BBG is done!! (subject to verification)

I had a BBG route in my GPS just waiting for the right time.  On Thursday afternoon September 14 all the stars came together (job, weather, wife out of town)  for Friday and Saturday being the days.   I headed out on Friday morning at 9:28 AM, and just assumed that I would be able to find reasonable witnesses at the end point on Saturday morning.

The route was very basic. Essentially I-80 west from Chicago out to western Nebraska and back. 

The highlight, if you call it that, was riding though the middle of a severe thunderstorm in central Nebraska Friday evening. Fortunately I was able to "thread the needle" with a huge black storm just north of the expressway, and a cloud that looked exactly like the kind you see tornados come out of just to my south.  All I got was some strong wind, some rain, and a little bit of hail.  According to the weather radio, this storm was dropping golf-ball size hail about 20 miles from my location. The truckers on the CB were commenting that they would have a front row seat for seeing what was going to happen to the idiot on the motorcycle.  

I got to the gas station in Rochelle, IL at 9:05 AM with 1515 miles on the GPS. Almost a half-hour to spare. Of course that was the moment when two of my credit card companies had decided that they did not like all the gas charges over the last 24 hours, but I had plenty of time to go into the station, pre-pay and then get a receipt. Just a little added stress for the end of the ride.

The issue of finding ending witnesses was much more difficult than I thought.  I found a traffic officer doing a radar setup who flatly refused to help me, as did several other people. I finally found two who would do it.  As backup I documented my 50 mile ride back home from my end point so that my time and distance would be accounted for, and then got two ending witnesses from my neighbors. Hopefully that will do.

In summary, it is one LOOOOOONG ride.   Now I need sleep.

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