I watched as much of the Colts game as I could handle last night before turning off the TV and the lights.  I’m not sure what time it was.  The clock in our room displayed a time that looked like a Romulan hieroglyph.  Maybe Martinsville, Indiana observes some weird form of daylight savings time.  (The display never changed.)

There were a lot of miles that needed covered this morning so we packed up our belongings and loaded up.  The weather looked iffy.  It was supposed to be hot and humid with a chance of rain.  Our decision was to roll down the road a little this morning then grab some breakfast along the way.  Some how we chose Denny’s – not typically our first choice.  The breakfast was so-so.

One thing I do like about Denny’s is they have crane machines – which I am addicted to.  This store had one proudly standing right by the front door.  After breakfast, I didn’t have enough will-power to just walk past it.  It ate my first dollar but on the second attempt – SCORE.  I was informed by my family that this was a GOAT.  I thought they were talking about me being the Greatest Of All Times (GOAT) crane players.  They had no issue telling me the reference was to the cute animal I had retrieved.

Since we are fully loaded already, I looked for a small child who might appreciate this.  It was luck that a cute little girl was sitting right beside our table.  She had even smiled at me during the meal.  We stepped to their table and sat the goat down in front of her and were rewarded with …………

The family was really thankful.  This was the little one’s first toy.  It seems that they had just taken custody of her because her mother gave her to them.  The “mom” said she didn’t want the little one anymore and just gave her away.  The world is a strange place.

By the time we finished eating, the sky had cleared up and the sun was shining.  This was the first time we had seen the sun since leaving home.  It always feels better rolling down the road with the sun shine on us.  It also brings heat.  The bike indicated that the temperature went up from 74 to 86.  Before we ran into this little surprise (see picture below) the temp had gone all the way up to 91 degrees.

(Sorry about the poor picture quality – I’ll fix it later.)  If you look closely you can see all the flags with our planned route.  The green blob to the left is just what you would expect it to be.  Some people scoff at having radar capability on the bike but once again we were able to track the progress of the shower and speed up / slow down / stop to keep dry.  We did all three of those things.

It was hot enough today that we were rung out by the time we got to our planned destination – Metropolis, Illinois.  We made good time and were at the hotel by about 3:45 PM local time (now in central time zone) after putting 255 miles behind us.  (I know it doesn’t sound like a lot of miles but the trike beats you up with it’s solid rear axle and less than perfect roads in the area.)

The room was ready but we needed to go eat.  We decided on Fat Edd’s which was about 5 miles away.  It was a different kind of place with cafeteria style ordering, beverage service at our table, and a small casino area in the back.

Edd’s also had one more thing I forgot to mention:  A CRANE MACHINE

On the way back to the hotel, we discovered that this town has a fascination with grocery shopping so they installed what has to be the largest grocery guy around.

Tomorrow morning we’re going to explore the town a little.  After all, it’s the home of Superman.  We hope you continue to ramble along with us.