Well, it was a long day but not too bad, all things considered. We left a little late (surprise!), got rained on a little, had to suit up and get rained on a LOT, pulled off and got hailed on while taking shelter in the doorway of a church, and spent the last couple of hours trying to outrun a storm. All’s well that ends well. We spent almost exactly 12 hours to cover almost 500 miles, when you include the unnecessary detour courtesy of some ambiguous signage in Missouri.
The bike did well. The trailer did amazingly well, it’s awesome. The rain gear did pretty well, though I’d love to have a pair of waterproof gaiters or boot covers. The new helmets and headsets did well. Not perfect in the rain, but I got a lot less wet than with the old helmet. The GPS did well. As usual, riding with the MP3 player is really nice.  US 63 from I-29 to Macon, MO is a surprisingly nice stretch of road, though 63 from Macon to Columbia could be in better shape. The only real thumbs-down goes to MO DOT for sending us around St. Louis, when we could have stayed on course and saved the trip.  Mapquest correctly described the closure of I-64; of course I wasn’t using the Mapquest directions. Lesson learned. Now it’s off to bed to rest up for Day 2.
