Departure and Day One on the Road - When in Doubt, Throttle Out...

Made it 700 miles today to somewhere in Illinois.  We found a nice campground for $10 each and grabbed some pizza at a little dive Italian joint - decent, but super greasy.  Nice clear cool night, so sleeping under the stars should be nice.  A friend of Ken's, Wes from Harrisonburg, joined for the first day on his RT, so we had 3 big BMW's rolling.

We had a nice ride through West Virginia where the roads were hilly, twisty and smooth.  Of the four states we road through today, WV definitely had the best roads.  We hit a rain storm as soon as we crossed into Ohio and had to wait it out a bit under an overpass.  It was coming down pretty hard.  After it he rain let up a bit we pushed on only to run into another smaller band of showers that we rode through.  The rain shorted out the "push to talk" button on my comm unit a bit, but luckily it dried out later and it worked fine.  I have to remember to detach it and stash it in my tank bag the next time we hit rain.  Being able to communicate while riding is pretty crucial and I don't want to fry out the unit before we even get out of the US.  

Most of the ride was pretty uneventful until I almost got taken out by a tire from a semi.  I was passing on the left on the interstate just past the Illinois line when I noticed dozens of smallish black particles spitting into my lane out from underneath the truck.  When one hit my helmet as I was directly alongside, I realized it was pieces of tire.  My first instinct was to brake, but instead I hammered the throttle to get past.  Good thing I did because the 18 wheeler became 17 when the tire spun off the rim and shot across the lane two bike lengths behind me.  If I had hit the brakes, I would have either been taken out or had to try to avoid a spinning and tumbling death cookie in front of me.  I think the saying "when in doubt, throttle out" that Ken always says was in my subconscious, so that's what I did.  I will be eying trucks closely while passing from here on out.  

There is no relaxing behind the handlebars when traveling by motorbike...

First camp.

Heading out from the farm on departure day.