CHAPTER THIRTEEN: GEORGIA ON MY MIND

 

Thursday’s miles:  369.8   Total Miles: 2,694.5

I have to tell you something funny about Wednesday night.  At least it was funny to me and I hope that I can get the funny across.  I was checked into my room by mid afternoon after going to Walgreen’s, eating at the Big Boy, and filling up my tank.  I did a shower, called Lisa, and did some typing.  Between 5:30 and 6:00 I was getting a little droopy eyed so I thought that I would stop for a little bit.  I grabbed my PM dose of vitamins and an Rx or two thrown in to keep my doctor in good spirits.  I FORGOT that I had also dropped an Excedrin PM in the mix.  Sometimes after a good ride I get a little wired and even though I am worn out I can’t get to sleep and a PM helps some.

I lay on the bed, grabbed my phone to look over some Social Media, and before I knew what had happened I was SOUND asleep.  Not only that but I didn’t wake up until 8:02.  The sun was shining in the window and I couldn’t believe it.  I can’t think of the last time that I slept an entire night without waking up for…..something.  Not only that, but I slept way past my usual pre-6:00 wake time.

I jumped from the bed to get ready.  I had planned on leaving by 7:30 and here it was after 8:00.  YIKES!!!  It was then that I realized……………..that it was 8:02 at night and I had only slept for 2 hours.  Ok, you are probably sitting there thinking “where is the funny part” but I have to tell you that I was laughing hysterically.

I proceeded to do a normal night’s sleep and was up before 6:00 to finish my blog post.  I got ready and headed down to the breakfast room.  After the few days in Michigan where they were not doing the “free” breakfast due to covid it was nice to see they had one here.  That was until I tasted it.  The eggs were cold, the sausage over cooked, the biscuits were stale, the gravy was cold, and the coffee was bitter.  This made the Waffle House look like fine dining.  I ate VERY little.

I went to the room and gathered my stuff, turned in my key, and headed out.  Radar looked clean all the way to my next destination.  I was looking at getting to Commerce, GA where my cousin lives.  I have had such a successful trip seeing kids, grandkids, friends, and brothers from different mothers……it only made sense to top it all off seeing my cousin/buddy/friend in Georgia along with her husband and daughter.  We go WAY backs and although she is two years older than I am we became, in my opinion, the best of friends.  While I was in the jungles of Vietnam she was one of my most faithful correspondents.  I pointed the bike toward Georgia and away we went.

The hills of Southern Kentucky and Northern Tennessee along I-75 were very foggy.  I found it very useful to get behind a truck and use it as my guide and my cruise control.  I hoped that he (or she) could see better than I could.  I’ll never know how good their sight was but we made it to Knoxville without a scratch.  I got my first fill-up a bit south of Knoxville.  Since I had a rather iffy breakfast at the hotel I showered myself in the luxury of a can of Starbucks coffee, Twinkies, an apple pie, and a banana.  Something tells me that it is a good thing that I have a couple months after this trip before I have to have my bloodwork done for my next doctor’s appointment.

My next stop was a bit north of Atlanta.  I wanted to time this fill-up to insure that I wouldn’t need another one before I reached Commerce, GA.  While I was sitting there filling out my journal a trucker came up and asked if that was my bike.  I told him it was……unless it pissed him off.  In that case it belonged to someone who just went in the store.  His name was Dave and we talked for a bit about his riding from Florida to Minnesota on occasion and that he was thinking of Northern Michigan as a place for retirement when he got done driving…..which he hoped was soon.  I told him that when it came to retirement, I recommend it highly and the sooner he could do it the more highly was my recommendation.

Then it was back on I-75 heading for Atlanta.  I was going to share with you the entire experience of getting from I-75 to I-285 to I-85…….however, I intend to keep this blog family friendly meaning that I cannot describe to you my experience honestly!!!  I have many experiences riding through Marietta and Atlanta.  My most memorable one was when I was riding through and a HUGE thunderstorm popped up.  I’m not talking about a bit of lightning and some thunder.  I am talking about the flashing and banging happening at the same instant and the rain falling so hard it was impossible to see.  I stopped under an overpass right by the I-75/I-285 interchange and was sitting on the metal guardrail with my feet sitting in ankle deep rushing water.  All of a sudden…..FLASH----BOOOOOOM and I was thrown off that guardrail.  I didn’t have any burns and nothing was smoking but you can bet your sweet bootie that I didn’t sit on that guardrail any longer.

I survived the traffic of I-75 to I-285 to I-85 but it was about a thousand degrees out there (give or take) and I lost about 100 pounds of water.  I kept all my pounds of Twinkies and apple pies…….but the water was gone.  I was signing the rate/check-in sheet at the hotel and dripped sweat all over it.  I will say this, however, the traffic on I-85 going into Atlanta (the opposite way I was going) was WAY worse than what I was going through.  I am afraid that had I been on that side of the expressway I would have had to tell you what it was like……family friendly or not.

I got in the room with the air conditioning and all of a sudden I was freezing….sheesh!  I cooled down and decided to walk to the Sonic next door for a couple chili dogs……….yum, I get goose bumps just thinking of it (or maybe that is the air conditioning on my sweaty shirt).  I walked over and……WHAT…..they were only doing drive thru.  Darn, will the disappointments ever end?  So, I walked next door to the Sonic to the Burger King and got me a Double Whopper meal.  Life was good again.

That was it for today.  It is almost 6:00 so if I hurry I can get to sleep and wake up in two hours and think it is tomorrow.

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.