Leaving O'neill NE and heading north with the idea of getting to Hot Springs SD (I like hot water) - I had the road to myself, so I pinned it, heading away from blue skies and toward increasingly grey skies. There was not much to see - though, after a while, I realized that I had run out of corn and run into cows. The terrain changed subtly, not quite as flat, scrubby brush & other features were allowed to remain in their natural state, fences replaced culverts & cows replaced tractors.
The rain started gently at first - and then came down pretty steadily. I am really glad for the visor on my Arai helmet, but my 3/4 length jacket is no longer waterproof after several Northern California winters and by the time I got to Gordon, NE - the rain stopped but I was completely soaked. I popped into the local True Value Hardware to do the needful.
Two cans of Scotchguard in hand, I sloshed my way over to the local coin-op laundry. Wow. I am in my early 40s and have lived in South Louisiana - so, I promise you - I have seen some run down laundries in my time but this one takes the cake - even more than the place in Metairie with the "I hate doing laundry" wallpaper (I am so not kidding!).
This laundry is situated on a corner near some big granaries or similar giant ag tower-like structures. Fortunately, there's a wide overhang so I rolled my motorcycle up so I could unload and protect my gear from getting wetter. Inside there was one other person doing laundry. This was possibly the dirtiest laundry that I have ever been at - but at least the machines looked clean inside.
I pulled off my gear and put it in the dryers - which look like they are about sixty years old - you know the type - big, sky blue enamel on steel that get up to Hades Fahrenheit? The kind of dryers that will melt the rubber on your sneakers? Perfect. I stripped down and put my gear in the dryers - then I sprayed it with Scotchguard and dried it again - repeat til all dry. I even put my Sidi Jasmine boots in the dryer (which seemed to be developing holes in the soles!) and was able to get them mostly dry.
Soon - everything was dry and Scotchguarded. I was dry. Now, I was hungry. I got back on my motorcycle and headed north into the reservation - thinking I could outrun the rainstorm that seemed to be heading my way - guess what? I didn't - and the Scotchguarding was utterly USELESS against rain so I turned around and stayed with a friend on the reservation. Thankfully that was one of only two rainstorms I had to deal with on a 3 week trip so I will just count this laundry visit as a bit of "local flavor." read more
