Ohio & Bust - May 29

Tuesday, May 29

The day starts out good: In order to avoid the miserable weather announced for Wednesday and Thursday, I hit the road early, with the intention of making it to Dayton, Ohio before nightfall. That way I can go see the USAF museum unconcerned about the rains. Riding the freeway system around south of Chicago is quick, even if I’m wallowing some thanks to rain grooves and big rigs’ wakes. All is well until I pull in at a service station a 100 miles down the road, and notice that the rear wheel bearings are shot. Bugger all. 

Calling towing services and bike workshops on borrowed phones – my own is temporarily unable to make calls – is complicated, to say the least. More than 4 hours pass before a motorcycle shop owner comes to fetch me, announcing that he has the bearings in stock, but the mechanics have gone home for today. Turns out that part of Indiana is on Eastern Standard Time, to my detriment. I get dropped off at a motel, and he'll be praying that I’ll find God tonight.

It's frustrating, because a) AMA has no recollection of me joining a month ago (there went the free recovery service....), b) the first towing company I call stands me up, thus ensuring a two-hour delay so I won't get anything fixed until tomorrow, c) the motel rooms in Ohio are non-refundably paid for, and d) tomorrow will be wet, and possibly to dangerous to drive for those almost 200 miles to Dayton. The silver lining is of course that I noticed the problem at a place where I could call for help, and not - say - 40 miles down the freeway. I would have been so screwed...

At least downtown Lafayette is easy to get to by bus, nice, and good for a decent Japanese consolation meal.

One of many art projects sprinkled all over Lafayette.

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Seeing that one measly picture for a blogpost is a bit lame, here's another one from 'justacarguy.blogspot.com', titled ' Cotton picker at night looks like a huge concert crowd'.

Check out his blog.