I love it when a day starts out with laughter and then it lasts all day!  There are a number of things that really amuse me at breakfast.  First, while gathering breakfast in the hotel, a female voice suddenly comes from the shorts pocket of the man in front of me: “in 500 feet turn left onto Brooks Drive.”  He quickly reaches into his pocket to silence this voice!  He walks over to the coffee and the voice gives him another command:  “…turn left onto 4^th Street.”   Again, he reaches in to silence the voice.  I silently chuckle to myself!  Second, I survey the options and decide on eggs, though as I reach for them, I really wonder if these are real or rubber.  They king of look real and then kind of not.  I flip them over, before tasting and think they must be real, just cooked in some odd fashion.  Then I taste them and let me tell you they don’t taste real.  

Okay this is a big day, trying to make up for yesterday’s break down and lost time.  By the end of the day we have logged 772 miles.  As we hit the road, I try not to think about the numbers or the Friday traffic that I know we’ll hit more than once; instead I just focus on the sights.

In Illinois, the corn fields are filling in nicely and as we get further south, I see a few more ponds and lakes.  We cross into Kentucky and there are even more lakes and rivers and now we’re getting into some familiar territory.   We roll through an area called Land Between the Lakes, where we vacationed 2 years ago with Sandy & Tim, Cathy & Mark and Jill, Robert and their daughter Leah.  Super fun memories and at least today it’s not as hot as it was then, 88 right now versus 105 two summers ago.

Next, we cross into Tennessee and it’s getting hotter and hotter.  A smile grows on my face, as we pass a water-skier on a small lake.  Not only do I miss waterskiing every weekend as we did when we lived in Arkansas, but I love the fact that it’s barely mid-day and they’re already out enjoying the water!

This perma-grin stays on my face, as we pass a rest area.  The parking lot is full of cars and commercial trucks.  And right there in the ‘rough’ – in the ditch between the parking lot and the highway, a man is chipping golf balls.  He had dozens of balls out there, just working on his game.  I imagine he’s a long haul trucker, working on his game during down time.  Why not?

Now it’s lunch time and we’re approaching Chattanooga and already I can see that the traffic is totally backed up, nothing but brake lights before us!  It’s 100 degrees and all previous smiles from the day are now gone from my face as I think about working the clutch and sitting on the bike in this heat.  Just then, Terron exits the highway we’re on.  We reach the stop sign at the end of it and he says okay, Google Maps says we can skip that traffic and save an hour by going the back roads.  I’m all for it!

We turn onto the Lookout Mountain Parkway and that smile returns!  This is a wonderful highway!  It’s winding and full of curves and hills and it’s completely tree-lined!  Towering trees, covered in huge broad-leafed ivy provides some shade!   This is not a straight shot and it seems a little convoluted, but I see that every turn we take, follows the same man in front of us; a local who I believe, already knows this short cut.  It’s also very entertaining, since at every stop sign, he turns to kiss his dog.  I can see this must happen all the time, since the dog actually expects the nuzzling, turning to get that smooth over and over.

After an hour or more, well on the other side of Chattanooga, we re-connect with the highway; not a single bit of traffic!  But I know that Atlanta is next and we’ll be hitting it right at rush hour.  Terron’s colleagues at work here in Alpharetta have been texting and emailing him all week, on ways to avoid the traffic.  Thanks guys!  We barely got stuck in any of it, mostly just through construction zones.

We’re now cruising through Georgia and man, this is a long state.  Where’s Florida?  We pull off for gas and while we’re grabbing some water and a snack, a bee stings Terron in the eyebrow!  The bugs of all kinds that we’ve encountered so far are amazing and we’re not even down into the Everglades yet!

Or the next gas stop!  We pull off for another fill up and then while I’m sitting in the parking lot on my bike and Terron’s inside buying ice and cold drinks to cool off, i meet some of the locals!  One man walks out of the store and says, “Man those are big bikes!  Those are really big bikes!”  I chat with him about our ST1300s and the larger Gold Wing and then he wishes us a safe trip.  Then a young woman with her daughter on a little bicycle comes by and smiles at me and says, “I love seeing a woman on a bike.  You go girl!”  Thanks!  Terron comes outside and says, “What’s that noise?  Are those bugs?”  I listen and agree that they are indeed bugs.  Sounds like locusts.  I check the map and guess where we are?  In Locust Grove!

Terron checks radar and then proclaims, “We’re going to get wet again!”  We start down the road and sure enough, just after it gets dark, the lightning is streaking across the sky in front of us.  Then the rain hits.  At first, it’s no different than Seattle rain; a light mist and drizzle.  But then it starts raining, not nearly as hard as we encountered a few days ago but it’s raining.  I am soaked again!  But at least I’m not melting anymore.  The storm took the temperature from 98 down to 75!

This steady rain is no big deal to us, but for some reason this phenomena of rain mystifies and scares the drivers around us, as if they’ve never encountered a storm before.  They put their hazards on, jam on their brakes and pull over left and right on the side of the road, stopping to let the storm pass!  Seriously, it’s just water!  Let’s look at those average rainfall totals:  49” in Atlanta versus 37” Seattle each year, they don’t know seem to know how to drive when it hits!

From Terron’s GoPro:  Lightning Video

We survive the storm, wet, but otherwise unscathed and by the time we hit the Florida line, it’s no longer raining.  I can now see palm trees!  We’ve finally hit our 5^th and final state for today!

We hit our hotel in Gainesville after 13 hours of riding; 772 miles, through 5 states!   So, here’s my state by state assessment of drivers:

Illinois = average drivers (of course this is my home state, but really nobody did anything great or offensive to me on the road today!)

Kentucky = very polite; drivers never camp in the left lane, only move there to pass! Thank you!

Tennessee = also polite but here, drivers go much faster than in Kentucky.  And it was rather disturbing to read the giant signs over the highway that repeatedly told me that 53 motorcyclists have already died this year in TN!  The signs repeat that very disturbing stat and tell all drivers to look twice for motorcycles. Thank you!

Georgia = obnoxious.  I’m sorry (I’m sure my friends in Georgia are in the minority and NOT in this category) but overall, Georgia drivers SPEED, run up on your tail and camp out in the left lane, when it’s sunny out and just don’t know what to do when it’s raining!

Florida = fast, yet polite!

And as I get off the bike and start gearing down at the hotel, I realize that when I pushed up my jacket sleeves earlier in the day, I gave myself quite the tan lines!  The space of skin exposed between my gloves and jacket is now burnt!  Ooops.  I’ll remember sunscreen tomorrow!