Today’s Miles: 450.8 Total Miles: 1,331.3
Wow, I slept good. I woke up bright and early because I was told
that I HAD TO wake my wife, Lisa, up earlier than normal. Like the great husband that I am I called her
at 6:00 AM sharp and was greeted with mumbles, slobbering, and generally talking
into the pillow rather than into the phone.
After a bit of coaxing (mixed with some mischievous laughter) I had her
semi-fully awake and I received a semi-sincere promise that she was, in fact,
getting out of bed. The good news for
her was that since it was Friday she would not be getting another wake-up call
from me for two whole days.
I readied myself and made it down to
the breakfast room. It was very clean
and the food was great….or as great as a “free” hotel breakfast thing is going
to be. I did my normal computer work and
people watching while I ate. Then I
scurried back to my room, did the final once over to insure I had everything,
threw on my jacket and backpack, and out to the bike I went.
It was a beautiful morning with bright
sun and few clouds. I know that some people,
especially those living in the northern zones, might call me a wuss but it wasn’t
as warm as I like it to be. It wasn’t
cold but it was not, in my opinion, t-shirt weather. Nevertheless, I manned up hopped on the bike
and headed out.
I went back east on I-64 to the first
exit. That was the I-465 loop around
Louisville and crossing the Ohio River.
I made the decision last night follow this route instead of going
through the Downtowns of Louisville, Jeffersonville, and Clarksville. I don’t know if it was better or not but it was
light in traffic and I made great time.
So, if anyone asks……I made the best choice.
That took me around to I-65 and
heading toward Indianapolis. It was now
getting very cloudy. I had checked the
radar before I left and I saw no greens, yellows, or oranges so I figured that
I was safe. It stayed cloudy all the way
to Indianapolis but there was no rain.
When riding on surface roads and
non-expressway routes I find that I do a lot of sightseeing. I love going through towns and looking at
what kinds of stores they have. I like
looking at farms and at old abandoned structures. On the other hand, when I am busting through
the atmosphere on expressways I tend to pay more attention to the road and
traffic. I’ll talk about speed in a
little while. Let’s face it, there isn’t
a lot of sightseeing on the interstate except for maybe the thousands of “McDonald’s
Next Exit” billboards. Occasionally, my
mind will wander. I find myself rescuing
Annette Funicello from a burning building (my apologies to those under 50 who do
not know who Annette Funicello is) or Jennifer Love Hewitt from foreign kidnappers
(my apologies to those under 30 who do not know who Jennifer Love Hewitt is).
After going through several scenarios
of heroic achievements I turn to music.
I do not have a radio on my bike.
I understand, I guess, why some people would want one but it is not for
me. Heck, I seldom turn the radio on in
the car……the few times that Lisa lets me drive it. I like ALL kinds of music but I don’t like
ANY kind of music for too long at one time.
I do like to listen to the classics…..not classics Kiss or Beatles or
Dave Clark Five (my apologies to anyone of any age who do not know who the Dave
Clark Five are) but the classics of Bach and Beethoven and all of their
buds. My favorite of them all is the
William Tell Overture by Rossini…...and not just because Silver and The Lone
Ranger ran to it (although that was my introduction) but there is SO much going
on throughout the whole piece. A couple
weeks ago I saw a video of Glen Campbell (my apologies to those under 40 who
don’t know who Glen Campbell is) playing the William Tell Overture on an acoustic
guitar. It was fantastic. So I am cruising my way toward Indianapolis
and find myself Ba-rumping the William Tell Overture. Now if I can just get that music to play while
I am rescuing Annette and Jennifer I will have quite the ride.
I stopped at a Love’s just south of
Indianapolis and gassed up. From there I
hit I-465 looping around the city and caught I-69. The clouds started clearing but the mercury
in the thermometer wasn’t going up at all………darn this Florida blood. I stopped at another Love’s just south of
Fort Wayne, IN for gas and a quick can of Starbucks coffee and a package of
Twinkies. I received a message from one
of my grandsons who lives in the lower part of Michigan. I was to have dinner with him and his
girlfriend when I got to my destination.
