Western Corners - Part I

Hello Friends! Thank you for your patience (I will be asking for more after this post). I am still working through some major upheavals in my daily routine. I haven't slipped into a groove yet and it is throwing everything off! But I do have the start of the adventure written down and would love to share it if you would enjoy reading it. To commence:

I needed to spend some time clearing my heart and soul. What better way than on the bike. Unfortunately my last two weeks of stress prevented me from even thinking about the how, when or where. So the time crept up too quickly and I hadn't made any decisions.

I did know that my tires were not up to the task at all. I had ordered the Michelin Pilot Road 3's two weeks ago.  But I hadn't been notified of their arrival.  Since my shop isn't open on Sunday or Monday I was having a difficult time with the whole "wait" process.  I contacted another shop that was open Monday to find out that the tires are still on back order everywhere.  I wasn't going anywhere if I couldn't get new tires.

Tuesday morning rolls around.  I contact my shop and after a couple misunderstandings they have a set of tires for me.  And they actually were the Michelin's!  Makes me happy since I don't have to make the decision of going for another set of the ones I have on.  Or not going on my trip.  It takes about 20 minutes to remove the rims from the bike and I hightail it to the shop for the swap.

 

Reinstall goes quickly.  The bike is checked over and it appears as if it is ready.  I really have some catching up to do!!  I am no where near that state.

I still don't have a clear idea of where to go.  The Blue Ridge Parkway is alluring.  Nice, slow, relaxing ride with wonderful vistas.  It even crosses my mind that I could meet Riepe and Stiffie since I won't be able to attend the BMWMOA rally in July.

A look at the weather shows that rain may be coming into the area on Friday and stay for the weekend.  However, if I head south the rain chance still exists on Friday, but the weekend has a  better chance of being clear.

But where do I go if I head south???

I guess I could finish my 5 corners trip.  Yea.  I would love to have done them all in one trip, but I don't really have to.  That seems like too much time pushing it.  Now, Georgia is shaped a little strangely and I personally feel it requires 5 points to say you have hit the "corners" of the state.

Mr. Oilburner and I had ridden to the Northeast one.  There are some great roads around there.  As well as the fun of the Eastern Continental Divide.  And it was then that I realized that I had visited two other corners without Oilburner?!?!  Two Thanksgivings ago I had gone to Savannah and St. Mary's.  You know, when I chickened out of going to the Southwest corner?  :)

I am excited to be going on a road trip.  This will be my second solo, long distance, multi-day trip.  I was planning on camping last time.  So I am a little nervous this time around on how to get hotel rooms, as I will not be camping.  I guess I will have to wing it.  Should I stay in big or little cities? Should I stay at a large chain hotel or some little motel? What is safe it you don't know the town?  So many questions and so little experience.

All of this has me dragging my feet a little in packing.  Luckily Mr. Oilburner isn't feeling my butterflies because he is busily running around piling all my stuff together.  While I am just lollygagging around collecting stuff.

Sidebar: Does anyone use saddlebag liners?  We purchased the Cee Bailey liners awhile back at a great discount.  I used them for the first time on this trip and LOVE THEM!!  They made life so much easier taking just the liners into my room, not having to lug the hardcases.  And if it fit in the liners, the liners would fit in the bags.  Nice.

So all this time I am kinda sitting on the floor staring at my liners while Mr. Oilburner is fetching everything he thinks I will need and is piling it all around me.  Damn.  I am packing more stuff this time than I did when I had all of my camping gear! What is going on?

Then we begin discussing my top case.  My little Pelican will hold only my camera and my little tool case.  And if my saddlebags are full, that means I am carrying  my jacket and helmet wherever I go, or will have to lock them to the bike.  Mr. Oilburner offers his massively humongous 49L top case to the adventure.  Surprisingly I accept.  I figure that the only thing I really intend on carrying it it is the camera.  There won't be much weight in it to mess up the bikes center of gravity.  And it would give me lots of space to snug my helmet and jacket away if I want to go someplace.

SWEET!!

