We watched the weather forecast last night and the prediction was for rain the entire day today.  It didn’t sound to promising.  We were still 500 miles from home and considered just sitting still for a day.  We checked out “things to do in Blytheville, Arkansas” and decided that if there was anyway to move, that’s what we should do.

We got up this morning to rain just as predicted.  The radar on our phones said that the storm might be clear of us in about an hour.  Breakfast was in order at the Perkin’s Restaurant attached to our hotel.  As soon as we were seated at a table, the rain quit.  I did look out the window and saw this.

Maybe it hadn’t rained at all.  It was just boiling off the excess.

I was convinced that moving right up I-55 would put us in direct contact with the back edge of the storm.  As a result, we broke out the new rainsuits and put them on before we checked out of the hotel.  This is not one of my favorite things to do.

We were going to have a decision to make soon.  The storm was moving north and slightly east.  That is the same direction that I-55 is aimed in this part of the country.  The decision would come at when we split off to follow I-57 near Sikeston, MO.  We could follow 57 north all the way to I-70 or we could turn due east on I-64.  Jana and I talked about what we should do and finally let the radar on the gps help us make the decision to head due east.

We were running low on gas and stopped at a place called Boomland.  I thought this was a strange name for a place that sold fireworks.

It turns out that Boomland sells a lot more than fireworks.  They have all kind of knick-knacks, groceries, and oddities.  They also sell cold cokes which was our only purchase.  We ran into the owner of this facility.  He was telling the story of how his store came to be.  It started as a 8 by 10 foot room selling fireworks and grew into the current configuration.  (You can see him in the plaid shirt in the picture below.)

One good thing happened at Boomland – we were able to take off the rainsuits, again based on the radar on the gps.  The suits had done their job.  As soon as we put them on, the rain disappeared.

We ended up tracking across the very southernmost portion of Illinois and finally back into Indiana.  Our home for the night is in Evansville after a trek of about 250 miles.  It never did rain.

As we were parking the trike a little girl and her mother approached.  The little girl said she had never seen a motorcycle (I suspect she meant a trike).  So after making sure it was OK with her mom, I sat her on he seat and took a couple of pictures.  She was thrilled and place her beloved Mickie and Donald appropriately in the passenger seat.  I hope someday Allie Jo grows up to ride her own and enjoys what motorcycles can bring.

Tonight the temps are supposed to drop into the mid 40’s so we are anticipating a cold 200 miles or so to get back to the ranch.  I’m already thinking about the next trip.

PS: I forgot to put in a picture of our crane animal from last night.  So to keep the record straight:

I always try to give these to the closest youngster.  There weren’t any around so one of the hostesses in the restaurant got this one.  Too bad Allie Jo wasn’t there.