Thursday, May 24, 2012 @ 7:00 PM in General Travel

Last night was a pretty crappy night to be camping. Now don't get me wrong, it could have been much worse but it was definitely still crappy. After riding in that intense wind and heat all day I just wanted to crash out and get a good night's sleep. After setting my tent up in relative calm I finally tried to fall asleep. It was still pretty hot and the wind was starting to pick up heavily too. Add to that a nice dosage of humidity and you have yourself one hot sticky mess of a sleeping arrangement. It was too hot to try and use my sleeping bag but it was too cool to try and sleep without some kind of cover. I opted for an awkward half covering until I finally fell asleep. Then the wind really picked up. It sounded like it was going to blow the trees down and my tent kept getting blown around with them. After a couple hours of on again, off again sleeping my alarm finally went off at 5:30am.

I got up and immediately set about deflating my sleeping pad and getting my sleeping bag packed back up. After that I put on the same smelly clothes I wore yesterday and went out to start putting stuff away. Since I basically had the entire campground to myself I didn't have to worry about being quiet which made it a lot easier to get everything packed up and put away. I ended up eating a granola bar and chugged a bunch of water before brushing my teeth and putting my jacket and pants back on.

The wind was still howling but it had finally cooled off a bit during the night so the morning was pretty pleasant for a few hours (aside from having to ride sideways against the wind). I eventually made it into some more tree-filled areas and the roads started to get a little more exciting (read: not straight and flat with nothing to see for miles).

Crossing into Missouri was actually quite nice. It seemed like almost immediately the land was a little greener and the roads more hilly and twisty. I just got into the rhythm of riding sideways and following US-54 until finally I met up with I-70 just north of Jefferson City, MO. Getting on the interstate after being on a US highway for essentially all day yesterday and all of today was a bit of a downer. Dealing with semis and a lot of traffic made me realize how nice those lesser used highways really are. I hit a few construction zones and eventually made my way through Missouri and Illinois and finally into Indiana.

Just before getting onto I-465 there was another construction zone where everyone was crawling along at 5mph and this semi just decides it doesn't care if I'm in the left lane and that it was his so he just rolled on over. Fortunately even after 600+ miles and 11 hours of riding for the day I was still aware enough to see what was happening and pulled over and honked while avoiding becoming roadkill like the many deer and other wildlife along the side of the road.

The final stretch to my parents place was pretty uneventful. Fortunately I had missed the evening rush hour and made good time to their place. I got my first shower after two full days of riding which felt great. After that I had a pizza dinner with my parents and grandparents.

Time yet again for bed. Tomorrow is Carb day at the Indy 500 track. This should be a day filled with drinking and debauchery so I'm sure there will be some fun photos and stories to share with you all later.

Stats:

Distance: 635 miles
Time: 12 hours
Near death experiences: 1

Teaser photos:

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Tags: motorcycle, indy 500

Posted from: United States