I almost forgot. As I loaded the bike to leave the hotel, one of my fully tensioned 4ft bungee straps slipped out of my hand and cracked me just above my left eye. It sounded like someone hitting a baseball. For a few seconds I was in intense pain, then it settled to a dull ache that lasted the rest of the day. I still have a goose egg above my eye, but I'm very thankful it's there, and not an inch lower. I probably would have lost my eye. I could tell that Wednesday was going to be a bad day.
Around 12:30 PM I got to Rawlins, NE. I ate a sandwich and a banana, and drank a Monster, which was a mistake because it gave me heartburn. As I adjusted my forever-stretching chain, a huge dark cloud rolled in and it started to rain on my sunny day. I wheeled the bike under the gas pump roof and continued preparing to leave. I also threw on my rain pants, but not the jacket. Too warm, and it looked like the rain was over. I was wrong. Eight miles down the road I rode into a downpour. After a bit the rain started to let up, then it stopped, and that's when my bike started to cut out. Not the petcock this time, something was wet. I pulled off the interstate an tore everything off that I had just loaded on. About 20 mins of checking coils, plugs, airbox, wiring, etc yielding nothing obvious, so I put it all back together and it ran great.
It was sunny again, so I took off the rain pants, which slipped right over my sopping wet Chuck Taylors(bought just for this trip). 41 miles later I stopped in Wamsutter to put them back on, as the sky looked pissed off and I could see rain falling all around me. Luckily I didn't hit any more heavy rain on this trip. I was so sore and worn out I prepayed for the
