Heading north can be a pain

So made it to St. Louis on Thursday the 19th around 6 o'clock. Found out later that some parts of East St. Louis I went through were pretty dangerous. Didn't seem like it. So I had to waste some time, Tim was at work and wouldn't be off till 10:00 and we were going to meet around 10:30. So I rode around took some photos and had dinner. Had some really good General Tso chicken, maybe the best I ever had. Yeah it was that good. I decide to head over to where I'll meet Tim at and took off to find a coffee shop to hangout at. Well coming upon Grand St. I found lots of eatery and shop figure this would do. Parked the scoot and the patron eating suhsi on the sidewalk patio stared as I just came from another world. After walking for a couple blocks I couldn't find a coffee shop so I decided to look at the Google maps and 6 or so blocks from where I parked there was Mocabees. After two hours and two Italian sodas and countless smokes it was time to meet up with Tim. Parked the scoot at Tim's friends shop and we headed to his house. We then headed out to The Royale. Had a few drinks and went to another bar and drank Stag beer. Cheap and good beer makes any long trip well worth the ride. So three whole days and 4 hours of one day of riding and I finally got to one of the four rally cities. Next morning I woke up and me and Tim went to the shop. Tim welded a piece of metal to a bracket so it would hold my cdi box to the engine properly. Thanks, it is still holding up. So by Friday I started getting the sniffy and sneezes. Friday night Amy and Paul got in to town. Then it was off to more of The Royale and check in for the rally. Rain was on the menu that night with a interesting light show through out the evening. When we left the rain decided that we had enough and stop briefly for us to ride back to Tim's. Saturday got worse for me as that sniffling turn into a mild fever and felt like crap through out the day. By the time we got to the ride meet up the next morning, we held everyone up an hour. Hey it called scooter-time for a reason!!! The weather was sunny and a bit warm, but that's all the better for a 80 mile ride. Tim had the duty of leading the ride. Stopped at a wildlife area and walked to where the Missouri and Mississippi meet outlook. After that stop, the ride headed to Alton Il. where these hugh caves were. Sadly you couldn't enter them, for slabs of rocks were coming off the ceiling. The last leg of the ride was to a bbq in Carondelet park. It was good eatin and drinking, but I was still feeling the wrath of that bug. Had a go at the slow race, (which is to go as slow as possible on the scooter without a foot touching the ground). Sadly my form was off and failed to even come close. At the beginning I though just to go as fast as possible and lose, but at last second I tried to win. After the slow race the gymkhana was held. Now this involves some skills, not that every ride has. This one starts out weaving through 4 cones. Then grabbing a gun that shoot darts and hitting a sign, that pretty tricky there. Off to a door, which the rider had to balance them self on top of for 5 long seconds. Hitting the see saw, around a cone, and lastly ride onto a 10 ft by 4 inch wide block of wood. Which had a 45 degree cut in the beginning and then off to the finish line. Raffle raffle raffle time. The time when you hope to at least get something that you can use for you scoot. There were lots of that I could of used, but looking at the beer brewing set, I wondered, how am I going to transporting that not only to Tim's, but to Chicago and the rest of the trip? But it would of been great to brew 13% beer I thought. Paul had won three times, lucky bastards. So now it was on to the awards, up was best scooters. The time when if you been rebuilding that Lambretta, Paul won this one, or Veapa, you hope your hard work pays off. Or if you have that I don't really care if the scooter hits that rock there's a best pos bike, but none was awarded here. Then then there's the furthest traveled. It's a rare breed of scooterist to travel a couple of hundredth of miles or even thousands just to get to a rally. Be it for any reasons. They do it just because it just great to be on the road. Testing these machine to their limits. Sometime the machine test the riders to their limits. Seeing the side of the country not too many people ever get to see. This was my first furthest traveled award and don't you just know it, cue that song by Huey Piano Smith. That the award is a trophy that stand over 3 ft. Oh why couldn't I won that brew set as well? So a few rules were set in order. 1. I had to haul this back home, oh sure I'll throw it in the glove box!!! 2. At the next band camp it gets awarded to the furthest traveled. So we headed back to Tim's to try to get a bit of rest, but there wasn't much time. And a quick change of clothes and shower, ok a 5 minute rest and it was off to see Murder City Players and The Who Band at Blueberry Hill. Missed the MCP, but The Who Band were pretty good. Sunday I woke up feeling slightly better. Had a nice $17.00 brunch at the Three Monkeys. Yikes it was quite costly. But when there is prime rib and you had your share you say to yourself, well I only ate $10.56 worth, let me try some of it. Aw my belly was filling like a turkey on Thanksgiving. Well it was time when ever scooterist hate, the rally coming to an end and time to head home. But not me it was time for a lazy day at Tim's. So I stay an extra night at Tim's and had dinner with the family. Mighty nice of them, thanks. So Monday came around and it was time to leave, but not after catch the Liverpool match at The Royale. Crap result. Blah. So I left St. Louis at 5 p.m. and figuring i could get 100 miles at least before dark. Well i headed north on 267 to Jacksonville not quite 100 miles. It has to be one of the worst roads in all of Illinois. It was riding over bumps and cracks every 20 feet which one would be every second going 50 mph. Clump clump,clump clump is all i endured for what seemed like 30 miles. Got to Jacksonville and camped out in the community park. Now it's one thing to have a wake up call in a hotel or motel or whatever place you decide to stay at. But in a park your wake up call is the people that carry guns and handcuffs. So after what has become a routine line that I've gotten down. I tell the officer what I'm doing. Then the officers ask for the license. Got to be careful these days, there a lot of crazies out there causing trouble and getting away on them scooooters, I thought. So I have an early rise and pack up and on my way to Havana. More of that clump clump and this road has to go. I didn't really stop in Havana, but to fix that pesky ht coil wire. I decide to head to Liverpool for another photo then off to Cuba for a photo and then headed north for Peru. I don't know why but Illinois like those foreign countries for town names. Making it as the sun was setting. I pass a Chinese buffet. I stopped and turn around. Time to have dinner. At this point I'm feeling better, but still have this cough and it's a tough one to shake. So I camp out in a park called Sunset park. Nice bathroom and a took me awhile but did find an outlet for the phone. After a saying good night to the misses, it was time for sleep. But then I could here a noise from a car. I peek out and only see it's the police. Dammit, don't come over please. I've already taken the NyQuil. So I fall asleep and no bother. But the next morning, yep I get that early wake up call. Give the blah blah blah line of what I'm doing and he checks the id and off I am by 8 o'clock. Am I going to have one day that I can sleep in? Maybe when I camp in the middle of nowhere! So Chi-town only laid 90 miles away. Made it up in 3 hours with a few stops. The speedo stopped working outside Naperville. So I'm at about 1,200 miles so far. It weird to think you are doing 40 on the speedometer and it says 53 on the radar machine. Well I'm parked in Chicago for awhile. I'll do a bit of riding through out Chicagoland. And hopefully this cough will bugger off.