To Florida: Day One: What is so High about this Highway?

Friday, June 26th, 2009

There is a mixing of a lot of emotions on the morning after the rally. The Good-Byes are sad, the thrill of the last few days satisfying, and the thought of next year made you grin. There are a lot of people at this rally that I just wish I saw more than once a year, and for longer than three days. Most we wouldn’t see, they either had taken off early, like Kevin and Virginia, or were still loading up the bike, like the group from Bloomington, Indiana.

Kasey and I fired up the fully loaded Pearl, and pulled out of the hotel. We started out heading west through York and Gettysburg. It is interesting going through town that al I know came from a text book. Once through the town famous for an address that doesn’t designate a location, we head south.

We were still on state highways, and even though there was traffic, we still were making good time. Good enough time that at some point, we caught the Virginia Group. Sunshine Bob has promised me a picture of Kasey and I at 60 mph, but I have yet to be able to read the file.



By the time we stopped for lunch at Fuddrucker’s, yeah I know it is a chain, but not a chain with places in Indiana anymore, we were done eating at the time we were supposed to be arriving. The burger was most tasty, and if they want to come back to Indiana, the building on the east side is available. (and near my house)
After leaving lunch, it was time to make some time on the highway. Problem was, we were south of the DC Beltway on I-95. The high parts of this highway was the heat and tempers. It was two hours after lunch, and we had made 45 miles. We were not only back on schedule, but behind schedule. I will be looking to avoid highways for the rest of my life, now.

Thanks to my friend, Mr. Garmin GPS, we were able to get off the highway, and get on a US Route, most of the time on US 17. It was like riding on US 40, the National Road, there were stretches of 55 mph, and others through town at around 35 mph. The towns were fun to drive through, and it broke up the ride. Without being on this route, we would have never cruised past Quantico Marine Base.

For the rest of the route, we would stay off the Highway as much as possible. We had stretches that we hit the super slab, but for the most part, we stayed on US 17 through the more interesting parts of this country.

After Richmond, Virginia, it was beginning to feel like North Carolina was never going to come. This was our 7th day in a row of riding, and we had covered about 1500 miles in the time. We were near the border, and about 30 miles from my college friend’s house that we were staying at for the night, I was able to get a hold of him on the phone. He was taking the kids to the pool, so we decided to head into town, and get a bite to eat.

We found this little hole in the wall diner place, that looked more like it belonged on television, than along food row in Raleigh, North Carolina. The food was good, Kasey was able to get breakfast, and the waitress, who had been there for 17 years, was a hoot.

We only had another 5 miles to make it to Mike’s house, so we hopped on The Pearl, and then made our way through the gold community where they lived. This would be the longest day we would ride on the trip, at least in miles. There could be longer trips to come in time.