Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Day 4 (8-9-09)

Sunday: Time to head on home. I slept in a bit that morning, maybe an extra 30 minutes or so and then went through my normal morning routine. I drug my feet a bit slower that morning trying to avoid the fact I had to begin packing to head home. This area was just nice and I felt like I didn’t spend enough time enjoying it. However, I needed to get on my way as I had plans for later that evening.

Once my bags were packed and ready to be secured to the bike I picked up my tank bag along with my iPod and charger to take on down to the bike. I wanted to get a good charge on it before I headed out. I stuck my hand my pockets to make sure I had my bike key, but it wasn’t there. I panicked, fearing that I had left the key in the bike last night when I was talking with some of the guys after my evening loop. I hurried out the door to make sure the bike was still there and to my relief it was, however the key was not in the ignition. But there was a note…

Photobucket


I am still not sure who left it and I have managed to start a mystery case on the forums about it. All in good fun of course, as it was a pretty good joke. My bike key turned out to be in my jacket pocket for some reason… so a sigh of relief there.

I went back inside after hooking up my iPod to the charger and went into the restaurant for breakfast. Mike and Joanna were sitting there talking with Claye about various destinations. Grizz suggested I talk to Claye about the note as she was apparently being quite the prankster this weekend. She denies any involvement with it but she also had a very suspicious grin as well.

I ate my breakfast and said my goodbyes to those that were in the restaurant and went back to my room to grab the rest of my luggage and to look over the map to find a route home that avoided the toll booth. Fortunately Hwy 19 runs along side of Hwy 77, it looked to be a fun road and it got me around the $2.00 toll. From there it was 77 to 52 and home. It was roughly 200 miles to get from the house to Beckley with a couple detours on the way up. So I figured if I went straight home by coming down the mountain I could probably get this done on one tank of gas. This would be a great time to do some Iron Butt training!

So that’s what I did. I topped off the tank and headed down 3 to 19 into Bluefield and then on down the big road to the house. I got a neat picture going through one of the tunnels on the way down. But other than that it was rather un-eventful. I made it home in 3 hours rolling slightly over 200 miles when pulling into the basement and I did this with out a stop. I wasn’t sore and I really wasn’t ready to get off the bike, other than it being hot. That definitely boosted my confidence that I am ready to complete a SS1000 soon.


Photobucket


This past weekend had been extremely fun and packed full of smiles. I saw a lot of neat places and spent some time on several amazing roads through what I now consider one of most breath taking states in America. While I had been through WV before this trip, it was a completely different experience being on a motorcycle. I am ready to go back next weekend

No comments: