We got up at 4:15 this morning and hurriedly packed our stuff. We were able to grab a couple of cinnamon rolls from the hotel dining room and I had a cup of coffee, and we hit the road by 5:00. It was 60 degrees when we left the hotel, but it felt a bit cooler than that.

We decided to make Oakley, KS our first fuel stop, and then stop around every 100 miles after that. When we stopped in Oakley, it was 72 degrees, but it still felt cooler than that to me, since the air felt damp, so I left my hoodie on under my jacket. By the time we stopped again in Hays, KS it was 86 degrees, and I was more than ready to shed my hoodie. We fueled up the bikes and refilled our Camelbak’s with ice and water, and we split the candy bar we had in our cooler because we knew it was going to melt if we didn’t go ahead and eat it. Some lady in a Honda Civic almost hit my bike while we were filling our Camelbak’s, and then she got really crappy with me when I told her to stop and not to hit my bike, which I was not in the mood to deal with, but luckily she realized she was going to have to back out instead of trying to squeeze her car between my bike and the SUV at the pump diagonal from me, which she definitely wasn’t going to fit between. She nearly hit their SUV too, some people just shoudn’t drive if they can’t do any better than that!

We stopped again in Salina, KS to fuel up again and to get lunch, and it was 90 degrees. While we were pumping gas, there was a passenger van pulling a trailer on the other side of the pump from us, which I knew was likely a band of some sort. The driver ended up asking me where we were coming from, so I told him about our trip, and he said he was jealous because he has a Ducati, but that he would love to travel the country on a bike some day. I asked him what band he was in, and he told me they were called “Myka, Relocate” and that they play Warped Tour-like music. I felt a little ashamed that I hadn’t heard of them, since that’s the type of music I usually listen to, but I did look them up later, and I liked what I heard. I am admittedly not up to date on newer bands unless they get played on Octane on Sirius XM satellite radio, or on the Hard Rock station on Amazon Radio, because that is pretty much all I listen to anymore.

After we were done talking with him, we parked the bikes and went into Popeyes for lunch. While we were eating, a gentleman stopped by our table and asked if we were the ones on the Tigers parked outside, and we told him that we were. He said that he currently has a V-Strom, but that he’s been considering trading it for something else, and he really likes the look of the Tigers. We talked a few more minutes about our trip and the bikes, and he told us to have a safe trip. When we were finished eating, I booked us a room in Topeka, which was 100 miles away, and we reluctantly headed back out into the heat. The bikes read 94 degrees when we took off.

By the time we got to Topeka, the temperature had reached 100 degrees, but then it backed off just a bit to 98. It really doesn’t matter though, anything above 90 degrees is just miserable when you’re all geared up.

We intend to get up early again tomorrow and head out before it gets crazy hot again. We are only 600 miles from home, so we could make it home tomorrow if we really wanted to, but it is going to be so hot, and we have no reason to hurry home, so the plan is to get to the other side of St. Louis and stop for the day again, and then come the rest of the way home on Sunday. We are also hoping to stop and have lunch at the Triumph Grill in St. Louis and check out the Moto Europa dealership.

They are saying we should be at or below average temperatures by the end of next week at home, and we still don’t have to be back at work until July 2nd, so hopefully we will get some really nice weather to enjoy before we have to go back to work.