This day was less about riding motorcycle and more about relaxing and enjoying the day with the family. Our plan was to spend the day at the Henry Doorly Zoo, grab a bite to eat and head back to Sioux Falls in the evening. I'd be on my motorcycle and my wife and son would follow me in the car. After the previous four days, I figured the 180 miles back to Sioux Falls would be a piece of cake, especially since it was all interstate. As I would later find out, however, in some ways this day would contain the most exciting motorcycle riding of the trip!
I don't really remember what time I woke up, but I doubt it was much before 8 AM. My wife and son aren't early risers, and I was dead tired so I slept in. Once up, we showered and dressed and prepared for the day's events. Whenever we stay in a hotel, our normal routine is for my son and I to go grab breakfast while my wife finishes getting ready. She's not much of a breakfast person while I, on the contrary, am a big breakfast person. I'd rather skip lunch than breakfast.
So, Tyler and I wandered down to the lobby to partake in the continental breakfast. Much to our dismay, this hotel puts it all away at 9 AM. Glancing at my watch, it was now 9:05. There wasn't a scrap of breakfast to be found. Well, I'll give them credit for being punctual.
We had to resort to plan "B". There was a Burger King across the street adjacent to a truck stop, so we walked over and purchased as much food as we could carry. Then we hiked back to the hotel room and had breakfast.
Once my wife was ready to go, we headed out the door. I asked the desk clerk if it was OK to leave my motorcycle in the parking lot until after supper. She not only said it was OK, but she told me to move it up next to the office window where she could keep an eye on it. Very cool!
On the flip side of cool, was the weather. It was sunny, but hot and humid. Being it was only about 10 AM, I could tell it was going to be a scorcher.
We drove to the zoo and began our sightseeing.
The Omaha zoo is a fantastic experience. Well worth the trip.
My son wanted to try his hand at taking some photos. At the time he was 5 years old, so the results are still a bit iffy on occasion.
We stopped for lunch. The food was horribly overpriced. I was expecting to have to pay a lot to eat, but this was even beyond my expectations. I later found out that you can bring in a picnic lunch if you like. I recommend that option.
We rode the train around the zoo, which again was rather expensive considering how short the ride is. However, it is a real steam train and my son had never been on one before, so we decided to splurge.
The heat was getting pretty intense, and my wife was starting to feel its effects. We went inside the desert building and much to our surprise, it was cool. A lot cooler than outside.
Underneath the desert building is a swamp exhibit. This may have been the coolest thing at the zoo.
Next, we ventured over to the rainforest exhibit. Once again, the rainforest was cooler than it was outside.
Our last stop was the aquarium building.
I was now after 5 PM. The walking and the heat of the day was beginning to catch up to us, so we decided to call it a day. The plan now was to catch some supper with my brother, then head back to Sioux Falls. We called my brother and made plans to meet at a Popeyes a few miles from the Zoo.
On the way to the restaurant, I saw a disturbing sight. The sky to the north was turning black. Unfortunately that was the direction we needed to head after supper. I had a hope that it would clear up while we were eating.
After a phenomenal dinner at Popeye's, much to my dismay the sky to the north looked even darker. It was still sunny in Omaha, but we could tell something was rolling in.
We drove back to the hotel, and watched the weather channel in the lobby. It didn't look good. There was no doubt a storm was moving in. However, it looked like about 50 miles north of Omaha, things cleared up. My wife didn't want to risk it, and instead desired to stay another day and head back in the morning. I wanted to hit the road fast and try to get north of the storm before the sky unleashed.
After much deliberation, I won the decision. However, anyone trying to get a 5 year old and a wife loaded up for travel knows that the term "hit the road fast" is a pipe dream. We stopped across the street at the truck stop for gas. I quickly threw on my rain gear (preparing for the worst), used the restroom and I was ready to go.
After the changing of clothes, rearranging of the travel items in the car, getting the DVD player running, etc. my 5 minute gas stop had turned into 30 minutes. I was really getting antsy now to get on the road. It still hadn't started raining in Omaha, but it was getting darker and darker.
Finally, we pulled out and hit the interstate. I was in the lead with my wife following behind me. I ran as fast as I dared without getting pulled over.
The rain held off for quite a while. I could see blue sky to the north. Just when I was convinced I was going to make it OK, the rain started.
I had ridden in the rain every day on this trip, and I already had my rain gear on, so the rain didn't really bother me that much. What concerned me was the wind. The wind was getting stronger and stronger, to the point where I finally decided I needed to find a place to pull over and wait it out. Thankfully, about a mile up the road was a rest stop.
As I entered the off-ramp to the rest stop, an absolutely incredible gust of crosswind hit. It felt like it was either going to take the bike out from under me, or tear me off the top of the bike. Seriously, this was one of the most powerful gusts of wind I've ever felt, and living in South Dakota I have plenty of experience with powerful wind.
I pulled into a parking space and my wife pulled up next to me. At this point she was absolutely freaking out. It's an interestingly ironic phenomenon when your wife gets so scared she's going to lose you, that she becomes mad enough to kill you.
I tried to explain that I was just waiting for the wind to die down, then we could hit the road again. She wanted nothing of that, and had every intention of turning around and driving back to Omaha and spending the night in a hotel. Once again we were at an impasse.
Frankly, things were so intense in the car, that I don't remember what my son was doing in the back seat. Rather than escalating the situation further, we sat in silence and watched the storm going on outside the car instead.
After about 10 minutes, it was still raining but the wind had died down. I explained that I wanted to keep heading north, as we could see blue sky and would move out of it soon enough. I think my wife was beyond arguing at this point, and agreed so long as I kept my speed down very slow.
So back out in the rain, I headed up the interstate at about 40 mph. Sure enough, in about 5 miles the rain stopped. Had we gotten out of Omaha a little earlier, we may have missed it altogether. The next day when I called my brother back in Omaha, he said we were lucky we got out of there, as it was the worst thunderstorm he'd ever seen.
Once the pavement dried out, I brought things back up to the speed limit. The remainder of the trip home was uneventful, sans constant scanning of the ditches in front of me for deer. At roughly 11 PM, we rolled up at our house.
Safe at home, things had calmed down immensely. We unloaded the car, and prepared for bed. And I celebrated the survival of yet another motorcycle adventure!
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This page last updated on 06/28/2018