Friday’s Miles: 0.0
Total Miles: 2,694.5
I purposely
got up early on Friday morning so that I could give Lisa her wake-up call. I assumed that she needed to get up at 6:30
so I made sure that I was ready AT 6:30 to do my duty of love. Come to find out….and I found out BEFORE 6:31….she
was expecting a call at 7:00. Oh well,
according to Vince Lombardi “if you are 15 minutes early you are already 15
minutes late” so I did her a service.
After have NO
hotel breakfasts in Michigan followed by an awful hotel breakfast in London, KY
I was very pleased with the Commerce, GA hotel’s breakfast offering. Not only was the breakfast fresh, hot, and
tasty they actually served it for you. If
you think about it, the concept makes total sense. There is already a dining room attendant there
that keeps the serving area stocked and cleaned. This way they would do the main food serving
and that eliminates a lot of the mess they would normally be cleaning up. So it was a very enjoyable morning.
I then packed
up my bike bag and got it ready to put onto the bike. My plan was to have the bike completely ready
to go so that tomorrow morning all I would have to do is throw the remaining
items into the backpack, jump on the bike, and head home.
My cousin,
Judy, sent me a text saying that she would be at the hotel to pick me up around
9ish and would text when she got there.
I had everything ready and at 8:45 I headed down to the bike and loaded
it up. While I was busy strapping on the
bag a fellow walked up and asked where I was from/heading.
I wound up talking
to Robert for the next 15 minutes. He
was a 16 wheeler instructor. Actually,
he was an instructor’s instructor. His
company had classes all over the country and he traveled around instructing
instructors and helping with classes. He
talked about wanting to do some cross country riding. He lives outside Orlando, FL and does rides
around Florida but has never done a “real” road trip. We talked about the “if only” and “as soon as”
excuses and how they keep so many people from following their dreams. Before we were done he was vowing to me that
he would be taking a trip soon.
As Robert and
I were talking Judy pulled up. I knew
she was coming because I got a text saying “OK, I see a Travel Lodge” followed
by a text saying “OK, I see a Fairfax” followed by a text saying “OK, I see a
Holiday Inn Express”. I told Robert that
for some reason she was giving me a play by play of her drive there. Come to find out her definition of “behind
the Sonic” and my definition of “behind the Sonic” were different so she went
up the cross street. A few seconds later
she pulled in. I introduced her to
Robert, he wished me a safe ride, and I crawled into Judy’s car.
We went
directly to a Krispy Kreme and piled up with nourishment to take home and to
keep us going for most of the day. Judy
is always thinking of other people and while she bought us a dozen and a half
of assorted donuts she also got a half dozen for an elderly neighbor who never
gets out.
We got to Judy’s
farm and was greeted by her husband, David.
They have a chicken farm in Northern Georgia and it is quite
interesting. Heck, they could do a whole
blog just on one load (not sure what the official name is) of chickens. That being said, I will NOT even try to
attempt to tell you what it is like. The
outline is that they care for the “houses”, get THOUSANDS of chicks, raise them
for a few weeks, and the chickens are picked up. Some time after that we are frying, broiling,
or grilling their efforts OR we are going to Popeye’s, KFC, or Chick Fil A.
What a wonderful
day. We talked family……gossip, history,
future, and more……, solved all the problems of the country, reviewed and
predicted weather for centuries past and future, the pleasures of retirement,
the down side of retirement (there is none), food, drink, jokes (both funny and
not), and all else that we could squeeze into a 13 hour visit.
Later in the
day Judy ran out and got us subs for dinner and one of their daughters, Sherry,
came by. If you are a follower of my
blogs you might recall one from 2020 of me riding the coastline of
Florida. Sherry was my riding partner
for that journey. Finally, sometime
after 10:00 Sherry took me back to the hotel on her way home. It was a most enjoyable day.
Back in the
room I figured that it was too late to call Lisa so I sent her a text so she
would see it in the morning. Two seconds
later (give or take a half second) my phone rang. It was short and sweet but we did get to say
goodnight and that in less than 24 hours I would be home.
