Joel Perlish; USA/MEXICO/CANADA DOUBLE CROSS COUNTRY & THE TRANSCANADA HIGHWAY -- OR BUST - SUMMER 2008 by Joel Perlish

Joel Perlish; USA/MEXICO/CANADA DOUBLE CROSS COUNTRY & THE TRANSCANADA HIGHWAY -- OR BUST - SUMMER 2008 by Joel Perlish

July 5, 2008 - Saturday - Day 5
USA/MEXICO/CANADA
DOUBLE CROSS COUNTRY
& THE TRANSCANADA HIGHWAY
-- OR BUST - SUMMER 2008
Miles Today - 283 - Total Miles - 996 Average Daily Miles - 249
Athens,GA - to Ashburn,GA
Routes S441, S129, I-75S)
(-staying at a Best Western motel-)
(GA)
- A GOOD RUN, A DOUSING, AN EARLY NIGHT -

Awoke around 7ish and immediately began working on yesterday's journal notes. It was a great night's sleep on a terrifically comfy single bed - a while since being on one of those!

Around ten Janet and I went for a mile run/walk. It was great chatting, and I even got to recite Frost's 'Stopping by Woods On A Snowy Evening' while we moved along - inspired by all the trees along the wooded dead end way. It was hilly, and we got a fairly good workout. It was good being with a family member - especially so far from home. It was warming seeing my grandmom's artwork on the walls. And I especially enjoyed the photograph of Roy's dad - rancher-earned lines etched deeply in a face of character.

Janet prepared a good breakfast for me, and Roy was helpful with directions to the big highway. But then he said he was going out anyway, and I could follow him.
I was packed up and out by the bike by around 11ish. Janet got a picture of thumbs-up me and the motorcycle, and I then felt honored being escorted by Roy out of the development.

At the gas station outside of Athens I had someone take a picture of me with a big round bale of hay that was being transported. Not a sight seen every day in the western Philadelphia 'burbs. Another fellow there said to me after hearing about the trip, “Have fun and be careful, especially in Mexico.” I replied that everywhere I'm careful first, and THEN have fun…

For the whole morning it was two-lane road, not the big zooming interstates. I was going to stop in through Madison, but missed the turn. It was one of the few towns spared in the civil war and so the homes of the period would have been wonderful to see.

I did stop at the Uncle Remus Museum though. It was mainly a really little log cabin with a
friendly lady named Georgia as 'guide'. She chatted on and on, and I didn't feel like I could leave and interrupt her spiel. It was only me and two older ladies who happened to be there. There were some artifacts from the time period in the cabin. Although the sign, for whatever reason, read “No Photography Allowed”, I snuck a couple pictures. Anyway, I mainly stopped because I felt an affinity with the author - Joel Chandler Harris. Now THAT was a guy who knew how to write about critters!!! There is nothing like that Brer Rabbit guy!!!

Before hopping on the big highway outside of Macon, I stopped into a Radio Shack in pursuit of a little battery charger. I young guy named Clay tried to help find one but to no avail. He asked, as a bunch of people do, if I had ever been to Sturgis (one of the biggest yearly motorcycle gatherings in the country. ( For those who don't know: The Jackpine Gypsies Motorcycle Club started in 1936, with an official American Motorcycle Association (AMA) charter in 1937. AMA began promoting the racing events; which started the now famous Rally in Sturgis on August 14, 1938. That weekend celebration in 1938 had a lineup of only nine racers and a small audience watching the races. Last year more than 500,000(!) motorcyclists descended on the South Dakota town!!!) I mentioned that a few years ago I was there two weeks before the big rally, and was told by one and all that it was a GOOD thing I wasn't there during the rally as it was so crowded one could hardly move!!! Clay replied, however, that he had been to one of the rallies and that it was well worth it!!!!

Clay was looking forward to leaving Radio Shack and becoming a motorcycle policeman with a local force.

Mike Lyons is a fellow I “knew” from an on-line motorcycle group. When he had realized I would be coming his Georgian way he contacted me. I suggested we meet for lunch. I got to the Waffle House rendezvous point off the I-75 exit 176 around 3ish. I also got to meet one of Mike's sons, Kevin. A big guy with a bushy beard, Mike had a strong handshake and a friendly manner. Of a similar age, we talked about motorcycles and about how the world had changed since we began riding. We both have a similar history of riding - a long gap in years and then the both of us having begun again about 4 or 5 years ago.

As we sat in the Waffle House, the sky that had been darkening on the ride to meet Mike, now shredded apart in spasms of falling rain. Buckets fell in an instant, and the deluge lasted the better part of an hour, dousing our bikes in the parking lot…

We chatted while the rain fell, and finally it let up pretty much all the way. So we uncurled ourselves from the booth, dried off the bikes, and rolled the little way over to the gas station next door. After a little problem with one of the pumps, we filled up. Mike not only picked up the tab for the lunch, but also as he had promised, for the gas!!! It was a remarkably friendly thing to do, and it was most appreciated. I told him if he ever visited the Philly area he'd have a place to stay.

Heading due south on I-75 again around 4pm, I noted the skies were now grey to dark with roiling clouds. Shortly the spattering began - and then a semi-deluge. It was cool-to-cold riding that rain, but no real problem at all.

But as evening came on it got darker. I might still have continued on toward the light gray of the horizon because I had wanted to get in at least 200 miles - but I considered the following: it was a weekend (when motels fill up faster and more drunks are on the road), and it was a holiday weekend to boot. So I pulled off shy of 200 miles in a town called Ashburn, and elected to stop at the Best Western.

Behind the counter was a craggy, but friendly lady with a number of missing teeth. Eventually, after a little wheedling on my part, she let me keep the bike under the motel entrance overhang. After checking in, and pulling most of the gear up to the room, I went back and gave the Nomad a good wiping down and drying off. As I brought back the shininess, thunder banged and rolled overhead. The rain continued a bit but then eventually sputtered out to mere drips. An hour later I walked under clearing skies to the nearby Pizza Hut, and scarfed down delicious fixings from their salad bar and a personal pan with tomato sauce and mushrooms.

In the motel room I caught the end of a Cardinal game on the computer - they won in exciting fashion in the bottom of the ninth! It was a great end to the game. (For those who don't know, I only follow one team in all of sports, the St. Louis Cardinals.)

I then began work on the journal and went to bed relatively early.

(TOMORROW: A PLANNED HUGE MILEAGE DAY INTO FLORIDA!)

Corrections: Note that yesterday I wrote I looked at the odometer while checking speed. An odometer actually charts the miles - while a speedometer is what gives the speed reading. Thanks to eagle-eyed Karen and Bob for pointing that out.

Also note that yesterday I was getting ahead of myself on the total mileage. It should have been 813, not 1,000-something. I caught that one!

Note:
(To view many of the photos associated with the trip, check out
http://www.photostockplus.com/home.php?tmpl=45&user_id=42473&event=196141. Some folks have reported trouble with this link, but most find that it works. Sometimes it takes two tries… Also, you can check out the past day's journal entries by going to joelperlish.com, and clicking on the appropriate trip on the left hand corner.)