Today was the first day of my Peoria stopover and I spent some time finding a new seat for the Sportster. When I was unloading the motorcycle last night I noticed that the right side seam had split. Since I’ve got 1800 miles to go I decided to buy another seat. I called Walter Bros. Harley-Davidson to see what they had in stock and it turned out that they had a Sundowner touring seat in stock. It’s about 3 inches wider than the one that I had on the bike and it feels a little softer so hopefully my butt will like it a little more.

After that, Reese and I went home to play with his new motorcycle track.

Finally! A dry night!

It was too good to last though and at around 7:00 in the morning the sky opened up. It’s a lot of fun packing up a motocycle in pouring rain.

And as it was time to leave I hooked up with a group of 7 bikes heading for Wisconsin, Michigan, and Illinois and hit the road. It was a good thing that I got that extra rain gear because we rode through driving rain from the campsite to almost Des Moines, Iowa. After that we got ahead of the rain and had it chasing us the rest of the way across the state. Somewhere between Kansas City and Des Moines I rolled over 40,000 miles on the odometer. The first two members of our group peeled off at Des Moines leaving the five of us to ride the rest of the way. I parted company with them in Davenport, Iowa and continued on down I-74 to Peoria.

I finally got in just before 6:00 PM. This is rest stop two in the trip.

Recovering from the fun of last night was the morning’s goal. Things got a little out of hand last night, but it was all good fun.

After that Cat and I headed out to St. Joe’s Harley-Davidson to pick up some new footpegs because the small highway pegs that I’ve got are killing my feet. It started raining on the way out and my boots got thoroughly soaked, so I added some gaitors to the shopping list. After looking around I settled on the Skull footpegs. They’re wider than the ones I’ve got and will hopefully work out well. I also picked up a rare Sportster t-shirt and the boot gaitors. I did have a problem with the footpegs though. I got all the way back to the campsite and started installing them only to find that the left peg’s adjuster hole was drilled wrong. I raced back to the dealer to get a replacement and got there 15 minutes before they closed. The replacement peg fit perfectly and at least on the ride back they were a lot more comfortable.

After dinner we headed over to the amplitheater for the concert and raffle drawing. The first band, Crisis, put on a good set of covers and original pieces. After that we had the raffle drawing where I won a $20 gift certificate from Reb’s Parts.com. After the raffle the headliner, The Jeff Scheetz Band took the stage. They were absolutely amazing. Great guitars, fantastic original pieces and some good covers as well! I picked up a CD to enjoy later.

After the concert I headed off to sleep to be rested for the ride to Peoria on Sunday.

We had some strong thunderstorms roll through overnight but the tent held up well. I didn’t though, it was a sleepless night.

Lee led a group out to The Cracker Barrel for breakfast before we went to the plant for the tour. It was a nice ride out over a bunch of country roads.

The plant tour was a lot of fun, even though the Sportster line was shut down for retooling. We got a bunch of pictures outside and the obligatory shirt.

After that we headed back to the campground where the beer drinking commenced.

The factory sent a couple guys out with 2 Sportsters and a custom V-Rod that’s being raffled off (I bought a ticket). The Sportsters were audit bikes and we got to give them a look over in exchange for some Harley doo-dads.

As the night wore on things got progressively wilder. Especially the lap and table dances!

We had some severe weather roll through the part of Kansas I was in last night. It was a good thing I decided to stop when I did. The nasty weather was still there in the morning so I left a little later to give it time to blow through.

The rest of the ride through Kansas was a bit damp but uneventful. I got in to Kansas City just before noon, ate lunch and made my way to the rally site.

I wasn’t the first person in, but pretty close to it! This would prove its worth because the good campsite under the trees kept me drier when the overnight storms hit.

Lee set up the keg and beer consumption started, helped out by some of Turbo Sam’s Wild Turkey. There was a pretty good turnout today with about 35 people showing up early. I finally turned in at around 10:30.

There’s no cell service here so this update will get posted when I get back in to Kansas City.

I hit the road a little later than I had wanted to but made really good time so it didn’t matter. The headphones worked really well and it was really nice to have some tunes on the road. The Hydrapak, when full, forces me to sit up a little straighter because it hits the T-bag but that is a minor annoyance compared to not being dehydrated.

I stopped in Oklahoma City to pick up a shirt from the dealership and had some lunch.

I got in to Wichita at about 2:30 and decided to push on a little more since I was making such good time. I finally stopped for the night in Emporia, Kansas.

Keep Crude in your prayers. His mother passed away yesterday.

Understandably, he’s dropped out of the ride, so now I’m going it alone and have rerouted again through Wichita, still going to the XL List Kansas City Rally for the weekend.

The oil has been changed, new spark plugs have been installed, and with that it’s ready for the ride. Now I’ve just got to get packed and hit the road!