| |
Friday July 26, 2013
All the fishermen were gone this morning when we packed the bikes. We got an early start as usual and it promised to be a great riding day. We were hoping to get to Macon, GA after meeting Erby for lunch.
The first part of the day was smooth sailing. The closer we got to
Chattanooga the thicker the traffic got, but still moving along nicely. We made it through town and then made a 4 mile detour to meet Erby. He bought us burgers at Logan's
Roadhouse. Pretty good food and prompt service.
Back on the road toward Atlanta. We should be in good time to miss Friday afternoon rush hour. We hit Atlanta at around 2:30 and traffic was heavy but moving. HOV lanes are OK for bikes in Atlanta. In the middle of downtown we ran into rain. Always fun in heavy traffic Atlanta. The rain only lasted 5 or 10 minutes, but it was enough to get us soaked. As we moved south, all of a sudden traffic came to a grinding halt. Then it started to rain again. We were in the inside lane but decided to make a break for the exit ramp just to our right. We weaved through the mostly immobile traffic and parked at the first covered area we could find. We were soaked. The BP station that we stopped at had problems of their own. The roof was leaking like a screen door inside.
We decided to try to find a parallel secondary road to get us South past the Interstate tie-up. We got 2 more exits down and tried the highway again. It was still almost at a standstill. It was starting to get late so we pulled off to get a room. The place we stopped at only had single King rooms and called the place across the street for us with the same results. Another trek down unknown back roads. Heavy traffic on these too, everyone trying to beat the interstate back-up. We finally found a Holiday Inn Express with a Chik-fil-a next door. Nice room, even has a sofa in a sitting area.
Long day. We rode 224 miles this morning in 3 1/2 hours averaging 60 mph and this afternoon rode 143 miles in 4 3/4 hours averaging 30 mph, plus we got soaked. Oh well, just part of month long motorcycle trip.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Copyright (C) 2004-2013, Larry Manka. all rights reserved.
|
|
