April 22, 23, 24, 2011 - My blogging delay was due to not wanting to get on the computer at the end of the day after riding so long. For some reason the ride home always seems to take more out of me than a ride to my destination.
Our final morning at Jacksonville Beach, started off as many of the others had. Miranda and I rode our bicycles to get some breakfast at the Dunkin Donuts again. After eating a quick breakfast we went back to Nick & Sam's to pack up the motorcycle. We hopped on and got rolling at about 10:00 and headed north of Florida's A1A. I was determined not to have to go on that giant bridge during the daylight and Nick told me of the St. John's river (or Mayport) ferry. It is the last public auto ferry operating in Florida. We pulled up into a line behind some other motorcyclists. There was a couple with a sister originally from Akron, Ohio now living in Florida out for a Friday cruise and a nice older teacher riding with her husband out exploring Florida for the day. The teacher snapped the picture above of Miranda and I on the ferry.
After crossing the St. John's River the A1A continues North across the Atlantic coast for a while and then heads west where it intersects with US-1/US-23 N. We continued north on US-1 through Florida and the majority of Georgia. It was getting close to dusk and the weather was looking ominous. The next large town on our route was Greenville, SC and I knew that we didn't have time (and our luck would probably run out with the weather) so we collectively decided that the best course of action was to go 30 miles out of our way and stop in Augusta, GA. There was bound to be a national hotel chain there. Lo and behold we happened upon a Holiday Inn which coincidentally was the meeting place for a bike rally for a children's charity. We got settled in to the room and went to the hotel restaurant for what had to be one of the worst meals of my life. How do you mess up pasta with chicken? Miranda ordered pork chops which were a disaster as well.
Saturday morning, no alarms were set and I slept until 10:30. It usually takes us about two hours to get going after we wake up between packing up the room, the bike, eating breakfast, and fueling the bike. We ate breakfast at the Waffle House where the waitress exclaimed "Ya'll ain't from around here are ya. Ya'll got a accent." I thought it was funny. We fueled up at a really busy Kroger gas station and think we made some folks angry by taking so long at the pump. Oh well. it was 12:30 by the time we were underway. We finished up Georgia and moved into South Carolina then North Carolina. The real treat of the day was Tennessee. We had missed the back roads of TN on the way down because we were pressed for time but I wasn't going to miss them a second time and I was well rewarded. TN-70, TN-34, and TN-93 were really twisty and mountainous. Clearly the best riding of the trip. Unbeknown to me, all of the down shifting and leaning made Miranda really nervous. I didn't find this out until we got to the hotel in Kingsport, TN where we stayed the night at a Days Inn. It was really janky and had I read the reviews for the hotel before checking in we wouldn't have stayed there. After settling in to the hotel we hopped back on the bike and rode up to an IHOP for dinner. It was Miranda's first IHOP experience. She had some great cinnamon pancakes.
Sunday we got up at 8:30 and were on the road by 10:30. We were quickly into Virginia where we encountered our only rain for the trip. It was about a 5 minute squall that was just enough to get us to put on our rain gear. By the time we got the gear on the rain had stopped. I can be a tad superstitious at times and I thought that if we took the gear off that it'd start raining again so we left it on for the remainder of the ride home. The Virginia riding was really nice as was the souther part of Kentucky. As you go up US-23 in KY it starts to follow the Ohio river which was still pretty swollen and quite a site to behold. Then we were into Ohio. The only state that I didn't get a picture of it's welcome sign because it was on the bridge that crosses the Ohio. I was a little more comfortable exceeding the speed limit in Ohio because I knew how close to home we were. We finally pulled into the driveway at about 6:00. I had a fantastic time and was really happy to get to spend a week with Miranda by myself. Nick and Sam were great hosts. I could really get used to that Jacksonville Beach lifestyle. I'm also greatful to my Suzuki V-Strom DL650 for getting Miranda and I to and from Florida without incident.