I told them I should get in about 4:30 and for them to pick me up at
5:30 giving me a chance to shower and change clothes. I will still look raggedy because, let’s face
it, I only have discarded clothes with me….but at least I wouldn’t stink. I was sitting about 15 feet or so from the
pumps and two relatively new mini white mini vans pulled in one behind the
other. One was a Nissan and the other a
Toyota. They looked almost identical. I
looked at their plates and they were both from California so I figured they
were traveling together. But NO……the guy
in the Toyota filled up, looked at the other van, smiled, and drove away. The gal and kids in the other van went in the
store and didn’t leave for another 10 minutes or so. That was either a coincidence or that guy finally
found a chance to get away.
My plan was to take I-69 into Michigan
and hop on M-12 and have a nice sightseeing ride across southern part of the
state. However, I felt that I might be
pushing the clock a little to do that so I stayed on I-69 and jumped on
I-94. I made my last gas stop in
Marshall, MI at another Love’s. After a quick
run to the restroom…….and, by the way, their men’s room was being remodeled so
they had a trailer in the parking lot for the “men’s room”……..I was back on the
road heading east when…………………
WHOA…traffic stopped and crawled and
stopped and crawled. Finally, everything
merged into one lane as we SLOWLY went by MILES of construction in ONE
lane. Eventually, that broke loose and I
was on my way again. I jumped on M-14 to
take me north of Ann Arbor and get on U.S. 23.
U.S. 23 goes north and it is an expressway. I got on U.S. 23 and all looked good when…………
WHOA…..traffic stopped and crawled and
stopped and crawled. At least on I-94
there was a legitimate excuse due to the construction. The jam on U.S. 23 went for miles and ended
at I-96. There were no back-ups at the
exit and no huge migrations on the entrances.
Just stupid drivers. Ok, I was
tired and I shouldn’t be calling them names but, if the shoe fits. I got off on M-59 which is the main stretch
to get me to my hotel about 30 miles or so and all looked good when…………..
WHOA…..M-59, which is not good enough under
the best of conditions to hold all the traffic on it had its east bound two
lanes cut to one for MILES. And traffic
stopped and crawled and stopped and crawled.
The worst part was that I saw NO workers and, in fact, it didn’t look
like there was any reason for the lane to be closed. Ok, I was tired and there were probably great
reasons to have that lane closed but…grrrr.
There it was. The Quality Inn and my home for the next 5
days. I checked in, grabbed a cart and
emptied the bike. As I got into the room
I got a message from my grandson that they were on their way and would be there
in about 25 minutes. YIKES! So the showered got canceled but I did get a
fresh set of discarded clothing on.
It was great seeing Isaac and
Mia. For one thing, the major purpose of
this whole trip is to see my three kids and my huge population of
grandkids. We went to the Lion’s Den
right down the street from the hotel and had a GREAT visit and meal. I will say that FOR SURE Isaac and Mia were the
youngest people in the place and I will also say that I am pretty sure that the
vast majority of the patrons were my senior.
Then again, I might still be thinking of me rescuing Annette.
I said goodbye to the kids as they
brought me back to the hotel. I went to
my room and gave Lisa a quick call to talk about each of our days and to say goodnight…..oh
yeah, and a FIRM reminder from her that I was NOT to wake her up in the
morning.
The next few days you will “meet” some
of my friends and run around the old hood to look at memories gone by. Thanks for coming along and I will talk to
you again in a day….maybe two. We’ll see
how it goes.
If you enjoyed your read give this a Like and
Share. Also, feel free to drop me a line by email at donbova1966@yahoo.com, in messenger, on my Facebook timeline, or a comment on
the blog. Lastly, if you have missed previous chapters all you have to do
is find them over to the right and catch yourself up.
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