Doug and I are in Somerset, PA and it has literally rained all but 12 miles from St. Louis! And most of the time it’s been hard. Faced with rain the rest of the way to Buxton, Maine we dedided to rest a few hours here. We had to search for a dry spot on our bodies when we shucked our clothes. Doug has 10 square inches on a shirt and his feet are dry. My ass is dry and the bottom of my back….and that’s it.

I had pulled a rookie move near Dayton, Ohio.  I tried to ride through the rain hoping for dryness while wearing mesh pants.

I didn’t make it. I poured water out of my boots and have spent the rest of the day and evening with pruned feet.

We’re literally putting our socks and non-metal things in the microwave to dry them out and the floor is covered with fresh steaming things. The heater is cranked with boots stacked on top and window open to try keep us from getting hot and humid….like it was in St. Louis a little less than 15 hours ago.  Duh.

Fittingly about 2 hours before the start of the rally it started to rain….and at 9:45 as Warchild finished our riders’ meeting the sky opened up in earnest.

My GAWD! We’re Iron Butt Ralliers!!!!! One can tell from the friendly grin of a person that is unaware of the pain he’s about to go through the next 11 days (isn’t Doug cute?) and the sad homage to Karate Kid (Hey Ralph Machio wannabee what are you doing wearing a BMW shirt? You take a blow to the head?) The only sane one in this picture is to the far left (Roger VanSanten)….or at least in recovery from riding in ‘05. He’s saying, “Suckers!”

Doug’s alternator appeared to have shit the bed this morning, but seems to be a bit happier now. Where he was getting 12 volts at 4,000 rpm at the start of the rally and was very slow to start with “whir-whir-whir” slowness of a weak battery. …now it eventually gets up to 14.0 volts after 20 minutes of riding.

Nothing really to do at this point unless the bike dies which we’re hoping won’t be at the apogee of our route….whatchmacality rock in upper Quebed. We’re wondering if the Datel voltmeter is wonky at this point. Positive thinking….positive thinking.

The plan is to get up just before daylight and start riding again….however the weather report doesn’t look any better in the morning. It’s like this 1000 mile wide rain cloud is taking the same route as us and at least 30 other riders. I have a feeling there’s a lot of fellow riders thinking about Plan B that chose this route.

We’re happy we have 8500 points bagged and having fun!

Doug and Matt in Bumfuck, PA