 Yeah.  It is quite huge, but really does come in handy.

---

Sorry Geoff...this was somehow deleted with the first rendition:

Geoff: Even after 850 miles I can't yet give an impression of the tires. I was experiencing some strange "skipping" and "wandering". And right now I can't be sure if it is a tire issue or a buffeting issue with that top box. I will let y know what I think of the tires when I can ride it again without the box.

---

Wednesday dawns with perfect blue skies clear of clouds.  It's a brisk and unexpected 46F (8C).  Oilburner gears up in his Gerbing's heated gear and I put on my armored pants when we gas up.  I'm still on the fence with direction of travel.  Figuring that I will ride to the two west side corners, I follow Oilburner part way to work towards downtown Atlanta.  Lucky me, I peel off towards I-75N just as traffic starts backing up (normal rush hour traffic).  I am forced to leave the carpool lane and delve into merging, and watch longingly as Oilburner remains and quickly pulls away from me.  Crackling headsets and staticy "Love You's" and "Have Fun" punctuate our parting.

I head north with a little trepidation and a lot of excitement.  A freeway clear of cars allows me to run at regular speed and the upper body is getting chilly.  I soon stop to put on my sweater and warm up.  An hour on the road and hunger starts creeping in.  I finally spot an IHOP at the next exit.  Been looking for that for quite a few miles.  :)  (Don't ask me why the helmet isn't in the top box.  I really couldn't tell you...)

Breakfast is a standard two eggs, two bacon, 2 pancakes.  It is small enough, but proves too much for the zipper on my armored pants.  I continue on down the road, but just don't like the feel of the open armor.  It's easier just to pull them off.  Its warmed up by now and I am exiting the freeway soon.  I won't have to worry about high wind chill.

My first corner will be the northwest one.  I originally intend on chickening out of really getting deep into the corner and visiting Cloudland Canyon State Park.  Tales of climbing and twisty roads, no guardrails and gravel has me nervous.  But dammit!  Get over it and live a little!  So I head up the canyon roads.  Turns out the back door roads up to the rim are very easy.  There aren't any overlooks, so no view pictures from the back roads.  But I think the images from Cloudland Canyon itself will suffice.  :)

I'm trying to slip into the spirit of the adventure and actually make a u-turn to snap an image outside of the Villanow general store.  I think I will start collecting my A-Z cities of Georgia.  "V" starts my list.

I believe it is being renovated.  (Duh Cupcake!!  Was it the scaffolding that gave it away?)  I heard some hammering inside, and probably would have been welcomed, but I decided not to enter.

I headed in the correct direction again and pulled over within 1/2 a mile to take these:

The colors are so vibrant!  Though I am depressed to realize again that power lines permeate our society.  It is difficult to take an image now-a-days in which they aren't present.  Oh well, continue on with my adventure...  A few more miles has me paying my $5 park entrance fee.  I still find it humorous to wonder just where we are supposed to put those little yellow parking tags on our bikes.  I mention this jokingly to the attendant and she nicely lets me know that the rangers that would check are not in today.  And if I do get a ticket, just leave it with her when I leave.  How very nice.  for now, without any open bags I just stuff the maps, pamphlets and pass down my jacket.  Hope it doesn't slip out!

I ride through all of the congested parking areas and wade through the throngs of people.  OK. Fine.  There are all of three cars parked.  I veer towards the restrooms...to discover the "outlying" ones are closed during the off-season to conserve water.

The top box immediately pays off by being able to shrug the jacket off and stuff everything into it.  And the bike looks so clean without stuff draped all over it.  I'm still hiking in my motorcycle boots, but I will have to figure that out another day.  Hey Bobskoot! Would you take off the boots and slip into the crocs?  Where do you stash the boots?

For some reason (blond) I don't even glance at the park map and I just hit the path.  The bright green leaves catch my eye:

So it won't come as a shock to any of you that I didn't have a clue what to do when presented with a fork in the path since I hadn't looked at the map, nor even thought to bring it along with me.  Sure, what the heck.  I will take this "path" down some rocks that seems official only because there isn't a barrier preventing me from going.

