July 2012 was the hottest on record in many states, cities and counties. So, what did we decide to do? Yep, take a motorcycle trip! The theme of this trip? THE HEAT! It was miserable.
Our original trip was planned for Colorado and maybe into Utah. However, the wildfires of Colorado, Arizona and the west kept us from going that direction. I am not sure why now; it couldn’t have been any hotter!
I do not remember a time when I felt so lousy. I was hot, my stomach ached, my legs were swollen and cramping and at night I simply could not sleep. During the day, I just wanted water or Gatorade; food just didn’t even seem appealing.
So where did we go? Well, we kind of followed the Mississippi River. We had lunch in Hannibal, Missouri, traveled through Illinois and could not believe how EMPTY the Illinois River was, went into Milwaukee, Wisconsin, saw the beautiful Lake Michigan, took the Miller Brewing Tour, went to the Harley Davidson Museum and back through Iowa to the shop of the American Pickers then through Nebraska, Missouri and back home to Kansas. All in eight days!
No kidding, at every stop people would ask us “wow, aren’t you hot”? Or, “must feel like a blast furnace riding on those things”. My favorite “is it hot enough for you”? All great comments, really. Comments of the obvious always make for interesting conversation.
This heat was brutal, farms were void of creeks, ponds and streams; there were small sections of the Illinois River you could walk across, the Mississippi River was so low you could see where the water level used to be along the banks.
I did manage some great photos and we did have some laughs along the way. The pictures I have posted are just random of course; barns, churches, Miller Brewing, Harley Davidson Museum, National Motorcycle Museum, stretches of highway, and probably my favorite, the rows of power lines.
Apparently, in Kansas we will need about 16 inches of rain to get us “back to normal” rainfall amounts. I pray it comes soon.
Peace! Pam
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