This is a question we often ask ourselves; either in past tense or future tense.  In past tense, how often have you found yourself asking, “What if I had ….?”  But whatever that decision was, it’s already made.  There’s no going back, no reason to think about “what if?” My brother taught me not to dwell on ‘would have’, ‘could have’ or ‘should have’ scenarios.

The other way to pose a ‘what if’ question is, in the future, and this is helpful to develop contingencies.  Little did I know the foreshadowing there was when my mother-in-law innocently asked me, “What if you have a major problem along the way, what will you do?”

I explained that we have time built into the trip. (Terron adds, “Not really”) For instance, we had planned an entire day at her house.  If something had happened on our way here, then we would have skipped that day.  But that’s not going to happen, I thought.

After breakfast, we said our goodbyes to my mother-in-law Dani and sister-in-law Crystal and hit the road, bound for Chattanooga, Tennessee.  We get only a block away from Dani’s house and I realize that my bike is not working properly; I cannot shift into third gear. I get on the CB and let Terron know, and we circle around the block right back to Terron’s mom’s house.
Terron checks the oil level and decides that my bike needs oil. We add oil to my bike, then add some to his.  OK now are ready to hit the road again. We wave goodbye again, put Dani’s house in our mirrors and only a block away, I get on the CB again and tell Terron that my bike still is not working properly so we pull into a parking lot. Terron then takes my bike for a test drive around the block and when he returns, he says, “Yep it’s broken”. Bummer!  I immediately get on the phone and start calling local motorcycle shops.  The first is super nice and tells me they can’t help, but they tell me that Hawkeye Motor Works, about 30 minutes away, should be able to help.

Terron plots a course to get us there involving no interstate, just city streets, since I cannot shift beyond 2^nd gear.  Along the way, Terron reviews scenarios over the CB with me, on what we’ll do if this problem ends this trip. We review the different scenarios; after all he is Mr. Contingency, even though I don’t want to hear any of it.  I quietly listen and stew a little bit.

We get to the motorcycle shop, where they test drive my bike and put it up on a rack.  Terron and I wander the vast showroom of bikes they have and he immediately starts picking out a new bike for me.  He even reviews all of the financials on how we could trade my bike in, and how we’d afford a new bike for me mid-trip!  Again, I play along.  In the midst of me sitting on bikes, the service manager comes out to let me know that the gearshift linkage is corroded and that’s why it won’t shift up beyond 2^nd gear.  

He said they freed it up and it is working again, but given the miles still before us, he suggests that I let them replace the part.  Of course!  Now the only problem is that the part is in the warehouse and they cannot get it until 3:00pm.  Okay, so we two-up on Terron’s bike, which means I’m now the passenger and he head back to my mother-in-law’s house.  As we drive there, I really concentrate on taking in all of the architecture here, through Davenport, Iowa, and into Rock Island, Illinois.  I lived here in the Quad Cities for a year, eons ago.  The architecture here is just beautiful, with many brownstones and Victorian buildings.   And I spot so many new things that either didn’t exist or I never saw before.  Like any reporter, who tends to spot landmarks based on stories, I also spot the buildings and places I had visited way back when, when I worked in town.  Now back at Dani’s house, we get to see her youngest sister, Aunt Janet, since she’s there visiting.

Hawkeye Motor Works calls about 4:30pm to let me know my bike is ready to roll.  Okay, back across town, with broken parts in my hand and just $155 shelled out for the new part and labor, we are finally on the road.  Thank you Hawkeye Motor Works for quickly and efficiently helping out a distressed traveler.

There’s no way for us to make Chattanooga tonight, so we set our sights on Marion, Illinois, about five hours away. We hit the interstate at 5:30pm. My frustration at this delay in our trip is rewarded with plenty of great scenery over the course of the next five hours. The first three hours I enjoy watching the flat farmland; fields of corn and soybeans going by me. The one thing that really strikes me, are the barns.  The last few days going through Wyoming and South Dakota, I took note that it seemed as though every barn was painted red.  The barns here in central Illinois are all gray and they definitely have a different shape than the ones I saw a few days ago.

The sun is now setting; about 8:30pm and it’s time to get some gas.  We find ourselves in the middle of nowhere in Illinois and now perhaps the comic relief for some Harley riders sitting on the side of the parking lot, resting with a cold beverage. (it is still 85 degrees outside).  I walk past them to the bathroom, then Terron takes his turn.  As he comes out, one of the guys asks, “Excuse me sir.  What is that suit you’re wearing, made of?”  Terron replies that it’s Kevlar and then he asks, “Is it warm?”  Terron tells him it’s mesh and that it’s really not too warm.  But seeing them sitting on their bikes in sleeveless shirts and no helmets in sight, I’m guessing they were snickering as how we were suited up.  We ride always thinking safety first, fashion last.

Back on the road, I am now smiling at the orange hue beyond the corn fields.  And then my grin ends up ear to ear, watching hundreds upon hundreds of fireflies or “lightning bugs” as we called them as kids, darting and dancing in and out of the weeds on the side of the road and up and down the rows of corn. What a sight!

A few of them are flying rather high up, above my head. As I whiz by, a few of them really look like tiny shooting stars.  This takes me way back to childhood, having grown up in this region.

We make it to our motel by 11:00pm with a little work still to do.  M face shield is covered in bugs.  That needs to be cleaned!  I also tend to the bug bite I somehow got on my neck, right where the chin strap to my helmet goes!  Terron loads the new maps on his GPS and we sigh at how much road we need to cover tomorrow to make up for the broken gearshift arm today.