Our weekend trip

Cliff took off work Friday, so we decided to take a mini-vacation. Sometime before noon, we headed to Branson, Missouri, on the motorcycle. We rode as far as Clinton before we stopped to eat our hobo lunch in the Katy Trail State Park.

When we left home it was sunny and pleasant, and I chose to wear my light-weight motorcycle jacket. The further south we were, the cooler it got. At Clinton I donned my heavy leather jacket and chaps. Cliff put his on, too.

Further along, we noticed puddles along the road. It seemed as though we were chasing a rainstorm; we certainly didn't want to catch it!

When we arrived in Springfield, it was almost "rush hour", the time when people start getting off work. We don't like taking the motorcycle through big cities or on freeways, but sometimes it can't be avoided. We were on highway 65, a very busy thoroughfare, when we came upon a traffic jam. After about ten minutes of inching slowly forward with the rest of the traffic, we realized all cars were being directed off southbound 65 because of an accident. So there we were in a big metropolis, not knowing any other route to Branson. However, we tried to follow the general direction that 65 would have taken and finally connected with it again, down past the accident scene.

Checking out a motel in Branson, the proprieter said, "You guys came down on a motorcycle? Just a half-hour ago, the ground was white with hail!"

Later on we watched the news in our room and heard the details of the accident in Springfield: a young lady was driving through a rain-and-hailstorm, lost control of her car, and crashed. She died at the scene.

I am so thankful that we never did catch up with that storm!

When we got up Saturday morning there was a dense fog, and our motorcycle was soaking wet.

We didn't want to ride in such fog, so we took our usual half-hour walk. We saw this vehicle along the way.

This was at our motel when we returned. Interesting, huh?

I'll tell more about our weekend trip tomorrow.