South Bend

We left Williamsburg around 8am and headed east on the Interstate. It was a far nicer day today, sunshine - not too hot, perfect for riding. We stopped for breakfast after an hour of riding and then called in to the Harley Davidson dealership at Davenport where Tracee needed to purchase a new riding jacket.

We then crossed over the Mississippi river and the state line into Illinois. The traffic was becoming more heavy the further east we went (the eastern part of the USA is more heavily populated). We couldn't get over the volume of trucks on the interstate - there were long lines of trucks traveling in single file in the slow lane for miles at a time. You need to be on guard for large strips of tyre fragments that have come off after truck tyre 'blowouts'. These often line the road verges and can be bad news for a motorcyclist if you hit one! Luckily I was in the far left lane today (fast lane) when I saw cars braking hard in the lanes inside of me to try and avoid the remnants of a tyre that had come off a truck.

After our stop for lunch just before Joliet, we crossed the state line into Indiana and at the same time lost an hour as we changed time zones to Eastern Time. We bypassed Chicago to the north of us and scooted around the bottom of Lake Michigan before branching off on to Hwy 20 for the ride to South Bend where we checked into a motel. South Bend is a city that derives its name from its location (on the south bend of the St. Joseph River). The city's claim to fame is the Catholic University of Notre Dame (and its gridiron football team 'The Fighting Irish', the most successful in college football history).

It was relief to get off the Interstate and away from the manic traffic. The last two days were basically to allow us to cover a lot of distance quickly as we work towards locations where we want to spend more time.  In the last two days we have been in 4 different states (Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois and Indiana) and covered  around 1200 kilometres. Hopefully we have seen the last of busy Interstates for a while and can enjoy more scenic routes as we head north tomorrow through Michigan.