One of those days when you seem to run faster but get nowhere. In my case, riding all day, a lot of miles, but seemed no nearer to my destination, Ellicott City MD at the end of it.
Glad to leave the Econo Lodge in Macon. What dump, just falling apart. Switches are broken, my shower didn’t work so I used the one next door, dirty, a real mess. It needs a huge amount of maintenance. Never stay there is my recommendation.
Leaving Macon, the weather was quite humid, and overcast. I eventually hit I85 and headed north towards Charlotte. I was surprised how much traffic there was heading my way. I hadn’t seen this much since a couple of rush hours a while back, made worse by the rigs all vying for the outside lane on a two lane freeway. So go with the flow. It thinned out quite a lot after Charlotte, and the sky eventually cleared to become a hot sunny day with little or no humidity.
One interesting sight in Georgia, was the largest Confederate flag you’ll ever see, on a huge tall flagpole, on private property. Talk about a finger salute.
Many bikes were going my way, so there must have been a weekend rally somewhere nearby. I had planned to head up I77 towards the Blue Ridge and I81, but began to have my doubts about how long it would take. As I had originally planned to spend a couple of days with my long time friends in Ellicott City starting next Monday, I had mapped a Blue Ridge Parkway route to take care of the time. However, their plans changed so my visit was bought forward. Realistically the Parkway was a no go due to the time it would have taken. My decision of yesterday would have been better if I had used I10 to join up with I95 after the oil change. But that was yesterday, and history. So I enetered North Carolina.
The actual journey was a long ride on a sunny day. Not a lot of scenery, a few large lakes. North Carolina State Patrol was very much in attendance, but the road was fairly quiet for traffic. I did see a few large RVs, complete with Harley Ultras on a rear carrier. Also it would seem that the center console boat is a must have for Florida and the south. They are everywhere. I saw one yesterday, about 34 feet, with 2x350Yamahas on the back. Now that is a lot of power for a boat.
The only hold up was a phantom road works, where the northbound side was reduced to one lane and the construction workers had not cleared the barriers away. That caused a long backup.
Once we joined I95 it was through Richmond, and then on towards Washington, bedding in Fredericksburg.
. So tomorrow AM, I will visit with my old friends for the weekend, and my partner gets a rest for a couple of days. As the saying goes, “we will be back”. See you in a couple of days on the final part of the four corners ride.
So have a good weekend yourselves.
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