Let's Ride

Chapter 18

Around ten we stopped at Council Bluffs for gas and a visit to the ladies room, while I fueled the bike, Jessica went to the bathroom first. When I paid for the gas, I saw her standing near the bike, but when I came out of the bathroom and glanced out the window, Jessica wasn't in sight. I spotted her off to the side talking to a couple losers, "Christ!" I thought, "What's with this girl, hasn't she been listening to anything I've been telling her?" I casually walked over to the little group, "Let's get going Jessica," One of the cruds looked at me and laughed, "What's this, a couple lezzy's?" Jessica looked at me unsure of what to do, I started to take hold of her jacket when the other crud spoke up, "Hey b***h, leave her alone, we was talking." I immediately grabbed his shirt, and brought my knee up into his groin and as he gasped in pain and crumpled, I said. "Listen here f**k face, you're dealing with an ex-Marine here, I've killed people, and I know how to deal with dickheads like you, so BACKOFF!" The other shitbird made a feeble attempt to help his friend, while I steered Jessica over to the bike.

Back out on the road, I asked Jessica over the helmet com, "What were you messing around with those losers for?" "They just wanted to talk," "Jessica, what have I been trying to tell you? Those cruds wanted more than just to talk, you have to always be on your guard, I spotted them for what they were right off, you have to learn to do the same thing, people, especially guys just don't come up to you in gas stations wanting to talk, THINK! Jessica." "I'm sorry," she sniffed. "Look sweetie, I'm only trying to offer you my experience, I'm not trying to pick on you, but it's clear, you need to learn how to tell "friend" from foe."

We rode on into the Iowa farmland, I had noticed back in Nebraska how the landscape was changing in terms of browns to greens; however, the eastern sky was starting to get very black, I exited at Walnut and found a place to pull over and break out the rain suits. As we passed highway 71, the first drops started to hit my windshield by the time we passed the Anita exit, the rain was coming down pretty good, I dropped my speed, the spray thrown up by passing trucks and cars made things even worse. 'How ya doin back there?" I asked Jessica. A small voice said, "OK I guess, I can't see out of my sunglasses too well 'cause of the rain." "Stayin dry, with that rain suit, I know it's not the best but I made sure all the really bad spots were patched." "My feet are soaked, and I can feel a couple places where it's wet, but I'm OK I guess." "Just hang in there Jessica, it's all part of riding a bike," I felt her arms around my waist squeeze a little harder.

By now, it was obvious we were running into a storm moving east, and I was afraid it would slow things way down. When we hit West Des Moines, the rain had stopped, but the sky was still heavily overcast, thank God for small favors, at least we wouldn't be going through Des Moines in a driving rain with cages throwing water up at us. We exited at Merle Hay road, and sought out a Denny's for a hot meal and to dry out a little bit. Jessica had a hamburger; I couldn't resist their Grand Slam breakfast (again?) Before we resumed our journey, I patched a couple more places on Jessica's rain suit with duct tape from the inside so she would stay a little dryer. The rain was still holding off I took the opportunity to fill up then it was back out on the road. At the Grinnell exit, the rain started to hit us again, not as hard as before but nonetheless annoying. Because of the rain and reduced speed, we passed Coralville and Iowa City around 3:00, we had really dropped a lot of time, but it couldn't be helped. We stopped at Walcott Iowa, at the big Iowa 80 truck stop for a pee and snack break. While there I called dad and gave him a progress report, "You just be careful and ride safe honey." After my mom and brother were killed in the car accident, dad has always been nervous whenever I'm out on the bike. I called Greg as well who cautioned me riding on rainy interstates, with all the truck traffic.

I bought Jessica a little souvenir of the truck stop and Iowa; I got myself a tee shirt with the truck stop logo on it. While we were in the truck stop, the rain had quit again, but we still kept our rain suits on. It was now around 4:30 and I was afraid we would run into the height of the rush hour when we hit Chicago, but I pressed on. Nervousness over the rain and the condition of the highway took it's toll on me, I was tired but we had to keep riding, I kept checking Jessica from time to time to make sure she was all right. At Joliet, we started running into heavier traffic, at the intersection of route 45 I remembered there was a Harley dealer not very far north; I'd have to stop on the return trip for a tee shirt.