And I was rewarded with a great view.

I continued back up the path to the Nature Center...which was closed...

I made my way to another viewing area to see more waterfalls. A little difficult through all of this greenery!  LOL  I also noticed some people across the canyon at another viewing area.  Unfortunately "out of sight, out of mind" really applied in this case and I forgot to get over there.  What is our motto?  "Gotta save something for next time."  :)

Time to hit the road and figure out where I am going.

I had previously looked at the map and noticed little Hwy 100 closely followed the border south.  So plan one was to find 100.  I decided my first opportunity to head south in search was this Hwy 157 that I was coming up on.  Cool.  It took me a couple miles of riding down a curving, manicured path with a large swath of mown grass edging to trees to realize that I was on a plateau.  I finally noticed some houses on the left with a spectacular view of sky and valley far below.  The one area appearing to have an overlook was stuffed to capacity with one senior citizen bus and a mini-van.  And I'm have too much fun to stop.

Teaser for next installment:

You can scroll through the images here if you haven't watched the video yet. :)

Pictures From the Trip

Hi! I haven't even thought of how to start writing about my journey. Besides the fact that it was GREAT!! I had a great time, met some interesting people, saw some historical sites and visited the last two corners of my state.

But you can take a look at the pictures that I just posted, if you are interested.



You can also view the images on Flickr directly by clicking here.

It Is Official!!!

Yay me!!!

I had really been thinking of taking this time off and run the entire Blue Ridge Parkway.  The weather wasn't looking too good, with rain predicted Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  I wasn't willing to put up with that.  So I have completely my 5 corners trip for Georgia!

I'm currently sitting in an hotel room in Bainbridge, Georgia.  Yeah, not that exciting.  But my sense of accomplishment is great! 


View 4 corners in a larger map.  Hint: Zoom out by one please.

You can take a look at the Track Me map and verify that I have ridden the west border of Georgia today.  (The map won't be active for long with a seven day memory.  I will post up a better map soon.)

Thanks, all, for the encouraging words to get me out and keep me on the road!  It's been a fun trip.  :)

-Steel Cupcake

Baby's Got a New Pair of Shoes

Hi Everyone!  I apologize for being out of communication.  I'm smack dab in the middle of one of those "5 most stressful" times in my life.  Don't worry.  It's all good, just stressful.  But I suddenly find myself with almost a week off and wondering what to do with my time.  It isn't too hard to wonder just what I am going to do when Mr. Oilburner is pushing me out of the house to go for a nice, relaxing ride.

So I am.

However!  Baby's tires were a little lacking.  Mr. Oilburner ordered a set of the Michelin Pilot Road 3's.  The tires that he covets for his bike, but weren't available when he needed replacements.  He hates how the front tire is wearing on my bike with the RoadSmart 2's.  So upgrade it is.

All shoed up now and ready to go.  Now just need to decide where the adventure is going to take me.  :)

I might try to write from the road.  But I might also use the time to de-stress and relax.  I hope your weekends will prove fruitful and thoroughly enjoyable!  Thank you for bearing with my absence.

-Steel Cupcake

Trading Spaces

Have you ever experienced one of those perfect spring days when the weather will reach a soul warming 80F (27C), the sky will be the perfect shade of deep blue with high, billowy clouds that are pushed on their way with a breeze that just kisses your skin?  Yeah.  That was Saturday.

Is it blasphemous to the motorbike guardians to actually not hop on the bikes?  I hope not.  The day was perfect.  But is just didn't feel like the day to go anyplace.  We stayed home, did some yard work and lazed around in the sun.  I did try to appease the sun angels by using their handiwork and baking some apple pies for a party on Sunday.

My first time making apple pies.  What do ya think?  They were very, very good...

Sunday was an entirely different story with low clouds and temperatures hovering around 55F (13C).  The BMW Club meeting and monthly ride was scheduled.  Given that we haven't attended a meeting OR a ride with the club in the year and a half that we have been members we felt maybe we should go.