Saturday’s Miles: 455.6 Total Miles: 3,150.1
Not only was
this a travel day but it was the last day of the 18 day adventure. I have been on many trips, both business and
pleasure, and some of them were long BUT none of them were 18 days long. I was ready to get home and if I was to
believe Lisa, she was ready for me to get there.
I was up
shortly before 5:00 AM and got myself ready.
By 5:30 I was walking out to the bike.
I had checked the radar and it appeared like I had clear weather for at
least the first leg of the day. The
tropical system named Fred had slowed AND had moved a little bit to the west
relieving me of any worry that he would have any impact on my ride. It was still dark and it was pleasantly
cool. The Suzuki seemed to know that it
was heading home and started up happily.
It makes me think of riding horses on the farms of my cousins on my mom’s
side of things. When you were riding
away from the barn they were tame, docile, and pleasantly slow. However, when you turned them around facing the
barn…..HOLY CROW……….they would be off and running without care about low
branches and doorways. I will tell you
up front that the ride to home on the motorcycle is not as traumatic as facing
the horse toward the barn.
I stretched my
riding time and did my first stop in Dublin, GA or in the neighborhood of 150
miles. I filled up at a Pilot and right
next door was a McDonald’s. I decided to
break my Twinkies/apple pie tradition and go healthy. I got hot cakes and sausage from McDonalds. I could feel the vitamins churning through my
body.
I made the
second leg a VERY long one. In fact, it
is the farthest I have ridden on any motorcycle tank of gas since before
2009. I went almost 180 miles and rode
all the way to Lake City, FL. I gave
Lisa a quick call and got ready to take off when I thought…..hmmmm, maybe I
should look at the radar. It was bright
and sunny at the station in Lake City but radar showed a STORM maybe 20 miles
away. I had now traveled just about exactly
3,000 miles and I had only been spit on a couple times in Kentucky. During the last 100 miles of my ride I rode
into and out of the POURING rain 5 or 6 times.
Since I had checked the radar I had donned my rain jacket so life wasn’t
terrible. It wasn’t great but it wasn’t
terrible. I have heard guys say that
they didn’t mind riding in the rain….my thought about that is that if they
would lie to me about that they would lie to me about anything.
After 3,150.1
miles I pulled into my garage. The urge
is to just leave everything on the bike to get at a later time (probably in a
week or so) but I fought the urge and carried everything into the house. I wasn’t fast enough because Lisa came out to
the garage to see what was taking me so long.
We had a wonderful reunion…..being apart suck but with the proper greeting
the 18 days were erased immediately.
REFLECTION: What a wonderful trip. Over the past 3 weeks I saw all three of my
kids and all 12 of my grandkids. I had
such a wonderful time with them. We didn’t
do anything “special” but, at the same time, it was ALL special. If there are tears in your eyes when you
leave someone you know that it was a successful visit…..meaning that this was VERY
successful.
I saw almost
all the friends I could hope to see. I
am thankful to those that broke from their lives to come and see me. Reeta and Ruth dropped everything to come to
see me. Kirk and his family welcomed me
to his house. Bob helped to gather a
group of friends to the VFW. Maria was
the catalyst to having a group meet at the Pontiac Lake Inn. I had a great breakfast with Ann and Helen. Jim organized a group to meet at Buck
Shots. I am sorry that I didn’t get to
spend a little more quality time with Steve/Pat and Becky. I was so blessed to see both of my brothers
from different mothers, Larry and Ed.
Seeing Judy, David, and Sherry was the proverbial cherry on top to make
it all perfect. I thank them and all the
others that I came to spend some time with me that made the last 18 days some
of the most wonderful of my life. A heartfelt
thank you to all of them.
And…..thanks
to all of you readers. I do hope that
you have enjoyed the journey and I hope that I will have another journey to
share with you soon.
If you enjoyed
your read give this a Like and Share. Also, feel free to drop me a
line by email at donbova1966@yahoo.com, in messenger, on my Facebook timeline,
or a comment on the blog. Lastly, if you have missed previous chapters
all you have to do is find them over to the right and catch yourself up.
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