Sunday July 10th, 2011 Omaha to Portage, Indiana 519 miles

I left Omaha about 1000, crossed the Missouri River into Iowa, and headed east towards Des Moines, then Illinois. Based on discussions with my friends, and taking into consideration road closures due to flooding, I decided to hit the direct route towards Chicago, bypass it to the south, then head directly towards Buffalo and Rochester. It was the 3 Hs weather-wise. Hot, humid, and hazy. Actually it was more overcast most of the way to the Illinois border, where it was fairly sunny. The scenery was corn, corn and more corn, and the same in Illinois. Quite boring after the first few miles. At least there were some bends, and slight rises in the road. The only things of note were crossing the Mississippi into Illinois, and also the amount of road works and lane closures. A good job it was Sunday. I realized the day after seeing many bikes heading west in the morning, all loaded up, then those in the afternoon out for a spin, shorts, tanks tops and no helmets. It is ones choice. I could never ride a Harley in shorts, my engines get too hot. One would sear the legs more than getting gravel rash. So tomoorw I head for Macedon, New York, until Wednesday, then across the border into Canada at Buffalo.