If that were the entire reason, we could easily have made some excuse to ourselves not to go.  However, the annual club rally is next month.  And the meeting location was the rally spot.  And we just wanted to remind the powers that be that we still have the club trailer in our back yard.  It isn't likely to turn into an "outta sight, outta mind" type of thing, but we wanted to be sure.

How did we wind up with the club trailer?  Well...the trailer was stolen a couple months ago.  It wasn't in a very secure facility, and even with a hitch lock the thieves pulled right up, hooked on and drove away.  There was good video of the theft.  But not good enough to identify the vehicle or the perpetrators.  So they purchased another and are restocking it.  We are centrally located to most of the members that would be involved in the restocking.  So we offered the storage space until the rally.  See?  We can be nice.  :)

Our decision to ride wasn't hindered by the fact that the ride was going through some of the mountain twisties too.  I was game, but Mr. Oilburner was chomping at the bit!

There was only going to be one new road for me on this trek: Hwy 348, better known as the Richard B. Russell Scenic Highway.  This is another one of those roads that I had been dreading avoiding.  It is twisty, tight, open overlooks and I generally hear stories of gravel on it.  Turns out today was no exception considering there had been ice recently and they had laid down the gravel.  Some people had scouted it out and said it wasn't too bad, just be aware of it.  That really doesn't do anything to allay my fears.

The initial meeting point is in Dahlonega, about 1.5 hours from our house.  Along the route we see many motorbikes, and an increasing percentage are BMW's.  We finally catch up with one that has been on the horizon for miles.  It is a great 1980 R65 with a fairing the size of a sail on those Olympic Yngling sailboats.  He falls into our formation bumping our twosome up to an official posse.  After a couple more miles one of those fast and sexy "S" bikes came tearing through our little group.  The little R65 floundered into the right lane, trying to clear a path.  Mr. Oilburner waivered a little.  I, being the leader, held my ground and refused to give way.  The little "S" bike feigned submission and moved right to pass.  He took a good look at me, marking my helmet and eyes for memory, so he could flag me down for future trouncing.  :)  He continued down the road while we took a left.  It was in the back of my mind to follow him, thinking he might know a good shortcut.  I should have followed.  He did.

Look at the sail fairing on that R65!

Here is the little "S" bike that caught us up.

We pulled into the parking lot of a place called Riders Hill and it looked like a BMW convention.  I guess it was.  :)

For the people, it was a meeting of old friends, and some new.  For the bikes, all I can say is that I am glad they are not like puppy dogs in their need to sniff derriere's for greetings.  There would have been lots of taillight wagging and oil puddles everywhere!  Might have looked like a parking lot frequented by Harley's!

Despite yesterday being in the 80's F (27C), today's was mid-50's with low, dark clouds and a chill wind.  The weather wizards were conjuring some possibility for isolated showers.  My winter jacket wouldn't be a problem.  But my mesh riding pants might.

Everything is A-OK on the road.  Boy it is great to be on the bike!!  The standard roads are in great shape.  The Richard B. Russell Parkway does indeed have quite a bit of gravel at the high points.  But my outright glee in riding this road will not occur on this trip.  My excitement of being on this road is squashed by my fanatical search for gravel in every curve.  All but the highest peak was older asphalt where the gravel blended in perfectly.  So my speeds were tempered by my fear of that rear tire slipping out.  (Thankfully the guy in front of me was actually a little more cautious than I was.  No one noticed my chickenshit-ness.)

The actual distance separating Dahlonega and Hiawassee is about 48 miles (77 km) by the most direct route.  But who wants to do that when you are on a wonderful steed and almost have the roads to yourself?  We went north to go east to go southeast to go north.  But they are all such fun roads!  :)  The sticking point was the car that insisted on a speed limit ride through the twisties on Hwy 17.  Most of the group managed to pass him at the first passing lane.  But he wasn't about to let us last four by.  No matter.  It's all good being on the bike.


