Wherever I May Roam: 2018

We got up a little earlier today as we had a fairly long ride planned for the day. I scanned the weather radar thoroughly to find some big storms tracking from west to east, along the route that we had planned to take. After the massive storm system yesterday, we decided it might be smart to try and go around the weather instead of right through it. Instead of riding west through Alabama and Mississippi, we decided to head north.

The riding this morning was pretty easy, getting to the interstate within the first hour of the day. We caught a few drops leaving Huntsville, but that was the last of it for the day. It was overcast for most of the day before the skies cleared for the last few hours of the ride. We had not expected to see Nashville again but ended up riding through it. Lunch was done in Kentucky, at a KFC, something we hadn't done the first time we were in the state.

We weren't in Illinois for too long before we crossed the Mississippi River in St. Louis, the 5th state we were in today after starting in Alabama. Traffic was fairly light in St. Louis, though the roads were almost a little confusing to keep straight as we made our way through the city. Having almost made our way through, we stopped at a light where another bike pulled up beside us. The other rider started chatting, and we had a quick little conversation while we waited for the light to turn green. Turns out he had an uncle in Saskatchewan, though I'm not sure if he'd ever been in Canada.

We got into Rolla, Missouri at 7:30 ready to be done for the day. Now that the day is done I realize I should have taken a closer look at the map. We should have continued on I-70 after St. Louis instead of I-44. It's only going to cost us about an hour or so, but that time could have been spent better. I guess there are bound to be some mistakes, but we did make the right call on the overall route today, it kept us dry and safe from the big storms.

I suppose we also would have never been able to se JC the New King of Funk live if we hadn't come to Rolla! We walked to the Tater Patch, a pub close to the hotel we are staying in, to find that we were getting some live entertainment with our food. I wasn't to keen on it, as I was tired from the ride, but it ended up being a pretty cool way to spend dinner on a Saturday night in a small town in Missouri. Certainly not my style of music, but the boys played it well!

Tomorrow will be another longish day, so it's time to get ready for some sleep. We are hoping to get up Sioux City, IA or somewhere close to that anyway.