We're outta here

Sunday, September 1, our day of departure from the celebration, brought clouds. I was hoping we'd not ride into rain as I wasn't dressed for it. It was cool so I had on a hoodie, and then added gloves. I did not want to have to put on chaps and a jacket.

As we left Milwaukee, bikes were everywhere, coming into town, leaving town. The celebration was pretty much over although there were still a few things going on and the hangers on were wanting to keep it going. But we were outta there.

We rode a bit of back roads, but mostly the big ones. We didn't need to be to Kansas City until Monday, so we could take a little extra time getting there. Birdie has a friend she met at Harley training so we were going to see her.

A couple of things I saw were two wagon wheels on the side of a barn entwined within a heart, and along the street, two toy Harleys next to a sign that said, “live to ride.” It's fun to look around and notice things, even small ones like this.

In Rock Falls, Illinois, a little bike repair was necessary. Robin had been saying when she did sharp corners in parking lots, her bike clutch would disengage and kick the engine out of gear. It might have been the clutch cable was too short, or? Our Resident Engineer, Jim, talked to the mechanics and they determined the routing might need to be changed. Jim took the fairing off and rerouted the cable, and voila!!! All is now good. When he test rode the bike you could tell it was just the way it should be.

The engineer at work.

We were running I-80. A FedEx driver nearly got himself killed right before our very eyes. He was in one of their vans, and pulled out to pass an 18-wheeler. Then it was as though the vehicle stalled at one speed because he couldn't get around and traffic was backing up behind him. Inch-by-agonizingly-slow-inch he finally, finally, finally got up near the front of the truck. He put his blinker on when he was not quite up to the front of the truck, and as soon as he got by he pulled in front of the truck. You could hear the truck driver honking and doing what he could to avoid this guy because there couldn't have been a foot of clearance between their bumpers. OMG!!! It was a 10-car pileup waiting to happen. What an idiot. Once again we all cheated death and arrived at our destination for the evening. It sure makes you wonder where these folks get their driver's licenses from because this guy should not be driving himself much less a commercial vehicle.

We settled in for the night in Illinois, I think … all I know is it smells good.

Metal sculptures were out in the middle of a field at a rest stop.  We had to take photos.

Don't pull the tail of a buffalo.

Your friend could get chased.  Even metal sculpture buffalo run quickly.  HAHA!!

On Monday (September 2) we continued into Kansas City. On our way we had to stop for a bite to eat. The hotel breakfasts don't always last all day, and this one certainly didn't. I'm hungry. Fast food near Davenport, Iowa, since Birdie wanted to get to Kansas City.

As we were eating I was looking out the window and there were all these tractors going back and forth, back and forth, in this vacant area across the parking lot. Jim looked and said it was a tractor pull. Cooooool. I wanted to see, so he and I walked on over. I've never seen one and this one was special, the Eastern Iowa Antique Pullers World Series Pull.

Some of the tractor line up.

There's lots of action, and dust, at a tractor pull.

Smoothing out the track for the next pull.

Sometimes the front wheels would raise up with the pull of the weight from behind.



This event was just fun to watch.

 Jim explained to me how the pulls worked, and I thought it was a lot of fun to watch, and clap and root for some of them. All too soon the class was finished and it was time for us to go.

Robin and Jim were staying with friends in Leavenworth, Kansas, and separated from us about 50 miles out. Birdie and I kept going and found a hotel near Worth Harley, which just so happens to be close to a Cracker Barrel. Uh huh. It's all working out. She had a service scheduled for the next day.

As we had some time available we went downtown Kansas City to the SeaLife Aquarium. There was no traffic downtown, like the end of the world. We had all the roads to ourselves and passed the beautiful buildings, including Western Union and the Kansas City Star newspaper, a long-time newspaper that I've always heard about.

I enjoyed watching all the fish in some of the larger aquariums.

This little turtle showed me his profile.

Lots of little skates were in this one pond.  They were pretty cute.



This little skate had a personality.  It's hard to tell, but when Birdie and I were standing on the observation deck, he was doing back flips, sticking his little head out of the water and just being playful.  It was so fun to watch.  He only did it once and he was the only one that did it.  In this photo he's upside down, and it's a little hard to figure out. 

The aquarium was fun, although not quite what I was expecting. However, we saw a guitarfish, one of I think they said four in aquariums throughout the world that have one. I know Hobbs and I saw one (bones and all) in the Dinosaur Museum in Thermopolis, Wyoming. Very neat to see one alive.

The guitarfish does look like some prehistoric fish, maybe from Jurassic Park?

There were two eels, woo hoo. I sure wouldn't want to get in the pool with them. There were lots of skates, rays, and some sharks. It was fun and a great way to spend a little time.