View Larger Map

Lunch is at this little restaurant on the lake.  We see evidence of the high winds with flags flying at full length and white caps on this little inlet of the lake.  We are warm inside with some spirited discussions and good food.  And this is where I learned what an RTE is.

For anyone else as underprivileged as I am, an RTE is a "Ride to Eat".  This is an arena for people that LOVE long distance riding.  A site is selected for a lunch or dinner and everyone is invited. People will routinely ride 500 miles (800+ km) one-way to meet for lunch.  Then ride home again.  Just not sure if that is something I'm terribly interested in right now.  I have heard many people use this as the route for their Iron Butt rides.

We wrap things up and lunch has run long.  Mr. Oilburner and I opt to ditch the club meeting and head for home.  We have two and a half hours to accomplish the two hour ride home, make ourselves presentable, feed and scratch the pup and get to a party.  We don't believe in wasting a minute of a day by sitting and twiddling our thumbs. 

The day has never really warmed up.  And my single layer winter jacket and cotton short sleeve shirt is barely keeping the cold at bay.  In half hour stints it is not a problem. But we haven't stopped for an hour and a half.  All this while Mr. Oilburner still brings up his desire for me to ride his bike and it was here that I did the unthinkable...

I actually traded bikes with Mr. Oilburner... 

I figured it was only 40 more miles home, all interstate, few turns.  There couldn't be any harm.  After trading bikes we are back up to highway speeds when we realize that this is also the longest distance Mr. Oilburner will have ridden my "R" bike.  We settle into our new mounts and discuss the differences.  First?  My butt is flipping WARM!!  Wow!!  Heated seats are nice!!!  I just might spring to have a new seat made for my bike with the heating element included.  Second?  For being the same basic bike, these bikes are nothing alike!  We are already aware of the gearing difference allowing the RT to "cruise" better at higher speeds (better meaning fuel economy).  But the clutch is so much smoother, with shorter travel for engagement and the brakes are extremely touchy!  Third.  Seating is quite different. On the RT I feel like I am sitting "on" the bike.  The rider seems to sit lower on my R, hugging the tank a little more.  On the RT I seem planted and slightly disconnected from the feel of the bike.  It could just take some getting used to though.  Fourth.  The fairings that curve around behind the cylinder heads (in front of the pegs) are absolutely in the way when putting the legs down for stops.  Mr. Oilburner assures me that you become accustomed to it but I can't be so sure.  :)

As for Mr. Oilburner on my R? I make him ride in front so I can be sure that he isn't popping wheelies on my baby.  He rides it in a civilized manner but did open her up a little when passing me.  My bike is almost 100 lbs (45 kg) lighter than the RT and he definitely notices the "sportiness".  He said he finally understands what I love about the bike.

We are both able to appreciate each others bike, they have some great qualities.  But we both dismount with a better regard for our own bikes.  To each his own.  I am glad I rode the RT.  And will probably ride it again.  When I don't have to share my R with Mr. Oilburner.  :)

We arrive home, redress, collect the pies and are only 30 minutes late to the low country boil...  Eat your hearts out, because this was GOOD!!

Uh. Duh!

Cell phones, laptops and PDA's are so prevalent in our "advanced" society.  Does anyone remember that our species has survived thousands of years without 100% connectivity to Facebook, Twitter or work email?

As motorbike pilots (hehe), I'm sure each of us has been a little more aware that something has been getting worse while navigating our metropolitan streets.  For those of you that have been riding for 10 or more years, or rode 20 years ago, you probably see a huge difference in driver attention today.  Speaking for myself as a newer rider, driver distractions have always been on my mind during my riding tenure.

Image taken from web.

I am particularly disheartened when I'm sitting at a stop light and count the number of drivers turning left in front of me on their cell phones.  My counts have been increasing over time.  It started with an average of 30% talking on the phone a couple years ago.  Today the percentages are a higher 60%.  I realize these counts are a snapshot in time.  But it is only a snapshot in time for someone to be focused more on the conversation than the road, and something bad happens.

