AK1 Day 14

MS Day 14 – 17 Jun 12, Sunday

Milwaukee, Wisconsin to Poplar Bluff, Missouri

Mileage – 535

WX – sunny and hot

States – Wisconsin, Illinois, Missouri

I-94, I-894, I-43, I-90/39 (toll road), I-39, I-55, I-255, I-55, Hwy 67

Note 1: The next morning we packed up and planned to ride to one more Harley Davidson plant we had missed the day before (just for a HOG picture). As we were packing I determined that I had lost my iPad. I swore I must have left it in the hotel in Mitchell, SD and that combined with way too much celebration the night before caused me to not do a very good search in the Iron Horse Hotel room for the iPad (where it actually was).  This put me in a very dark mood since the iPad had all my trip pictures and passwords in it plus it was a Christmas gift from Liz. I did not look forward to telling Liz I had lost it. Only several hours later on the way to St Louis and after I had talked to the Mitchell SD hotel folks and found out they couldn’t find it did we get a call from the Iron Horse that they found it. This improved my mood significantly and I did get it back several days later. I now have it in a bright red cover rather than the previous black one.

Note 2: After getting the Milwaukee Harley Davidson Plant HOG Picture we went to the HD Museum and it is worth the side trip if you love Harley Davidson motorcycles. Lots of history in that building.

Note 3: We finally headed south to Jim’s home and the end of the trip for him. The ride through Illinois is boring and not much to see. The original plan was for me to stay the night with Jim and his wife Pam but as we got closer Jim said over the CB “I know what you are thinking but you won’t get home before 11 pm”. He had me nailed because I had already decided that I was going to continue on home. This would make it a 700+ mile day for me but I felt I could do it based on the past 2 weeks. We got to Jim’s around 5:30 pm. We took a final picture together and I took off for the trip south to Arkansas. I did not want to have to ride through Monday morning rush hour the next morning so even if I didn’t make it home I would at least get away from St Louis.

Note 4: I was tired of riding on interstates so as soon as I cleared St Louis I got on Hwy 67, which was 4 lane to the Arkansas border but with much less traffic. At a fuel stop I called Liz and told her my plans but she had concerns of my riding into the night after a full day ride from Milwaukee. I promised that if I got tired I would stop but really I had no intentions to stop if I could help it.

Note 5: As I neared the Arkansas border, the sun was getting low and I was hungry. I then remembered that we had not ridden after dark on any portion of this trip due to the ever present danger of animals coming out at sunset. I also knew that Hwy 67 becomes 2 lanes in Arkansas until 100 miles from Little Rock. This was enough to make me decide to stop at Poplar Bluff, MO for my last night on the road.