The MisterEd 8000; Grande Tour of America

Across the prairie

Wednesday began gray, damp and drizzly.  I left Crawfordsville at 6:15 AM after a quick cup of coffee wanting to make some miles today.  It remained cold and damp through Bloomington, where I stopped for breakfast and new front turn signal bulb, but started to lighten up a bit near Peoria.  By the time I made Davenport, Iowa, the sun was out in full force and the temperature was going up quickly.  I stopped to pick up a new air filter in Iowa City.  It had gotten fairly dirty on the eastern half of the trip and the past two days of rain riding had turned the dust to muck - the filter was pretty clogged and I was starting to notice a little fall off in power.  The new filter took 5 minutes to install and gave Quicksilver back all her spunk again.

The day was turning out to be beautiful and the riding was great.  It was nice and warm, there was almost no wind, the bike was running fine and it was just a great day to cruise I-80 passing all the trucks I could.  It was in Iowa that I made the discovery about where the ultimate comfort point is for me and my bike.  Cruising along at 5200 RPM and 90 MPH is just perfect.  The bike is at its smoothest and the ride is the most comfortable there.  It gets real easy to settle in to long, long stretches at that speed - although my heart kept leaping into my throat when I'd pass a highway patrol unit.

I never even got looked at sideways by the Iowa State Patrol.  Was it 'cause I was wearing a helmet while I was going 90?  I don't know and I'm not asking.

This is the kind of riding that while not very challenging - I mean after all, you're just cruising straight down the concrete super slab - is very relaxing.  These are the days when I can go through whole tanks of gas without noticing and when I solve all the worlds problems, come up with perfect ideas and great insights and generally feel about as good as I get to feel by myself.

Near Conroy, Iowa, I took these pictures:


I love how the cemetary is just right there in the middle of the cornfields and farm buildings.  I have a feeling that most prairie farm families have a much better sense about death simply being part of life.


This is right across the road from the cemetary.


There's a whole lotta whole lot out here (click on the image for full sized panorama)

I stopped for a bit to visit some friends who work at my company's headquarters office in Des Moines, cool off and have a soda pop.  From that point, it was press on and fuel as quickly as I could.

About 10 miles east of the Nebraska border, I spotted a sign by the side of the road for the SAC museum outside Omaha.  I mentally noted the exit number and kept pushing, passing through Omaha at about 7:00 in the evening.  Near Ashland, I pulled off to find the SAC museum - I figured that if I could find a place to stay nearby, the museum would make a nice side trip the next day.  Ashland's a pretty small town, about centered between Omaha and Lincoln just off I-80 and I didn't have any luck finding a place for the night.  But, Licoln is only another 20 miles down the road, so it's not like the place was majorly out of the way.  So, on to Lincoln it was.

I pulled in to a motel in Lincoln at 8:15 PM, grabbed some supper and settled in for the night.

Airplanes tomorrow ... cool.

A few links