I made a call to my dad telling him that I thought I�d be able to stop in Nebraska and have lunch with him instead of breakfast like I had figured. I got on the bike and my heart sunk. I realized that I had left the key on. Yes, the battery was dead, at least dead enough to not start the bike. More expletives again. Two of the Subway sandwich shop workers were taking a break and were thankfully willing to give me and the bike a push to try to bump start it. Three tries but it just wouldn�t go. I had never jump started a bike with a car battery and I didn�t want this to be my first try in case I fried something. So I called the Triumph shop in Spokane, who unfortunately was 20 minutes away on the other side of town. They suggest a shop that was only minutes away. Unfortunately the close shop said they couldn�t spare anyone to come help me. Well, it killed me, but the only choice seemed to get a new battery from them which they could have their delivery boy bring me. I was planning on changing the battery next spring so that didn�t bother me too much, but it was the two hours to put a full charge on it that killed me. A three and a half hour delay with only two and a half days left did not help. Lunch with dad the next day now became supper with dad. I push on as best as possible but with the battery delay and the lost hour to the time zone change I only made Sheridan, WY by midnight. Unfortunately, there are no rooms to be found in town. All the way to Buffalo I remind myself to watch for the I-25/I-90 split and not to miss I-25 again. To make sure I don�t make the mistake in the weary morning hours again I don�t look for a hotel until I�m past the intersection. At 1 am I luckily find a hotel that had a cancellation. I mention that I figured on continuing south if they hadn�t had a room. She tells me there is a big soccer thing going on in that direction as half of her guests were soccer moms and kids and I�d been as good as riding til sunrise before finding something.
Off again just after sunrise I looked forward to the last two days of the ride. The day was going well. At a rest area in Nebraska I learned that the rain I had expected to catch up to had dissipated and I�d have blue skies. Not too long after this I come across a scene that sent shivers up my spine. A motorcycle, rider, and passenger lying motionless at the side of the road. There were only a couple of people there so I get stopped, turned around in the interstate and rode the shoulder back to the accident. The rider was a big Harley rider and as he came back to consciousness obviously had some internal injuries. Two truckers were with him trying to keep him from getting up. The passenger, who was the girlfriend of the other biker not involved in the accident, who had his young daughter with him, had a pretty good scuff on her helmet, seemed to be in and out of being responsive, and was being attended to by a nurse who had stopped. The bike was leaking gas so the biker and I got it up and a bit more out of the right lane, but the flat rear tire, the apparent cause of the accident wouldn�t rotate. My first aid kit was of some use, but I was surprised the rider didn�t have more road rash than he did as he was wearing a sleeveless jean jacket with colors. There wasn�t much I could do to help but I waited til EMS arrived and took the two away before continuing on my journey. It took a few hours to return to the back recesses of my mind the thoughts of the risks of motorcycles.
I put another call into dad to tell him that with this last delay I just didn�t think there would be much, if any, time to stop back home and have dinner with him. I was very disappointed with this as I also wanted to stop by my mother�s grave to leave four of her favorite pink roses, one for each of us. In the 15 years I had been back home many times, but had only gone to the cemetery once. I told dad that I didn�t need to go to her grave to remember her or to talk to her. But since this ride was in her memory, even though she�d hate I was doing such a long, and to some, dangerous, motorcycle ride, I wanted to stop at her grave to thank her for all she had given me and to place the flowers. As I was approaching the exit that led to Hastings I was looking south and thinking that dad was only about 20 miles that way and it would have been nice to visit, but I couldn�t risk the time, not this late in the ride. About 3 seconds after I pass any chance of taking the exit I see dad standing next to his car on the adjacent road giving me a big wave. I wave back with a big smile under my helmet. That was a big emotional and mental lift as I know dad doesn�t care for me doing these big rides either. I figure on turning around at the next exit but it is closed and under construction. By the next exit it is too far to go back, as it would have taken as much time to have gone to see him at home.
The rest of the day seemed to slide along. But I could tell that around Kansas City it would be time to call it a day. Well short of the ideal schedule. It was about 11 pm and I was at about 9,200 miles. The original complete ride plan was about 10,500 miles but the extra 115 in Wyoming days before pushed that to better than 10,600 miles. I knew there was no way I was going to Oklahoma City on the way to Fort Wayne. 1,400 miles in 29.5 hours. I did 1780 in 29.5 hours out west, but that was after only four days on the road not nine, thousands of miles ago, and in areas with higher speed limits. The only reason for the 10,500 miles was to give the cushion for the IBA. But that cushion was recommended because of odometer errors. I had the GPS which gives the exact distance so there is no reason to go over by so much. I decide to stop in KC and reroute the trip for a 1000 and change mile day across Missouri, south, and then across Kentucky. That night I got the most sleep I�d had in 10 nights, 6 hours.