Mile 15. On Saturday, I had clicked over one thousand miles on my trip meter for this roadeo. So when I left Mountain View on Sunday, I had 15 miles on the clock. I followed Dick and Chuck to Yellville on HWY14. Crossed the ferry boat and headed up HWY 125 into Missouri. I took a few alphabet roads up to Hartville. That’s the small town where I stopped for a good lunch on Thursday so I decided to run back through there for another meal. After a tasty lunch, I headed east and north. From Roby, MO, I took HWY 17 all the way north to Interstate 44. Waynesville, MO to be exact. HWY 17 is a ridiculous road. It’s built right along the western side of Whiteman Air Force base. It has that “cleaned out” feel that HWY123 has. Lots of clearing on both sides of the road and very few driveways turning onto it. And there are some sweepers on that road that I took at a solid 90mph that felt like I could have hit them at 110mph.
Mile 260 or 270. I pulled into a busy gas station there at Waynesville sometime around 2:30 or 3pm. It’s right on the interstate, so lots of traffic. My credit card didn’t work at the pump and I still had a third of a tank of gas, so I suited back up and headed on up the road. Got to Richland, MO and realized I could not find my wallet. What a horrible feeling…like someone punched me in the stomach. Only 12 miles from my last stop in Waynesville, so I decided to back track….the whole time eagle eyeing the side of the road desperately searching for my wallet. By the way, every piece of shredded truck tire on the side of the road winds up looking like a back, velcro wallet. No luck finding it on the side of the road and no one had turned it in to any of the numerous gas station attendants working there. I called my wife and she looked up the credit card company phone numbers for me. I called and reported my cards as lost and they closed the account numbers so no one could use the cards. Finished this all at around 5:30pm.
Mile 300. After calling the credit card companies and getting that squared away, all that was left to do was figure out how to get home with no money. I had never thought to stash money somewhere on the bike, so I had less than a buck in change and I knew I was at least 150 miles from Kansas City. I was a little above the red on the gas gauge needle. I stood out at my bike at the edge of the parking lot for about 15 minutes. But being such a busy, faceless, interstate-access fuel stop, I didn’t get noticed in the least. Finally a dude on maybe an 80’s model FJR1200 rode up and I decided to make a move. When he exited the station, I approached him. I hadn’t even finished my sentence and he was cracking his wallet open handing me a $20 bill. I told him I didn’t think I needed that much, and so we went in to the store and got change. He gave me two five dollar bills and we chatted in the parking lot for about 20 minutes. Talked about how good of a rider he was and about God and Kirk Cameron. Nice enough guy, very talky and outgoing. He was convinced God had sent me there to ask him for money. So now I’m pissed God stole my friggin’ wallet. Anywho, I pulled out of the soul-less Waynesville Shell station at about 6:30pm….not completely sure how far I was from Kansas City.
Mile 375. I stopped in Stover, MO after having motored through some more twisties for a couple more hours. At that point, it was about 8:15pm and just about dusk. I put the other borrowed $5 bill into the tank and I spent 85 of my last 95 cents on a can of diet Dr.Pepper. I coked and joked with the gas station attendant, an ex-military man who was sympathetic to my plight. He told me to really watch out for deer on HWY135, my planned route. I took his warning and got behind the first vehicle I came to on HWY135 heading to Sedalia, MO. My thinking is that maybe the car could act as my cattle guard…like the ones they had on trains back in the day. What are those things called? I was on that back road for about 35 or 40 miles, typically riding at about 45mph. At this point, I couldn’t see through my dark shield enough to ride, so I switched over to my clear safety glasses. That kept my eyes safe, but I got a lot of bugs on my face. (The pic below is a barn I saw as I made my way north on HWY135. I came around the corner and saw this great sight.)
Mile 480. I breached the eastern limits of Kansas City and turned the petcock to reserve position….pretty confident I had enough gas to make it home.
Mile 495. 11pm. I rolled into the driveway at home. I rode the last 135 miles without taking my helmet off and only stopping for stop lights. That was about two and a half hours of riding. That’s about a 13 or 14-hour day in the saddle. And as far as I am concerned, 495 is close enough to 500 for me to say I did a 500-mile day.
With the Rex in the garage, I drew a hot bath and drank a cup of coffee while I soaked in the tub. With nuts un-frozen, I passed out on the couch at about midnight.
Got up at 9am this morning and started prioritizing how to replace the items lost in my wallet. At 10am, I got a call from my insurance agent. A man from Waynesville, MO had called them saying he had found my wallet on the interstate on-ramp. He used my insurance cards to track me down. The money was still in the wallet. Turns out he’s a Goldwing rider. Older guy, retired age. Very nice guy. I gave him $4 to ship the wallet back to me and $20 as a finder’s fee.
One hell of a Roadeo, fellas!
Excellent story and glad to see that things worked out for you like they did. Not a bad idea to have some cash stashed on the bike or body somewhere other than the wallet.
ReplyDeleteThe Strada has officially given up the ghost. I went to move the bike tonight and it felt like I was pushing it through cold molasses. Dangerous because you have less traction with your feet when the bike is hard to maneuver. Anywho, I checked the tire pressure using my radial gauge and it registered ZERO. I aired the tire up and used water to find the pin-hole leak on the flat spot of the tire. I remember checking the pressure at around dusk on Sunday and it felt fine. On an unrelated note, I had checked the pressure on the side of the road because I had taken my sunglasses off and had the odd sensation that I was WAY too close to the ground...like a tire was flat or a shock was broken. Must have just been the effect of the sunglass lenses and my helmet shield. Head games. Really no big surprise I forgot my wallet at that gas station. When we do these long mileage days, I don't think we like to admit that it takes a toll on our mental acuity. Four years ago, while riding the Rex back from purchasing it in Virginia, I had a moment where I thought I had lost my wallet....only to realize several moments later that I was holding said wallet in my teeth. TRUE STORY.
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