Most of you know I did a little week trip to Fla back in Oct. , man has it been this long ?
This was neither long planned nor well thought out the BIL's wife passed away after a long bout with throat cancer and I couldn't make it down for the funeral so I went down the following week. Just to hang with him and catch up and just let him be himself without a whole crowd of people around, after all I half raised him ,he stayed with me from the time he was old enough to drive until he got married.
The trip was supposed to start Monday at 5 AM from here and head south. Well, the man in charge of such stuff as the weather decided that about 3 AM we needed a good down pour until late that afternoon, leaving a day later looked like the smart plan. So I checked out the weather Radar model for the next AM. I will interject here, that when it says model that's just a swag be cause it was showing more of the same until midnight Monday and then clearing off. Up at 4 AM next morning and loaded my bags on the bike with all my normal gear. I threw on the crash bar chaps since I was expecting the road to be wet and those things keep the wind and road spry off your lower legs. It was damp and about 56 degrees so I put on the under armor sweats and a pair of goretex over pants and the trusty old leather Bomber Jacket on mounted my phone on the bars after I had mapped my route to Asheville NC. put my helmet on and got the bluetooth synced up with the Phone. I was about to back out of the shed and turn on the tunes but wait , do I hear something? Why yes I do, pulled of the lid and listened , I hear rain on the metal roof as Ruger would say "Blast".
By this time I was convinced it was a stray shower that would let up shortly. Wrong! It got heavier and heavier. I have a personal rule, I don't leave home in the rain, in the dark. I may have to come home under those conditions (more on this later) but I don't leave here in said conditions. So I trudged back in the house and sat there pouting still in full gear with front door open listening to it rain, got too warm with my clothes on so I stripped back down partially and decide to brew up another pot of coffee
I turned on the tube and drank coffee and watched the local early morning news with a particular interest in the weather forecast. I don't know why , by this time I had decided that weather prognosticators will lie to you at least as often as a farrier( Google it if you don't know what a farrier is , if you do know what one is you understand). Said pot of Costa Rican Rainforest blend Shuffle Bean coffee was gone and I sense the rain is letting up. I brewed another one and filled my Thermos to go. It didn't quite hold it all so drank what was left too, did another check through the house to make sure everything was tuned off and locked up, I guess your wondering why I am saying so much about my coffee consumption this particular morning, There is a reason, it had a lot of bearing on the first leg of this journey.
Hey, the rain has stopped and the liars on WYMT say it's gone for the day, geared back up, locked up rolled out of the shed and fired the beast up.. I am off!! But it is 8:30 by now and daylight is burning. The roads are still wet with some ponding on the road surface. I take it easy out of the twisty 4 miles of road I live on and hit the 4 lane towards Pikeville KY , didn't make it 20 miles and between being so jacked up on Caffeine and tar snakes on one particular road, I was so nervous that my insides felt like they were vibrating and my eyeballs were floating so I stopped and drained at least 4 gallons of fluids from my body. While I was stopped,went ahead and topped off hoping to make it to VA for the next fuel stop. well that worked out but I had to stop in Pikeville any way for some more drainage, I know drinking that much coffee before a trip is a rookie mistake. Any way the trip so far had been uneventful and I had guessed right on the amount of clothing as I was dry and warm even with the amount of road spray from the large trucks and the tar snakes making the bike feel squirrely. Rode down US 23 and made a fuel stop in Norton VA and then in Johnson City TN hit some more light rain briefly and rode on into NC On four lane I 81, I think? I was cruising along snug as a bug but I forgot about those mountains heading into Asheville . it got a bit chilly getting on into Asheville where I stopped for a snack and some more gas ,coffee and a cigar. While sitting on a picnic table in the fair city. I had a conversation with an older dude and found out that the city was at one time built around the sanitarium business ,where all the folks with TB and the money sent their loved one to live in the pure mountain air. According to my new friend The Biltmore Estate was to come later
That's enough for now and I'll try to pick up where I left off soon , if any one is interested, Later.