Image taken from web.

I'm concerned at our society's fixation with their cell phone.  We have all heard the stories of being out to dinner and everyone at the next table over is texting, not talking to each other at the table.  Or walking through the supermarket and think the person walking in the other direction has said something to you.  When you turn to inquire you realize they are talking on the cell phone with their invisible Blue Tooth headset tucked into their ear, like some brainwave antenna.  Mr. Oilburner experiences people on his commuter bus just chattering away on the phone, loud enough that the entire world hears their side of an inane conversation.  Etiquette of soft talking in respect for those around you seems to be gone.


Do you think the "No Phone Zone" and "No Phone Pledge" are enough? 

Mobile etiquette getting worse, not better

(Reuters) - Whether is it texting during dinner, talking on a cellphone in a public restroom or using a laptop while driving, most people think mobile etiquette is getting worse, not better.

Ninety one percent of U.S. adults questioned in a new poll by computer innovation company Intel said they have seen people misuse technology, and three quarters think mobile manners have decreased in the past year.

"New digital technologies are becoming a mainstay in consumers' lives, but we haven't worked out for ourselves, our families, communities and societies what all the right kinds of behaviours and expectations will be," said Genevieve Bell, the head of interaction and experience research at Intel.

The poll of 2,000 adults revealed that most U.S. adults wished people practised better mobile etiquette and found the lack of cellphone manners extremely annoying, even though about 20 percent admitted to poor etiquette themselves.

Nearly 75 percent said the lack of mobile manners has created a new form of public rage and 65 percent admitted they became angry around people who misused mobile devices.

The most annoying behaviours were the use of mobile devices during driving, followed by talking on a cellphone loudly in a public place and walking in the street while texting or talking on the phone.

People reported seeing, on average five mobile offenses every day, according to the poll. Nearly a quarter said they had even seen someone using a laptop while driving, and one in five said they checked their mobile devices before getting out of bed in the morning.

It Was a Goldilocks Kind of Day

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times; it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness; it was...

Wait a minute!!  What am I saying?  It was the best of times!!  Today was going to be beautiful and we were hopping on the bikes for a very long ride.

Yeah, the day started chillier than expected.  Much chillier.  The thermometer read 33F (0.5C) at 7:30 AM.  Brrrrr!  Especially knowing that it would soon be nearing the 70F (21C) mark.  Bed was too warm and comfy to get up for that.  So we took our time waking up and getting out.  But get up we did and hit the road.  Road construction had us thinking up creative ways to get to the other side of Atlanta.  And a fuel stop turned into some good-natured ribbing.

In case you haven't been listening, I live in Georgia.  :)  And Georgia isn't flat.  So when stopping for fuel, or anyplace really, I will generally try to exit the facility so that I can turn right.  Just makes life easier and less dangerous.  Sometimes you do have to make those lefts, but I attempt to mitigate them.  And I also try to avoid having to start moving on an up hill.  Dry clutch and all that.  (You do believe me, right??)

The entire time we're fueling up I'm weighing my exit strategy options in my mind.  If we exit the one we came in we can turn right (safety) but will immediately need to turn left at the intersection to enter the freeway on ramp.  But if we use the other exit we are more likely to have a green light to directly enter the on ramp, but I will have to turn left out of the gas station AND start on an uphill.

With all these heavy decisions going through my head, I haven't mentioned any of this to Mr. Oilburner.  But I decided to try on my big girl panties and headed for the uphill exit.  All turns, stops, starts and lights are executed flawlessly.  As soon as we are out of the lot, not even through the intersection yet, Mr. Oilburner admits his wonderment at my choice of leaving the exit I did.  (Sometimes he knows me too well...)  I had to admit to him that it was an internal debate that I had struggled through.  He had a good laugh at my expense.  I'll get even...

Today we are headed towards Providence Canyon State Park.  It's one of those places that is just on the cusp of needing to be an overnighter if you go there, by any mode of transportation.  It is about 3 hours away, by slab.  But there is so much to see and do and hike and what-have-you that it makes for a stupendously log day if there is an automatic 6+ hour travel time.

