Left Lincoln at 1115, I was waiting for the rain to move on, but was only partially successful. I found the street I was on led straight to minor highway that connected to Interstate 29 southbound so that worked out very well.

Leaving Nebraska I was in Iowa for about 15 km before crossing into Missouri. At 140 kph that is about 6 minutes give or take, and is what I consider to be a suitable exposure time to that state. A few years ago on a trip to Washington, DC I actually drove through the entire state of Iowa, and stopped for lunch in the home town of a Radar O'Reilly from M*A*S*H. I was very disappointed not to see a single reference to the character or the show in the town.

The first 10 people who tell me the name of that town will win a special prize. No Cheating!

Caught up to the rain in the St. Joseph area, but only got drizzled on a couple of times, and never for longer than a couple of minutes. Didn't look serious enough to stop for my rain suit, I hate wearing it. I will take a soaking right down to my gaunchies rather than put it on. Usually when I am soaked right down to my gaunchies I am regretting not putting on my rain suit though!

This next entry definitely qualifies as "Too Much Information" so those of you with tender sensibilities might want to skip it. I did NOT include pictures or videos though. Usually by day 5 or 6 of any given trip my loyal wing man joins me for the remainder of my journey, Hemmy A. Royd but it would appear my comfy sheepskin seat cover is forestalling that. It might just be the best 100 bucks I ever spent!

Add a comfy seat to the fact that I no longer smoke (my year anniversary is Sept 6th!) I no longer have any reason to stop unless there is something I want to look at closer. I have driven, at times, over 380 straight km which is about my 90% of my fuel range on 23L of gas.

I had planned to use a ring road to skirt the majority of Kansas City, Missouri (not to be confused with Kansas City, Kansas) but missed my turn due to, short term, but heavy rain. Drove for a while in a typically bewildered manner, then pulled into a random gas station for a nav check.

I checked my position with my iPhone, found myself on the map and then used my most powerful navigation asset; dumb luck, to find the gas station I pulled into was right next to the exit I needed to get back on track. Coincidence you say? Nope, charmed life!

That put me on secondary 291 southbound from KC where at Harrisonville I, you guessed it, missed my turn again! I wanted to hit Hwy 7/13 into Springfield, but was in the wrong lane when the turn came up. Dangit! As an aside do you know why The Simpsons live in Springfield? It is because over 20 states in the union have a town of the same name!

Reading this you must think: "This guy can't be trusted to navigate across a country considering how many turns he misses!" but.................. you can't discount the serendipity factor. I consciously seek out the roads less traveled, eschewing Interstates for minor roads wherever possible and practical, and sometimes I think I also do it unconsciously.

I was on a southbound hwy so I figured it would all work out in the end. I had driven out of the
rain and it was quite hot so I stopped at a gas station in the obscure town of Rich Hill for a beverage and a map check. Rich Hill was at a crossroads of two routes called 'A' & 'B'. Not at lot to go on!

Route 'B' connected to Hwy 13 which would put me back on track so I took it. The color of the road on the map was ambiguous, hopefully it wouldn't turn out to be gravel!

Well, the road was the highlite of the trip thus far! About 24 miles of shoulderless twisty and hilly macadam snaking through corn and potato country. There was a section in the middle with extremely steep hills and elevation changes. As you climb a very steep hill you can't see what is on the other side until you crest the hill, very scary.

What's on the other side?

• A Cow chewing its cud in the middle of the road?
• Amish horse and buggy making a furniture delivery? (We're in Amish country!)
  
• Local yokel Joe pulling out of his driveway in his 1963 Fargo pickup truck, going to the general merchantile for a fresh can of chawin tabacker?

Luckily there was never anything on the other side of the hills but it takes ice water in the veins to hold the throttle at 120 cresting the hills, I didn't have it for all of them. Cresting the hills you'd get the weightless feeling for a second, then pull negative G's going down the other side. What a rush! I shot this following video of most of the run, it doesn't illustrate the hills as well as I'd hope, but it is still a kewl run! Most of it is time compressed, about 27 minutes into 5. Credit Joe Satriani for the apropos musical accompaniment.

Just before I activated the camera I lifted my visor to scratch my nose when I took a bumble bee on my sun glasses lens at about 120, it exploded and covered my face with bee guts, fortunately honey scented. Yet another good reason to wear your lid with your face shield down!



I would like to formally announce the launch of the "Key West 2014 Incredibly Hard Photography Contest". The rules are simple:

• Use road signs that you have no control over, as captions to describe;
• Objects next to them that you have no control over
• Use only one hand to control your camera
• While maintaining a minimum speed of 75 mph

Below is my entry of a biker wearing a very gay orange rain suit of which the wind has puffed full of air. After careful consideration by a panel of an expert (me!), it was judged to be the winning submission:




Another small navigation error at Springfield landed me in Marshfield (like Springfield, but more, well, Marshy!) (full of mosquitos, not as bad as Swampfield, or Sloughfield though). Achieved the trifecta including a stop in at The Rib Crib! Talk soon!