One of the pleasures of the BAK is listening to rider's stories of adventures on the road. Yesterday we had rain—lots of rain. We heard there was an inch & a half in less than an hour. All I know is that is rained hard. Jay Maske & I waited it out in a car wash in our overnight town. But a lot of folks left much earlier than we did and were caught in the deluge. Jay & I had our own misadventures and challenges yesterday, but nothing compared to some of the stories we heard on the road today.
One small group of riders took shelter on a farmer's porch, since no one was home when the knocked. The farmer and his wife came home to find the riders shivering in the cold and wet. They invited the riders in and offered to dry their riding clothes. They loaned the men overalls and the woman a robe.
Another group took shelter in a farmer's machine shed. They shivered in the dark until the farmer came home and hit the garage door opener and lights. The farmer got over his shock and offered the group towels and coffee. Other riders got under tractor trailer rigs or culverts.
But the story that took the prize is the group who made it to Stockton, our lunch stop. They spotted a laundry and decided to dry their clothes. A few had the creativity to buy boxers and towels at the Dollar General store. A few others covered themselves with a plastic trash bag. But one guy stripped bare, threw his clothes in the dryer then sat down and covered his privates with a magazine. I was glad to have merely heard this story rather than seeing the event in person.
For most BAK riders, modesty is relative to the amount of cover available when stopping for a bathroom break. Western Kansas doesn't offer many trees for cover, and there are no porta-potties on the roadside. You rely on your fellow riders to respect your situation and not look if the only cover you have is a telephone pole. But this guy reached new frontiers in BAK lore. I'm sure this story will survive for a long time.
