September 13th and 14th, 2008

Hello from Hope AK.......9/22/08 we finally have access to a computer and internet at the hotel. So we have ten on the road days to catch you up on.

We left Solon Ohio on September 13th in the rain. No worries dressed in rain gear we headed out on our adventure. Goldwing Motorcycle packed with one duffle bag, side saddle bags and trunk packed and straight for the path of Hurricane Ike.

Actually we changed our route three times to avoid Ike. Each time Norm changed our route we checked the latest news update and Ike had changed its path to our new route. Finally a route was picked and we left without checking the latest news update. (This way Ike couldn't find us????)A noon take off was our target and the due to the weather we headed out at 4pm. We figured "on the fly" driving adjustments was the best plan to follow when dealing with Ike.

Our original goal was no night driving. Relaxation, site seeing, sleep and the motorcycle was more visible in traffic during the day were our ratiionalization. We enjoyed a beautiful sunset and arrived at our hotel in Elizabethtown in KY at midnight.

Left late..... drove at night......it was obvious that the little structure we built into our trip was "out the window"........ well riding a motorcycle I guess it would be more appropiate saying "by the wayside."

We woke up refreshed, enjoyed a wonderful free hot breakfast (another goal... only stay at hotels with free breakfast!) and sat down at the free computer access in the comfortable lobby.

As other patrons entered the restaurant the buzz was all about the wind, the horrible wind, the don't walk out the door wind/ "you all will surely blow away". We looked at each other, not concerned, but "surely they must be exagerating." NOT

The lobby TV went to static, the internet was no longer...... apparently the winds had won and it was just the begining. IKE was heading our way. While others took shelter in the building we starting packing up the bike.

As we stood by the goldwing our eyes rose to meet the bending trees in front of us and then to the sky. We had to make some important decisions with no answer being the "safe" one.

The bike was packed, everything secure and we took off to see how the bike handled. Norm did a great job keeping the bike upright. I didn't find out about the struggle between he and the bike till a bit later. We stopped at a KMart to replace the broken headset for the cell phones. We wanted to have the capeabity of making emergency calls that day.

I volunteered to take "bike and gear" watch while Norm went in. The bike was on the regular kick stand. I was standing on my two feet, hair braided back, helment on the seat, jackets on the seat and my eyes were drawn upward and then the complete 360 degree turn.

The clouds were in a violent race across the sky, the helmets and jackets needed me to lean over them and surround them with my arms and body. I was careful not to put any weight onto the already rocking, I think 1,000 pound bike that I was hugging. I could no long see due to the mask of my hair the encompassed my face and things blowing into my eyes from the parking lot.

I was quite proud when I was able to put on my sun glasses and grasp my cell phone tightly to call Norm. It reminded me of a good game of twister and body moves you do not use daily.

I was aware of two guys in a white truck a few parking spots over and I imagined their amusement with the situation. I do think they were sticking around to see if they needed to pull the bike off of me at some point.

I couldn't get the call to Norm, I glanced up and another patron tried to get his car door open. As he fought the wind and won he called out to me to seek cover, Ike was on the way!

I glanced up again and saw Norm heading toward the bike. We took turns watching over the rocking bike, got our gear on and started driving. The plan was to head south and stay off the freeway. The constant, obvious fight to keep the bike upright was daunting and the path in front of us as well as around us began to be strewn with sticks and debris.

We stopped near a building, looked at the black sky to our left, the blue sky to our right. South was the blue sky. In short order we made the hard decision to try the freeway. Norm thought the hgher speed would actually make it easier to keep the bike upright as well as less trees close to the road to impale us with branches.

The trek to the freeway seemed long, I'm sure it was actually less than ten minutes. It was very very windy but we were moving forward and the bike "seemed " to be under control. We had planned to make a stop in KY that day and reach Memphis.

As I clutched the GPS in my hands I kept vigil letting Norm know where each hotel location was. Within one hour we knew we had to pull off and find a hotel. Things were blowing into the road and the wind was getting worse. We stopped at Cave City KY. The thought of reaching the hotel after exiting the freeway was daunting. Would Norm still have control over the bike? He did wonderfully.... thehotels were right off the freeway. We carefully chose one with inside corridors in case of emergency measures. Norm piked the bike on the center stand out in the open with the hopes of the wind blowing thru it and not blowing it over. The hotel was great, they let us check in at 11 am.

The winds came, the rain came, we walked to a nearby restaurant. About 4:30 pm it had calmed down quite a bit. We wanted to see how the bike handled and salvage the day. We headed to Diamond Caverns and caught the last tour. Norm has since shared with me that the wind moved the bike three feet to the side on the freeway. This prompted him to make the decision of seeking a hotel and possible shelter if needed.

The pictures above are of our trip to Diamond Caves. It is a privately owned cave and discovered by accident by a young boy. He went to get adults and they lowered him by rope into the hole with a candle. He saw the sparkles on the walls and proclaimed diamond were in the cave. Thus the name. It wasn't diamonds but quartz crystals he saw. Tours use to be given by candle light many years ago. We were led by flash light and some lighting in the cave as we walked through. It was a nice cave to see. The college geology student gave a great tour. We would recommend stopping by to see it.

"On the Road Again"

Norm and Margie