St Louis

Left North Little Rock at 5:45 in light rain and fog wearing my heavy weight riding jacket and overalls rain pants. This was first time to use the Shoei modular helmet in fogging conditions and it is great. It does actually prevent fogging and I could see even during the fog and rain. Rain stopped at mile 88 and sun broke out at mile 102. As I was getting off the 4 lane at Newport, AR I noticed a dog on the road. As I got closer I realized it was a coyote and he was not intimidated by me at all. I passed within 20 feet of him as I got on the 2 lane. My first critter and not even out of Arkansas yet.

When I got to the MO border the rain was over and it started getting a lot warmer. I changed into my light weight ridding jacket and packed up the heavy weight gear. Jim hooked up with me at a Harley Dealer just south of St Louis. We rode the last 35 miles in tight formation through St Louis traffic. This was the most nerve racking part of the trip so far. We actually tried out the CB radios and they work pretty well. We can communicate and this helps a lot when changing lanes in heavy traffic.

We ran into Cardinal baseball traffic as we got into town but managed to reach the condominium without much problem.

After changing to shorts we walked to the stadium to catch the Cardinals/San Francisco game. It rained several times delaying the game and we finally ran through the rain to a local establishment for another refreshment and then then back to Jim's. Going to dinner tonight with some friends and tomorrow will be a relaxing day getting ready for the big push on Monday.

Summary of the trip to St Louis.

The radio works great but the mic switch on the left handle bar grip sucks. I finally moved it to the base of the left mirror. It just did not feel right where I had it. I will work on that tomorrow.

The Shoei Helmet is great but I still leave the visor open for air flow most of the time.

Bike ran great but I need to add some kind of foot peg up front or long distance days may suffer.

Will post again Monday after we are on the road.