We slept amazingly last night. We woke up just in time for a great hotel
breakfast. We stopped to get gas and hit the road. And again, we drove and
drove and drove. Eventually we started to get close to Kansas City. Kansas City
is the OTHER location of the Harley Davidson manufacturing plant. I did some
searching on my phone and we took a detour north to go to it. I mean, how often
to people get to go to one, but both? In the same month?
When we got to the factory there were very few people, and when we actually
went on the tour we were the ONLY ones on it. We had this very nice young man
leading our tour...much nicer than the older guy the last time. This guy was
very laid back, it probably helped because it was just us two and him. Kansas
City manufactures Sportsters, Dynas, and VRods. The factory was shut down at
the time for maintenance. It was cool to see the one in Pennsylvania going but
it was neat to see this one on 'pause.' For one, you could actually hear
things. Two, you could get a good idea of how it ran. This factory was smaller
than the one in PA, and, although newer facility-wise, the PA factory had just
been upgraded so the technology was a little older. We got a lot closer to the
pieces and parts...they had a huge rack of just painted tanks. Being by
ourselves was much nicer because we were able to ask a lot more questions. We
were shown the assembly and testing room for the VRod engines. The tour went
faster than the other one, and after buying some souvenirs we went on our way.
We didn't take any pictures; you can't take them in the facility and we didn't
care to get any outside either. We stopped at an HD dealer on the way back to
the interstate so Dev could get some bolts or something.
Our trip back was fairly uneventful. We had lunch at Hardee's just outside
Kansas City, with dessert at Krispy Kreme. Nothing beats a road trip with hot,
fresh Krispy Kreme's. We passed through Columbia, MO, home of Carl Edwards, but
I couldn't convince Devin to stop by his house...maybe next time ;-).
If you're an avid TV watcher like we are you may remember the show Truck
Stop USA, which featured a truck stop on I-70. This truck stop has a tattoo
parlor, hotel, antique shop, etc. The show only ran for a few episodes, but
Devin enjoyed it and had made a plan to get gas there. The place looked so nice
on TV. When we stopped it was a different story. One pump had apparently had a
mishap and an employee was washing gasoline off the ground. The bathrooms were,
well, 'acceptable.' Everything else was run-down and quite frankly looked a
little shady. Goes to show that TV sure does glamorize things! Anyway, Devin
has driven almost the entire time, so I offered to drive for a while. He
accepted the offer, and I successfully backed out of the space. A reminder, his
car is a manual...one of the few things I'm not well-versed in. Unfortunately,
the exit onto the access road was on a hill; not a big deal until there was
oncoming traffic and someone pulled behind me. And then a semi behind him.
After some shouting and several tries at, well, revving the engine, Devin and I
did a half fire-drill and he took back over, speeding off onto the interstate.
After several hours we made it through St. Louis and were very, very close
to home. We stopped to get gas where he let me give it a go one last time. Only
a few yips at each other later and we were home, safe, around 9pm.
It's good to be home. Real good. But in the last several weeks since we've
been here we have often dreamed about being back on the open road with the wind
(and snow, and rain, and sun...) in our hair. We've ridden several times; the
bike is all put back together. We've got our new gear and have successfully
tested it out (well, thankfully not the rain suits, though).
We had initially planned to take one more trip on the bike down to Key West,
FL. It was going to be about 11 days and we had to leave within the week of
getting home to beat a cold front that was essentially bringing the last bit of
fall and early bit of winter. We mulled it over until the very last possible
day and finally decided not to go. Why? Well, after all we'd been through, and
everywhere we'd been through, we didn't want to race to Key West just to say
we'd been there. We want to go and be able to really enjoy it. Part of our
dream was to ride the bike in every state. Since we had to take the car out
east taking the bike all the way down wasn't as much of a challenge...it wasn't
the finale we had planned.
So that's it. There isn't a finale. We aren't done yet. We've got a lot more
riding still to do...a lot more places to take our steel horse. We're done for
a little while; Devin has applied to become a Naval Officer (we won't know
anything until after the new year). I'm back in my office grading papers. We've
both started working on new quilts. We've done a few puzzles, caught up with
family & friends. We've laughed a lot about all the places we've been and
things we've seen and done. And we continue to daydream about the next big trip
(back to the NE? Florida? Alaska...?).
We are so blessed. We are so thankful. We recognize that this was a literal
once in a lifetime opportunity that most do not get. We are blessed that God
watched over us for 52 full days on the road and kept us very safe...and kept
us married! (Sometimes people comment that the fact we got along the entire
time was more of a feat!) We love the support we've gotten; the encouragement
from everyone along the way and the interest during and after. Where to go from
here? Well, stayed tuned…even if it isn’t soon, there is still more to come!
Today we traveled 544.9 miles across America for a total of 6,384.9 miles on
leg 2 and a grand total of 16,609.6 beautiful miles across America.
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