I woke in Attawan Illinois bright-eyed and bushy-tailed! This was a miracle because although we turned in early Wednesday night, our neighbors in the room next door did not. And the walls in that hotel were paper thin. I could hear them talking. I could hear their TV as if it were in our room. I could hear the guy making this strange cough-sneeze-gag sound every few minutes. Like a giant cat coughing up a hairball. "AROUGHAK"! They left the room a couple times too and of course let the door SLAM behind them. Thank God I packed earplugs, right? Didn't matter....could hear everything right through them. This went on until at least 1:30 am. Our alarm went off at 5. Bah. We made it a point to converse very loudly whilst packing to leave this morning! Buahahahaa!!!!
I made sure to wear strong socks today! I wore weak socks yesterday. They failed me from the time I put 'em on....all balled up under the arches of my feet! Every gas stop....unzip the boots and pull up the socks! How do they fall when I'm not walking?!?! It drove me CRAZY!!!!!
We wandered down to the free continental breakfast. Best Westerns' breakfast blow compared to Hampton Inns' breakfasts! Bill gave the poor kid that worked there a hard time...joking around...saying "you promised us a Continental and you only gave us a Lincoln"! I don't think he had a clue as to what Bill was talking about! Bahahahaha!!!! At the table next to us were some folks from Canada. Of course we struck up conversation with them! We converse with EVERYONE! Bill asked what brought them to Illinois. They're farmers! They said they were just cruising around here checking out crops! It turns out there were 4 of them. One of them owned 19,000 acres up in Canada! We got to talking about satellite driven combines and how you still need some manual labor. "Yes! Strong backs with weak minds! They're tough to find anymore!" said one of them! Bahahahahaaa!!! One asked what part of Ohio we're from. "Cleveland" we said! "Oh!", he replied. "You're right across the lake from us!! We're in London, Ontario!" I told them I'd wave across the lake to them when I got home! We said farewell to our new Canadian friends, loaded up the bikes, and hit the road again!
The weather today was PERFECT! It started out cool and overcast, we even got rained on a little here and there when we started off. No problem! I'd rather be rained on than roasted! I was very comfortable in my leather for the first 150 or 200 miles. I was all ready to takes some pix of the Mighty Mississippi River and the "welcome to Iowa" sign but my jacket was zipped because of the rain....may cameras were under the jacket...and the damn river snuck up on me! (I missed the "welcome to Illinois" sign yesterday due to the extraordinary amount of truck traffic there!) The sun came out right about the same time the wind turbines appeared. I LOVE wind turbines! Especially when there's a whole bunch of 'em. Wind farms. There's something ethereal about them! I have some cool video I'd love to attach here if I could figure out how!
Here's a half-assed pic instead...
Our plan for lunch was Starsky's in Omaha, Nebraska. They have AWESOME "pig wings" They look like HUGE chicken wings but they're actually pork shanks....smoked and sauced! We stopped there last year at the suggestion of "Man Vs. Food"! Nebraska is a helmet state but Starsky's is off the eastern-most exit so we figured we'd take a chance and go lid-less to our destination.
So we get off at our exit and get behind another bike waiting at the red light at the end of the ramp. We pulled up behind him and waited. And waited. And waited...Yeah. We weren't gonna trip the light. Damn! The bike in front of us turned left on red....we pulled up and waited some more....finally I saw a break in traffic and said "LET'S GO! LET'S GO!" Weeeeeee! No helmets, turning left on red....such rebels we are!!!!! Add that to yesterday's adventure of going around the toll gate! Yeeeehaw! (I hope I still have a job when I get back home!)
We made it to Starsky's without Johnny Law catching up with us! But guess whaat? They WEREN'T OPEN YET! Gaaaaaaa!!!! 
Luckily they have TWO locations! The other WAS open. We hopped back on the bikes...donned those stupid helmets, motored on to the next exit, and dined on delightful pig wings and corn nuggets! (Bill & Sue opted for burgers. And a fresh cup of coffee!)
Backtrack a ittle....last year when we were coming up on Starsky's, "Lido Shuffle" was on my iPod shuffle and I was singing it at the top of my lungs, as I always do! I was thinking "how cool would it be if Lido Shuffle came on my ipod again as we were riding to Starsky's?" Well....it didn't. But......When we got to the 2nd Starsky's...what song did I hear coming from a radio in the kitchen? YES!!!!! Lido Shuffle!!!!! True story! How often do you hear that song?!?! Why can't I make money off my psychic abilities!?!?!?! Stuff like this happens to me way too often!
The rest of the ride went smoothly! The whole day was pretty awesome! We found our hotel in York, Nebraska....surrounded by corn...shocking! We found some halfway decent food at a bar & grill up the road. Too bad we were just a little too early for the oil wrestling that was slated to start at 8 pm! Bahahaha!!!
We returned to our Hampton Inn, used the pool & hot tub for a bit, then returned to our rooms where I now sit typing this! It's time for some shut-eye now! I leave you with a beautiful Nebraska sunset! See ya'll in Denver tomorrow!
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