I arose early this morning, first loading the bike, then eating breakfast. I thumped out of Nashville about 1 hour before sunrise, in what felt like the coolest day of the trip, but I don't think it actually was. Maybe I'm just turning into a wimp or something, but I'm sure glad I had my heated coat on this trip. I don't think there was a morning I didn't use it. I arrived home Sunday evening about 7:00 p.m., after a 763 mile day. In order to cover this many miles in this time period, I basically rode 250 miles on each tank of gas, stopped and fueled, then rode another 250 miles. I just kept doing this until I was home. I did have a snack at one of my gas stops, just to keep me going, but it really wasn't a bad day.
Just to recap the trip....................The first day I rode to Batesville, Arkansas for a total of 505 miles.
On day #2 I rode to Birmingham, Alabama to the Barber Museum, then on to Gadsden, Al., for a total of 488 miles. One hundred of these miles I was lost!!!!!
Day #3 I rode to Dawsonville, GA., then on to Franklin, NC. for a total of 285 miles
Day #4 I rode the roads in the area including Deals Gap, which I rode 3 times, for a total of 324 miles.
Day #5 I rode to Pickens for the Thumper Cafe, then rode the southern half of the Blue Ridge Parkway. I finished off the day by riding to Nashville, TN. for the night, for a total of 450 miles.
Day #6, the last day, I rode home from Nashville for a total of 763 miles.
I rode in a total of 10 states, including Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Illinois, and Kentucky, for a total of 2815 miles, and not a drop of rain fell the entire week. Other than the fog several mornings, the weather couldn't have been any more perfect. Fuel prices were anywhere from $2.99 a gallon in the Kansas City area to $4.09 in North & South Carolina. We had several instances where the stations had no fuel to sell, or limited the number of gallons you could buy. The fuel was all close to $4.00 a gallon in all the eastern states I rode in, which was kind of hard to take when it's almost under $3.00 a gallon here at home.
Once again, I'm glad to have met some new faces and also some familiar faces. That's one of the things that make these events so much fun.
Hope to see all of you next year, at one of the Thumper Cafe's.
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