Saturday, September 25, 2010

Sept 24th -- A series of unfortunate events leads to exhaustion

I feel like the last two days hanging around Green Bay was like a vacation for me.  Didn't do a whole hell of a lot and just kicked back and relaxed.  Todd and his buddies (Mark, Chris, etc) made me feel their age again as i did the same shit at that age.  god i love to reminisce.

Got up right around 6am for some reason.  if i had known today was going to be as bad as it was, i would have slept more.  Before parting ways, Todd gave me some Green Bay stuff.  awesome.  he's 'The Dude' :)

The wind was pretty brutal by the looks of it... at least it wasn't raining.  I needed my morning coffee so i headed to starbucks to wake up. It was a little scary with all the wind, as it was blowing me all over the road even though i wasn't going faster than 45mph and only went about 2.5 miles.  It was also very exhausting trying to keep the bike from not going out of control.

I tried all day to think of this, even though it was a bitch of a day
I left Green Bay and took the interstate/US41. It was brutal. absolutely brutal.  The handlebars kept kicking out of my hands and the crosswind was constantly pushing me so much that the bike was in a 10-15 degree lean much of the time.  I checked the weather after the fact and seems that the wind was blowing at 45mph and gusting at 70+.  The big rigs were being blown all over the road.  I decided to play it safe(er) and take the smaller highways and country roads to get south and to more stickers i can put on the cases for the bike.
I want one from every state.  Got U.P. from michigan, Packers for Wisconsin, and i hope to have something from every state or place of interest i go to.  The whole trip is about the stickers. hah.

something you'd never see in Canada, alslo a good reason to take the smaller roads
after a few scary moments of either blown off the road, being pushed under a truck or generally almost losing control. I saw a few, but i'd assume at least 20+ times i thought that i was 'lucky' to not have crashed.

I took roads like this all the way to Chicago area.  Nice roads, but still very dangerous with the high winds
I eventually made it to Cabelas and picked up a sweet knife, a hot dog fork and best of all, a waterproof dufflebag.

Display at Cabelas


 I headed out to the parking lot and two bikers seemed to want to chat and i was making my way over... they didn't want to chat... my bike was on the ground, wheels in the air. fuck.

the NERF bars took the hit.  Without them i would have a bashed in cowling and perhaps more damage.
 The side case damage and you can see how the supports are touching the bike.  seems the support got bent out of shape.

I should have put it on the centerstand, even though it was parked properly, up a hill, etc.  It was so windy it knocked the bike over.  A few minor scrapes and scuffles and all seems ok.  The right case is fine, but it pushed in the support for it, so now it's rubbing on the plastic rear cover.  I don't care about the looks, but i want the supports to hold for the whole trip or else i'm screwed.


more of the same roads i travelled.

not impressed with the wind.
I kept going south and the wind eased a little around Chicago.  I was already making bad time, but even trying to go around the city of Chicago was brutal.  Bad traffic, bad drivers. it was just bad.  I hate big cities.  big cities are just mean. 
 
Somewhere near Chicago, i hit another milestone. kilometerstone i guess you could say
peace
At a starbucks yet again, i was freaking out a little of all the little things going on today, being physically and mentally drained riding in the wind, and generally shit not looking in my favor.I just needed a friendly voice to cheer me up a little. I know these trips are hard on the body and the soul at times, but when it's everyday, it damn near kills you (literally)
I was not pleased to say the least.

grumpy.
so tired and exhausted i took the first motel that came up on the GPS that i though would have a room, be cheap and had Wifi.  The super 8 and 2 out of 3 ain't bad.  it isn't great either when the one thing out of the 3 is price.  $80 they got me for at this one.  Meh.  last super 8 i was at cost me something like $60 for the night. meh.  Then, playing with my new knife, i sliced open a finger tip.  bad enough that even after pressure, and a good bandage on it, it bled through a few hours later.  my hands are becoming ruined.  i'll never be the male handmodel that i've always dreamed of.

I got my earlier wish and heard a friendly voice. odd how that can make many little things just go away...

Feeling a bit better, I blogged a bit but was getting hungry. I figured i might as well go get gas, get fuel and buy some cigarettes while i'm at it.

exhausted, hungry and still slightly grumpy, i went out in search for these. First up, fuel.  Went to oen gas station that wouldn't take my credit card unless i punched in my Zip code.  I don't have a zip code!! It pissed me off enough that i left for another gas station.  I proceeded to fuel up, and the trigger for the gas has the lock on it, so it kept pissing gas.  Worried it would overflow, i tried to take the trigger lock off while in the tank.  Bad move.  Since the nozzle has a rubber sleeve and that i was exhausted today, i proceeded to dump a bunch of fuel all over the bike.  Simeon got hosed with gas.  i was mor htan slightly pissed. 
I rode around to se if there was food nearby.  everything was either closed, or drive through only. meh.

i came back and went to Denny's for a meal. not bad, but i couldn't eat even half of it.

The Denny's Grand Slamwich. Pretty mch a McGriddle, and hence i ate only half.

 after all the shit today, i think i have my head back in the game.  Tomorrow, go to Gardner, IL and see if i can spot and take old Route 66.  almost 3 am and i need sleep, but needed to blog...

1 comment:

  1. Thank God you didn't get the "country gravy" @ Denny's, you'd be done fer shur.

    Mark

    ReplyDelete

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