Dear reader,
What a really crap day... I left Bowling Green and the sun was shining, but only till I got on the main road and then more thunder and lighting and heavy rain... I am not sure if the water got into my boots via the fabric or over the top... All I know is that I had very wet and cold feet. I stopped in Princeton and had a coffee and changed my socks for my seal skin ones... an excellent product... Whoops the wind has blown down my washing line with all my smalls on it.... back now... I had a stand up row with Gertie Garmin as she put me on the Interstate again and that was not the plan....
I spoke to one of the guys in the car park about Motorcycle shops, with the thought of getting some water proof boots, I managed to get to a Honda shop but no boots but they pointed me to a boot shop in town, but they had a few short ugly things and lots of cowboy boots... Not for me I said...... and back on the road... after Paducah I got off the I-24 and continued along the 60 and started looking for camp sites..... Bugger all..
What I did get is high winds and I hate high cross winds especially as my bike is loaded and is like a sail.... All of a sudden there it was a huge bridge over the Great (and very wide) Mississippi River.... More bloody side wind.... I can safely say that. That was my worst day on a bike... Wet, cold and scared fartless by crosswinds... Oh I could weep. Loads of big trucks and nowhere to pull over an take any pictures....
We passed through Charleston ( sorry if I lapse into a "we" every so often ... I mean Madiba, the bike and I - rather like 'Wilson' in the film Castaway with Tom Hanks) Then heading towards Sikeston we saw a camp site on the left... Hawling on the brakes this will do nicely as with the land is very flat, the winds are getting on my tits....
I Pulled in and paid my $15 to the resident hermit... I filled out the form (which were in duplicate, signed it, he took the money and then threw the forms on the floor with hundreds of others!!!!! Maybe his accountant comes in and sorts it all out.... The site is OK but right next to the main road and none of the power sockets on the pitches work, so will have to try further afield , like the rest room maybe.
Tomorrow I am hoping to get the somewhere just before Springfield and pick up what is left of the famous Route 66. Frankly if you look at a map there is very little to see in Kentucky and not much more in Missouri I'll wager, but now I really must slow down and smell the coffee... I will continue on the 60 through Poplar Bluff, the Mark Twain National Forest, where there is a campsite (well on the map their is...)
Time now to get something to eat and try to send this blog...
Nite nite after one very shitty day...