Illinois And Heavy Weather

Hi there from Cornwall.

Jan found a nice motel 25 miles down the road from Forrest where he called me from last night; it was in the next town, Dwight (41°5′35″N 88°25′38″W) 80 miles southwest of Chicago.

The hotel was very clean, had a good wifi signal and was very convenient to eats and drinks and a great price at only $36. The only problem was the weather system that is bruising its way over that part of the midwestern USA and caused numerous power outages overnight.

But to begin with, I’ll go back to yesterday morning. The images on the TV channel were not reassuring for the start of a trip….

But MGMan is a determined beast! So he got up early to say goodbye to Pete and Barb (who both left for work at about 6am) then packed the bike and waved goodbye to ‘home’

The mileage on the bike was

That weather system was exactly in his way – heading to I-80 so he decided to ride west along HW6 and play it by ear and eye. He continued on to HW24 south of the interstate and crossing Indiana into Illinois

Here is what he wrote on Skype last night:

[12/06/2013 22:25:56] I HAD MY ROUTE PLANNED AND WAS GOING TO GET ON THE OHIO TURNPIKE AT THE ELMORE ENTRANCE, AND SCREAM WEST ON I-80
HOWEVER, THIS HAPPENED (INSERT PHOTOS I WILL SEND LATER)

SO TO AVOID THE STORMS, I DECIDED TO GO WEST ON 6 THROUGH OHIO TO WHERE IT DIVIDES INTO 24 & 6

THEN I STAYED WITH 24, GOING SORT OF SOUTHWEST AND GOT BELOW THE STORM TRACK. I CROSSED INDIANA ON 24 AND GOT TO FORREST IN ILLINOIS.

WHERE 24 AND 47 CROSS THERE WERE A COUPLE OF MOM & POP TYPE MOTELS IN FORREST. BUT NEITHER HAD WIFI AND THEY SUGGESTED GOING NORTH ON 47 ABOUT 24 MILES, TO DWIGHT. AND HERE I AM WITH THE WEATHER CHANNEL ON.

At this point Jan went off to find something to eat;

[13/06/2013 00:14:14] “RIGHT, I HAVE HAD A MCDONALDS FISH FILLET AND A QUARTER POUNDER W SMALL FRIES AND A CHOCOLATE SHAKE; BOTH SMALL, N WAS JUST ENUF.

Fuel and mileage for the day; he filled up at 124.9 miles, 122.3, 99.2 and he had 23.5 from his last fill-up, minus 23.5 that was on the odo at the beginning = 348.6 miles.

There is a problem with not having me on the bike! The saddle bag! They are the sort that are co-joined by one strap and just sit across the seat and, normally, my ass is anchoring them down. Without me, he found the bags were sliding sideways a bit. He stopped and tried to move them further back and secure them better but then they started to flap outwards when he reached about 60mph. Something needs to be sorted about this – and soon. “HONEY, I’m catching the next plane” 😉

Well, our connection didn’t last much longer. I think the motel had an outage at around midnight, our time (Chicago is another hour behind so now there is a 6 hour difference). Fortunate in a way, because I had to get to bed as I was working today. At least I could sleep easy knowing he was finished riding for the day. I left Skype on and had some more photos and words this morning; the power had evidently gone out again so I haven’t heard any further.

[13/06/2013 02:09:17] MOTEL IS FILLING UP NOW, COUPLE O GUYS ON HARLEYS, I THINK THEY ARE GERMAN TOURISTS IN ROOM NEXT TO ME
[13/06/2013 02:09:43] GONE BLACK NOW, W THUNDER N LIGHTNING
[13/06/2013 02:10:01] TRIED FOR A PICCY BUT YOU NEED VIDEO FOR THAT
[13/06/2013 02:10:14] RAIN HERE NOW
[13/06/2013 02:10:51] WOW NOW REALLY HAMMERING DOWN
[13/06/2013 02:11:39] I THINK THE TV JUST GOT KNOCKED OUT, COS ITS ALL GOOD PROGRAMMES, HISTORY N DISCOVERY ETC AND NOW, NO SIGNAL
[13/06/2013 02:12:08] WONDER IF I SHOULD UNPLUG THE COMPUTER
[13/06/2013 02:13:30] YES, LETTING IT GO ON BATTERY FOR A WHILE
[13/06/2013 02:17:51] WELL IT’S BRIGHT BEHIND SO THIS IS THE TAIL END
[13/06/2013 02:18:15] TELLY COMING BACK ON, NO OFF AGAIN
[13/06/2013 02:18:27] ON AGAIN

[13/06/2013 02:18:54] SENDING A COUPLE O PICS O THE RAIN NOW
[13/06/2013 02:31:08] WELL, LOST THE TELLY AGAIN
[13/06/2013 02:31:29] BUT GOING BY THE CLOUDS, ITS MOVING AWAY NOW
[13/06/2013 02:32:09] HAIL IN CHICAGO.
[13/06/2013 02:33:27] RIGHT LOVE, GONNA SHUT DOWN & READ, GOT ALARM SET FOR 0600, SO I CAN CHK THE WX CHNL BEFORE DECIDING TO GO OR NOT
[13/06/2013 02:34:40] THEY ARE USING THAT TERM DERECHO A LOT. FUNNY MUST BE A NEW THING COS IT HAS NEVER BEEN USED ON THE WX CHNL BEFORE

Here are the photos

That’s it for now; hope to hear from him tonight before I go to bed.