returned from the bathroom.
I finished breakfast and headed on. On the other side of Indianopolis I could see it was raining up ahead. I pulled off to an underpass and changed my gear out again. It was pouring rain. By the time I got my gear on it had slowed to a drizzle but the roads were still wet and running water. I bailed and headed north.
I got into Gary Indiana and on to the toll way. Those frigging tolls were 50 cents and about every 15 miles. A couple of times I had the change handy but others I pulled up, stopped, put the bike into neutral, pulled off my glove, fished out a buck, put the change in my tank bag, put the wallet away, put the glove back on, put her into gear and head out. I got into Illinois and stopped at a service area to call Rita and get out of the Rain gear. It was getting quite hot. I snagged lunch and took off.
I wanted to go to Milwalkee but wasn’t sure where The Motor Company was located. Since it was a bit after noon I also didn’t know if I was going to make it to my next scheduled stop in Minnesota. I was leaning towards not stopping and the freeway signs finally made the decison for me. The exit I needed was opposite from where I was on the road so I headed west towards Wisconson on another toll road.
With the construction and tolls it was getting late as I passed over the Mississippi River. There were a couple of bridges as we eventually passed over the river proper. Coming up onto the high plains was cool. The ride up to that point had trees and shaded rest stops. After that was when it got hot riding. With the dryness and heat my nose began to ooze blood and get clogged, especially the right nostril. Periodically I’d have to blow it out. Initially I’d be careful but after a few days it was slight turn-blow 🙂
I almost made it to Austin Minnesota but because it was so late I instead pulled in to Rochester. A slight run down the road found me at The Homestead Motel (weekly rates). He had a room for me. I took the gear off the bike and headed off for dinner at a local Burger King.