Day 4 Heading Home

Sunday June 13, 2005

I wanted to leave early using the excuse that I was concerned about getting worse sunburn. This was true, but I had an ulterior motive. See while we were planning this trip, I realized that Karen’s birthday was going to happen on the day of our intended return. Riding all day on your birthday would likely be a great present for me, but I suspect it was not what she really wanted. So I got together with our kids and we hatched a plot. I have been adding a new master bedroom for several months and was getting close. I spent a lot of time during the last week pointing out how much still had to be done and then on the 3^rd before our trip, I covered the entrance with a tarp and spread plaster dust all around the entrance. This was to make sure she did not want to go there. On the last 3 days we worked feverishly to complete as much as possible. While we were on our trip, my kids finished the room. My job was to distract and keep occupied. I even bought cards and some cheep seat covers for her car so that she would think I was trying to get off easy because we could not carry much on the bikes. They called me several times during the day to get me to stall the return, but still get her home on her birthday.

Karen was suspicious that something was going on because I kept getting calls from the kids all day and nothing for her. Also some of what she heard, although it made no sense to her, made her aware something was going on. As we got close to home, we did the entire ride because the kids kept saying stall, stall. Then I even "got lost" a couple of times, "oops we should have turned back there 20 or so miles back." kind of thing. But as we got close to Springfield, there was one whopping storm on the horizon that could only be right over Springfield. We pulled over in Ozark so that I could get a fix on it's movement, and a guy sitting in a car in the parking lot with his kids, said that when the tornado warnings came, he got the kids in the car and left town. He had the radio on and was listening to the storm reports on the news. They said the storm was closing in on Rogersville and there were several sightings of the rolling clouds. These are the ones that drop on one end and become twisters. I called the kids and they told me that I should seek shelter somewhere because it was over Springfield. I told them that I just heard a report that it was over Rogersville, I got this oh shit here it comes, talk to you later...........

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I called back and said, get away from the windows.................

Too late…………………….

It has already passed us and gone.

I breathed, and then looked again at what I could see from where I was and realized that there was a break in the clouds, and then another storm right behind it. I told Karen get ready. We literally followed the tail of the first storm, The roads were all wet and trees down everywhere, but we kept dry as we went 1st east, then north, then east, then north, etc. till we got home. The lightning show was better than any fireworks show I've seen and it was a little scary. I had my camera, but never thought to get pictures till today.  We made it home with wet pant legs, but we and our packs were dry.

When we got in the house the kids were waiting upstairs, with the lights out. I sent Karen up, but she wanted the stairway light on, and that started the "Oh My God!"'s, The carped, the paint, the light/fan, the new bed, the furniture already there, the closet setup and our stuff in, etc.  She was ecstatic. Carpeting, paint, fixtures, etc. and then to my surprise, they even got us a new bed. It was a great surprise and a birthday present I think she really wanted.

As you can see this cut our trip short. This year things just didn’t happen well for our usual long trip, but we will find a way to get out there again as soon as things calm down. In the mean time remember, it is all about the adventure, and I’ll see you on the byways….