After experiencing a couple of very warm days, I couldn’t believe what my phone was showing me. Day 3 of our journey was going to start out at a beautiful 63 degrees. I might have to put on the jacket that I’ve been lugging around in the saddlebag. I’m appreciative of the much needed break from the heat. I was wondering if this time I truly was going to melt.

Mason and I agreed to hit the road pretty early so at about 7:30 AM we were loaded and ready for action. The bikes fired up just like they are supposed to – check. The saddlebags are all closed and locked – check. The planned route is up and running on the GPS – check. Intercom turned on – uh, try again. Intercom turned on — uh, nothing. How could something go from working to not working simply by laying in a hotel room overnight. (That sounds a little weird somehow.) Hey we’re real men. We don’t need no stinkin’ intercom. We’ll do it the old fashioned way – hand signals. NO – we agreed not to use that one.

Communications issues aside, let’s roll and start the search for breakfast. Once again we were on the hunt for a small town diner instead of the big chain restaurants. Problem with that concept is that we had plotted a route that took us right up interstate 380. Try spotting a mom-and-pop restaurant while you’re cruising along at the speed limit (always), trying to read GPS, and trying to revive the intercom system. We went about 60 miles and it was time to put gas in the bikes. There were no signs of breakfast anywhere.

We did however make some intercom progress and were able to communicate some. When I’m on the bike and the miles are rolling by I often “get in the zone”. If you ride, you understand this. My senses are engage with watching traffic, experiencing the road conditions, monitoring the GPS, and all the other things you do while you’re on 2 wheels. It’s almost like my mind has a second channel that lets me think about things that are usually stowed away. Why did I buy a red motorcycle, why did I wait so long to get my puppies. I can think about these things while still paying close attention to the ride.

While I was in this zone, the miles just seemed to zip by. Before I really thought much about it we were almost 150 miles into a day that was only going to be 240 total. I need to find breakfast – NOW! Wait – what was that? A small diner that had a sign that said something about FOOD and another one that said OPEN. I let Mason know that we were going around the block and were going to eat at that place. No Googling it, no reading reviews, no research at all. We just pulled in and stopped at the Red Rooster in Iowa Falls, IA.

It turned out to be just what we needed. Breakfast with coffee. The staff was funny and friendly but I didn’t get their names – sorry. Since there was no background music, I asked them if they would mind doing Karaoke. That was a big fat NO.

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I drank plenty of coffee which I try not to do on these excursions. Coffee leads to a definite surge in the pee-o-meter. The next step in our trip was going to be awesome and I didn’t want to have to find a men’s room before we got there.

Maybe it’s not for everyone. Maybe you’ve never tried it. I don’t have a particular affection for the taste but if you are this close to Austin, Minnesota you have to stop at the world famous SPAM MUSEUM. Austin is the home of Hormel foods and Hormel is the home of SPAM. This has nothing to do with a Nigerian prince and jamming up your email in-box. It may however cause other kinds of jam-ups. We pulled in to two excellent parking spaces directly across the street and BINGO! We had arrived the same day that the Planter’s peanut mobile was there. What more could anyone want – SPAM and peanuts.

(Side comment: This was the first place in 3 days of travelling that was demonstrating a focus on virus protocol. Everthing else has been wide open.)

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I’m not sure why my pictures of the peanut mobile didn’t turn out. I must have been shaking with excitement.

What did we learn? There are 16 flavors of SPAM including “hot and spicy”. People in Guam eat 16 cans per year per person (or maybe 10 people eat enough for everyone). Every good museum has a big gift shop. Those are the facts.

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I did score my first smashed penny and the second hat pin of the trip along with nabbing 2 bags of peanuts from the peanut mobile. Yahoo!

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We made it to our hotel a little too early. They weren’t quite ready for us so we crossed the parking lot to get a coke at Arby’s. We should have stayed in Austin and learned more about SPAM. Maybe next time.

It’s time for our evening meal. It’s been a while since the Red Rooster. We’re trying to decide between Arby’s and pizza delivery. Any input on those 2 choices?

Total miles today – 261. Total miles for the trip – 727.