Well, it was fun but now it was finally time to head for home. Janine and I banged out a quick breakfast for Todd and Pam, in a hopeless attempt to repay some of their hospitality, then got on the road for Pittsburgh.

As before, the traffic was really not half bad; we traveled all through Chicago without stopping once, myself on the ST, Janine and my daughter Cheryl in the minivan. The ST quickly outdistanced the van in the heavier traffic, of course, so it was alone that I achieved SR30, the two-lane road we planned to take across Indiana and Ohio. I continued east for about an hour, then pulled over for a Dr. Pepper break.  I was tired and the endlessly straight road was lulling me to sleep. I also hoped to catch sight of Janine coming along, as I figured she'd like to trade vehicles and spend some time on her new bike.

Break over, no Janine, so I continued east. I pass a completely unmarked police Camaro (apparently GM made a killing in the police bids this year), which has its lights inside, mounted up near the sun visors. The occifer had a hapless victim pulled over and was doing the revenue dance. About 20 minutes later I passed an intersection with a gas station, and happened to look in that direction, to see Janine jumping up and down and waving from the pumps. A quick U-turn and we were reunited. I told her I'd been slacking, hoping she'd appear. She must've passed me during my last break. Her reply?

"I'd have been here SOONER if it wasn't for the TICKET I just got!"

She relates the tale of being swooped upon by a "completely unmarked Camaro". Being Janine, she's not upset about the ticket, she's upset about the sneakiness of the unmarked car. She earned this one, however....82.1 in a 55. Travelling at almost 30-over without a radar detector also earns her a dumbass.

We swap vehicles and Janine takes off on the ST. I get reacquainted with my daughter, who I haven't talked to in a week, and the trip east progresses. I keep the speeds down since (duh) Janine has the V1 on the ST. We see her every so often, when traffic holds her up. We stop for lunch at one of these snarls, and Janine relates her first instant-on radar encounter with the V1. She was livid and used phrases like "invasion of privacy" and such. Yeah, I get a bit hyped about it, myself, so I can relate. It does piss you off, until you start treating it like a big game of hide 'n' seek. But traffic cops have their job to do (bottom feeding scumsuckers that they are) and we have ours, so there's nothing to get huffy about.

We discuss the next stopping point, which we both agree should be Ray Campbell's place in Bucyrus, Ohio. Back on the road, headed east with no incidents. As my daughter and I enter Bucyrus, I struggle to remember the way to Ray's house. After several false starts I figure it out and arrive to see Janine already in the driveway. As usual, we interrupted Ray working in his garage, but he didn't seem to mind, especially since he could show off his newly painted 1000R Interceptor. My daughter joins Ray's kids on their trampoline while Janine and I shoot the shit with Ray and his wife, Shari, for a while, but then it's time to mosey on. Ray's oldest daughter asks me if I can visit again, and I say sure. "How about tomorrow?" she asks.

As we progress eastward across the flatlands of Ohio, Janine pulls away into the distance. The drive continues until dusk as we near the OH/PA border. At this point SR30 starts getting kinda sweepy, and as darkness falls completely we end up behind car that's tailgating a motorcycle. The motorcycle appears to be....well, it's Janine! She seems to having a lot of problems with the car following her, but for some unknown reasons, doesn't pull over and let him past. My daughter and I watch as her pace steadily lessens and her cornering lines become erratic. My daughter asks if there's anything I can do, as this drama is pretty intense when viewed from behind. I contemplate diving in between the ST and the tailgater, and pushing him back, but there's not enough room to do so, and that would probably scare the shit out of Janine, who wouldn't know it was me, anyway.

Eventually, she pulls to the side and the car tears past. Not wanting her to think I'm another tailgater, I let the minivan drop behind to a significant distance and follow. Eventually we hit a small town where I'm able to pull up alongside and identify myself, and Janine motions for me to take the lead. Apparently she didn't bring her clear visor for this trip, and that's why she was going so slow.

I lead the way into the Pittsburgh metro area, at which time Janine can relax again, since everything's lit up and she knows these roads. We travel down SR51, the Road From Hell, but somehow it's fitting that I end a journey of 3001.6 miles on this road that I hate so much.

Janine puts her new bike to bed in the garage, next to my much-missed silver. As we shut out the light and head upstairs, I hear my silver snort and mutter, "Hmpf....black.."