Unfortunately, it didn't look like the rain was going to stop anytime soon, so we set off on the second leg of our trip at 10am in a light drizzle. We were not going to wait for the sky to clear because it didn't look like it was going to happen at all today. Therefore, we again rain-suited up and even put covers on our luggage and we left.
We made a quick stop just outside of town to fill up the motorcycles, but after that it was over 100 miles of riding on mostly wet roads with more patches of light drizzle. It wasn't enough though to slow us down as Jim still tried to keep a good pace at around 60-65 mph. Our first rest stop was about 25 miles short of Cincinnati at a rest area just before the town of Monroe.
At a rest area 25 miles short of Cincinnati.
Following some stretching, we were on the road again and shortly reached Cincinnati and then, without major slowdowns through the downtown, we rode past the Ohio-Kentucky state line and into Covington. In Covington, we stopped for gas and lunch at Arby's. From Covington it was only another 100 miles from our destination. I decided to put my rain jacket back on after taking it off during the previous stop. Heather kept hers off, reasoning that her Joe Rocket jacket was waterproof.
Since the roads were now dry, we were once again moving at a brisk pace. The Kentucky part of I-75 that we went through is three lanes wide and very scenic. After riding through three states, I would rank Kentucky at number 1 with Ohio at 2 and Michigan a distant 3. I sense that there aren't many states that rank below Michigan.
Some 20 miles away from a light rain started once again which was still good. At 10 miles out, the rain got heavier which was now bad. Regardless, we kept going. My communication with Heather has been out for about 20 minutes so we couldn't give each other encouragement. Finally, at about mile or two out, the rain got so heavy that it was quite difficult to see very far ahead. It turned pretty ugly. At that point, Jim put on his hazard lights and Heather and I followed. With very little to go, we didn't stop and kept going through it. We finally arrived at the Best Western, which is right off I-75, just before 4pm.
Since the roads were now dry, we were once again moving at a brisk pace. The Kentucky part of I-75 that we went through is three lanes wide and very scenic. After riding through three states, I would rank Kentucky at number 1 with Ohio at 2 and Michigan a distant 3. I sense that there aren't many states that rank below Michigan.
Some 20 miles away from a light rain started once again which was still good. At 10 miles out, the rain got heavier which was now bad. Regardless, we kept going. My communication with Heather has been out for about 20 minutes so we couldn't give each other encouragement. Finally, at about mile or two out, the rain got so heavy that it was quite difficult to see very far ahead. It turned pretty ugly. At that point, Jim put on his hazard lights and Heather and I followed. With very little to go, we didn't stop and kept going through it. We finally arrived at the Best Western, which is right off I-75, just before 4pm.
Welcome sign at the Best Western.
No more than 5 minutes after arriving, the rain stopped and the sun was shining bright. From there, we just followed Heather's parents around the parking lot and were meeting new people who were already there or as they were coming in. This being VROC's biggest rally this year, there were people from all over North America.
Heather on her motorcycle in the hotel's parking lot.
Later in the evening, we moved to the hotel's meeting room where we picked up our patches and pins and also bought several tickets for Friday's raffle. By purchasing 20 tickets, we received a complimentary Kawasaki hat. The rest of the evening was spent between the meeting room , the pool and supper at Hooters with 15 or so other VROCers. For some reason, the water in the hot tub wasn't all that hot. Heather and I retreated to our room at midnight.
SEASON STATS
Today's trip: 369 km
2009 goal: 8,500 km
2009 to date: 2,502 km (29.4%)
To obtain goal: 5,998 km
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