The bike says 67 degrees

Wonder how tall that corn will be when we get back. “Knee high by the 4th of July” seems to be an underestimate.

What a beautiful morning to launch a long motorcycle trip.  The bike tells me it’s 67 degrees with a promised high of 77 and no rain in the forecast.  That temp is a little cool for some but I think it’s terrific.  Our actual departure was delayed by about 45 minutes even though I had been up for hours trying to make sure I had everything ready.  It seems that the new luggage rack on the bike has a different shape than the original rack.  The change is slight but the bag we sit on the rack is unforgiving.  After we had meticulously packed it – it wouldn’t fit on the new rack – ugh!  OK I’ve got 2 other chances.  The old trustworthy bag fit nicely enough but it seems that somebody cut the excess length off of the tie down straps (yep – it was me).  So I couldn’t tie the bag down.  We had a last chance with a smaller bag so we crammed everything in it, eliminating our extra storage, engineered a new tie-down system, and finally got on the road with shortened temper and higher blood pressure.  The start may have been rocky but the rest of the day couldn’t have gone better.  The weather was perfect.  There was a gas station and a lunch stop right where they needed to be.  A couple of additional rest stops thrown in would have been much appreciated but what can I say – I was focused.  About 320 miles or so later, we’re in Galesburg, IL.  We’re all a little sunburned and slightly tired.  Lunch occurred late in the day (around 3:00) so we’re skipping dinner for tonight.  Not much to take pictures of along the way – besides, we’ve covered this same area several times so it all looks familiar.  Bike ran great, traffic was pretty easy, and not 1 minute was spent on the interstates.  We’ll see what tomorrow brings.