This was neither long planned nor well thought out the BIL's wife passed away after a long bout with throat cancer and I couldn't make it down for the funeral so I went down the following week. Just to hang with him and catch up and just let him be himself without a whole crowd of people around, after all I half raised him ,he stayed with me from the time he was old enough to drive until he got married.
The trip was supposed to start Monday at 5 AM from here and head south. Well, the man in charge of such stuff as the weather decided that about 3 AM we needed a good down pour until late that afternoon, leaving a day later looked like the smart plan. So I checked out the weather Radar model for the next AM. I will interject here, that when it says model that's just a swag be cause it was showing more of the same until midnight Monday and then clearing off. Up at 4 AM next morning and loaded my bags on the bike with all my normal gear. I threw on the crash bar chaps since I was expecting the road to be wet and those things keep the wind and road spry off your lower legs. It was damp and about 56 degrees so I put on the under armor sweats and a pair of goretex over pants and the trusty old leather Bomber Jacket on mounted my phone on the bars after I had mapped my route to Asheville NC. put my helmet on and got the bluetooth synced up with the Phone. I was about to back out of the shed and turn on the tunes but wait , do I hear something? Why yes I do, pulled of the lid and listened , I hear rain on the metal roof as Ruger would say "Blast".
By this time I was convinced it was a stray shower that would let up shortly. Wrong! It got heavier and heavier. I have a personal rule, I don't leave home in the rain, in the dark. I may have to come home under those conditions (more on this later) but I don't leave here in said conditions. So I trudged back in the house and sat there pouting still in full gear with front door open listening to it rain, got too warm with my clothes on so I stripped back down partially and decide to brew up another pot of coffee
I turned on the tube and drank coffee and watched the local early morning news with a particular interest in the weather forecast. I don't know why , by this time I had decided that weather prognosticators will lie to you at least as often as a farrier( Google it if you don't know what a farrier is , if you do know what one is you understand). Said pot of Costa Rican Rainforest blend Shuffle Bean coffee was gone and I sense the rain is letting up. I brewed another one and filled my Thermos to go. It didn't quite hold it all so drank what was left too, did another check through the house to make sure everything was tuned off and locked up, I guess your wondering why I am saying so much about my coffee consumption this particular morning, There is a reason, it had a lot of bearing on the first leg of this journey.
Hey, the rain has stopped and the liars on WYMT say it's gone for the day, geared back up, locked up rolled out of the shed and fired the beast up.. I am off!! But it is 8:30 by now and daylight is burning. The roads are still wet with some ponding on the road surface. I take it easy out of the twisty 4 miles of road I live on and hit the 4 lane towards Pikeville KY , didn't make it 20 miles and between being so jacked up on Caffeine and tar snakes on one particular road, I was so nervous that my insides felt like they were vibrating and my eyeballs were floating so I stopped and drained at least 4 gallons of fluids from my body. While I was stopped,went ahead and topped off hoping to make it to VA for the next fuel stop. well that worked out but I had to stop in Pikeville any way for some more drainage, I know drinking that much coffee before a trip is a rookie mistake. Any way the trip so far had been uneventful and I had guessed right on the amount of clothing as I was dry and warm even with the amount of road spray from the large trucks and the tar snakes making the bike feel squirrely. Rode down US 23 and made a fuel stop in Norton VA and then in Johnson City TN hit some more light rain briefly and rode on into NC On four lane I 81, I think? I was cruising along snug as a bug but I forgot about those mountains heading into Asheville . it got a bit chilly getting on into Asheville where I stopped for a snack and some more gas ,coffee and a cigar. While sitting on a picnic table in the fair city. I had a conversation with an older dude and found out that the city was at one time built around the sanitarium business ,where all the folks with TB and the money sent their loved one to live in the pure mountain air. According to my new friend The Biltmore Estate was to come later
That's enough for now and I'll try to pick up where I left off soon , if any one is interested, Later.