I finally left Chicago, but not before I had a chance to visit the Sears Tower.
Click here for more shots from the observation deck. It was a cloudy day, so I don’t think I saw the 3 states that you are supposed to be able to see.
I left out and headed for Oklahoma. Along the way I passed some old places…
I finally arrived in Oklahoma about an hour before dark.
Christy put me up for the night. It was fun catching up with an old friend. I had not seen here since I was through Tulsa last with Danny on our way to New York, back in college.
The next morning I headed on towards home. But I just had to stop to get a picture with the largest cross in the western hemisphere. I’ve actually been here before with my family, so I didn’t bother with doing the whole tour thing. Just a quick snap and back onto the interstate.
I stopped in Amarillo for lunch and a break. The town seemed somehow smaller than I remember it, but it has been a while since I was there. I almost stopped and took a picture of the row of Caddilacs that are half buried in the ground out to the west of town, but I decided to push on. I was getting pretty sore by the time I hit the New Mexico / Texas border, so I pulled off at a random exit and stopped at an abandoned gas station. Made me wonder, seeing the utter destruction of this little place, what it was like when it was in operation. Who owned it? Why did it fail? Why does everything seem to descend into chaos like this?
Clouds were on the horizon, but I had not seen rain just yet on this day. Near Tucumcari it became obvious I was going to get soaked, so I pulled off and got my rain gear on.
Sure enough, it was a big one. The wind came first, whipping the dust off the sides of the road into a frenzy. I tucked down and hung in there, slowing back to about 50-55mph, getting blown around like crazy. As I started into the storm, the wind let up, and the rain began pelting me. I pulled off the road for a moment, as I had forgotten to plug in my music at the last stop. Now complete with music, I headed back out into the storm. The rain continued, but the bike was riding great, and I slowly sped back up to 75mph. This really works good, as you have enough wind hitting your visor that the rain wicks off so you can see where you are going. Lightning was everywhere, sometimes the thunder clap was on top of the bolt, sometimes not. Cloud to cloud, cloud to ground, single bolts, split bolts, bright purple flashes of energy all around me. Being a sucker for huge storms, I was actually loving it, and somewhat sad when I exited the storm about 40 miles later.
The rest of the trip was uneventful. A bit of rain near Los Alamos, but just sprinkles. Finally, I was home. So strange to be back in my own bed, so comfortable, so quiet. I slept most of the next day. Very weird to not hear horns or sirens or people shouting for a change.
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