Rally Days

This is another twofer post.  There's not much to report, except that I didn't win a prize!  No prize at all!!  I think they threw my ticket away; I want a refund....

I did forget in my last post that the bike blew another headlight bulb.  While it's the first on this trip, it blew two bulbs on the last ride with Gary.  And of course, it was the right bulb, the one that is impossible to replace.  You can either touch where the bulb is replaced, or you can barely see where the bulb is, but it is impossible to both touch and see at the same time unless you take the dashboard apart.  Horrible location; your hand takes all of the space, so you can't see beyond your hand.  I have a replacement bulb with me, but my plan is to ignore it unless the left bulb blows.  If that happens, I'll install the left one (it's very accessible) and ignore the right one until I get home.  These RT bikes are hard on headlight bulbs.

I enjoyed the rally.  Got to see lots of neat stuff for the bike or riding gear.  I ended up spending too much money, bought a new cooling vest, a wicking tee shirt, some amber Motolight bulbs, and a few other items.  Got to talk to Tina from Motolights a few minutes; she remembers me!  That's amazing since she sees many thousand people each year at the rallys where she sells her lights.

Attendance seemed a little lower than last year.  There were a lot of people there, but it was not packed.  But the  other factor is that the fairgrounds are big, and with people spread out, there may have been more people than it looked like.

The GS Giant competition was fun to watch.  Riders ride over an obstacle course consisting of a mud trench, sand, telephone poles, a big hill, and some tight turns.  Many of the riders fall at least once, and some fall multiple times.  There's no speed involved, so they don't get hurt; only embarrassed.  It's fun to watch it each year.

Yesterday had good temperatures, the high was in the low 90s.  Today was a little hotter, with the high being 98.  Hot but not unbearable.  Tomorrow is supposed to be very hot; 102, with temps rising each day for the next few days.  Ugh, I'm ready for more moderate temperatures.

Riding back to the motel last night, a big raccoon crossed the road in front of me, and I had to brake and swerve pretty hard to miss it.   Tony almost hit it too.  Not sure what would have happened if I had hit it, but glad I was able to miss it. 

Tony left for home this morning.  he has young boys at home and felt like he needed to get back to the family.  So, he left early this morning.  Hope his trip home is good.

Tomorrow I meet up with my Motorcycle Travel Network host and follow him to his home in the southwest corner of Missouri.  Then he's going to lead on a good ride in the area.  Should be fun since he knows the area.  I haven't done any real riding for 3 days now, except for the daily commute to the rally (28 miles each way).  I'm ready to ride again and to try out my new cooling vest.  I sure hope it does a good job of cooling.  My other vest does some cooling, but it is soaking wet and  the water runs down my body into my pants.  Feels yucchy and clammy.  The new one is supposed to stay dry but still cools.  We'll see.

That's it for tonight.  No pics; there wasn't much to take pictures of, so I just didn't take any.