Travelogue -- Dr Bob's US Northwest Motorcycle Ride
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13 June 2013, 11:59 PM CT, Mt Pleasant, IA

The day started late, I slept the latest I have on the trip. I was up late last night. I got off at 11:00, the latest I have left on the trip. Nonetheless, I rode a lot today, 449 miles. Some was Interstate, some was not. The ride at the end of the day was especially pleasant. I was on US61 in Missouri and Iowa. It was a four lane highway. And it was deserted. I encountered only a couple of cars in my direction. In the other direction, I would see about three cars every mile. The temperature was very pleasant also.

It was cloudy when I left, almost looked like rain. But it stayed dry. A few miles west of Indianapolis, the skies cleared and it was partly cloudy the rest of the day.

When I started, I went into downtown Indianapolis to get a picture of the Capitol.

The Soldiers and Sailors Monument is only a block or two away, so I got a picture of it also. When I left, I tried to ride all the way around the Monument, but I was allowed to ride only halfway. Police were keeping vehicles off the northern part of the circle.

Here's what central Illinois looks like. Somewhat flat. The wind was terrible. Sometimes it felt like I was getting punched in the head the way the wind would jerk my head around. It was exceedingly noisy also. There is not much road noise or motor noise, it is wind noise. And the gusting winds from the side made it terribly noisy. So I stopped at a drug store and got some earplugs. Then I was no longer assaulted by the wind noise but I was still assaulted by the wind.

A side trip I planned was to see something I missed five years ago on my Route 66 Ride. There is a section of old Route 66 that was brick, and still is brick. This is just north of Auburn, IL.

So far on this trip I have repeated a little bit of three previous rides, Route 66, Route 50, and the Tail of the Dragon.

I crossed the Mississippi River into Missouri. I did not realize that I would ride in Missouri on this trip. Here's a picture of the Mississippi looking south from the Illinois side.

And this is looking north from the same point. There are two different bridges in this picture, one is a steel girder bridge, the other is a suspension bridge with two tall towers. I crossed the suspension bridge.

There will be another Capitol tomorrow, maybe two of them.

So far on this ride I have 1.946 miles. My pre-ride estimate for the end of today was 1,760. I am almost 200 ahead already. There will definitely be more than 10,000 by the time I get back home.

Oh, I forgot to mention what I had for lunch. Why don't we have a contest and see if anybody can guess correctly.