October 30, 2011 - Today I started the trip to visit the last three states that I need to complete my motorcycle tour of the lower 48 United States. It's kind of bitter sweet for me because this could very well be the last long distance motorcycle trip that I am able to take. I've got one week to travel to Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana.
This trip is a little different than the other trips that I've taken because I will be accompanied by some of my very best friends: Kevin Krahel, Tim Birt, and Dan Michalec. Kevin and I departed Columbus on our motorcycles today at about 1:15. Dan and Tim will meet us in New Orleans on Wednesday travelling by car.
Since Kevin and I need to be in New Orleans by Wednesday so we decided to get a jump on our trip by actually utilizing the US Interstate system. I typically try to avoid the highways but I've been through Ohio enough that I didn't feel that we'd be missing much by getting out of the Buckeye state on I-71. We stayed on I-71 until we reached US-127 (south of the I-71/I-75 split in KY). It was nice to finally get off of the super slab and get to enjoy the fall colors on two lane roads in Kentucky.
We wanted to get off the road before it got dark because the temperature was starting to drop quickly and there's no sense in being on unknown roads after dark, that's just asking to meet an unexpected deer. We ended up stopping at a Super 8 in Danville, KY. We ended up completing about 250 miles today. The evening was quite uneventful. We got the bikes situated, ordered a pizza and watched the "animation domination" on Fox. We turned in early so that we could get a jump on things in the morning.