Unfortunately, I have had this particular bee in my bonnet since autumn.  It's south and is very, very, warm in the summer and I wanted to get down there before it became too hot.  I was also hoping for some photo ops on the quiet back roads.

Awhile back I read on someone's blog (I wish I could remember who) about the camaraderie of motorbike riding "back in the days."  It was a thought provoking little piece of when there was a time when you, as a lone rider, could hook up with another rider on the road.  Swoop in to be the wing man, share a nod, the road and some miles.  When it was time to split up, a nod or a wave acknowledged the appreciation of this forged bond and it was back to singleness.

I had the thrill of being able to experience this today.  One of my times looking in the mirror I saw another bike behind Mr. Oilburner, falling right into formation.  I assumed he would be passing soon and didn't give it much thought.

He didn't pass...

There wasn't much traffic, but every so often I would switch lanes to pass someone.  I took our new friend into account and only changed lanes when he was clear.  I also tried to keep us moving and his tail clear of rushing cars.  He was in sync immediately, moving lanes as soon as I turned my signal on showing my intent.  And since he remained with us for 80 miles he must have enjoyed our pace.  Imagine a big, pretty Harley Dyna voluntarily filling in our little BMW pac.

For a very long time Mr. Oilburner and I speculated on his intentions.  Was someone all the way on the other side of the world, who knew where we were going and had access to Mr. Tell-Tale, my SPOT track, having us followed?  Was this guy following us to conk us on the heads at the next stop and steal one of our bikes?  Conspiracy theories abounded.  Especially when he stayed with us through a freeway change to a lesser traveled thoroughfare.  After the theorizing stopped we settled in for the camaraderie.  There was only a small pang of disappointment that he didn't follow us down the off-ramp to relieve our 100 mile saddle soreness.  It would have been nice to share stories over a soda.  I guess that is just part of the romance of the open road.

Ferocious little beast trying to steal my M&M's.

By this time we realized that we had left lunch on the kitchen counter.  We weren't thrilled with the prospect of going into town to get anything.  So we decided to see if the convenience store at this gas station had anything deli-like to offer.  Not much luck for anything that looked good, but we settled on a couple hot dogs and a box of wings.  It was only another 30 miles of empty back roads to our first destination, Florence Marina State Park.

Ah....so peaceful!!

Ok, faithful friends.  This is what middle Georgia looks like...

Ok...if you have looked at a map...that is actually Alabama over the waterway.  But the view behind me is fairly similar.  :)

We enjoyed the sounds of the birds, watching the squirrels and listening to the occasional boat on the water.  We took some time for a couple photo ops of the bikes under the Spanish Moss.  Since I wasn't willing to do the dirty deed of putting the bikes on grass where this is no parking...I let Mr. Oilburner be the one to garner any dirty looks.  Since there weren't many people about it wasn't an issue.

Providence Canyon is only 8 miles down the road.  And we are treated with the splendid sight of two C-17's crossing our path; huge and cumbersome on the ground but so powerful and graceful in the air.  Such a rare treat to see two in flight.

Arriving at Providence Canyon with full tummies on a warm and quiet day has us thinking of a nap.  Why not take advantage of it?  We find an empty parking lot and prop the bikes in the shade.  Ourselves as well.  Mr. Oilburner sets to sawing logs, but my mind is wandering.  I take a few pictures of the world from ground level.  I listen to the birds.  I hear the people walking along the paths.  The cars buzz by.  And the I hear the first "Plane of Summer."  The high and far off plane with that perfect drone marking SPRING for me. AAAAHHHH!!!  Mixed feelings that winter is going away and summer will be here too soon.  But right now is absolutely perfect.

It's nearing that time when we need to think of heading home.  I stroll along the canyon rim path for a few shots while Mr. Oilburner folds the blanket.  Honestly, how far can you hike in armored pants and riding boots?  I didn't travel far.

We decided on a more direct route home instead of back tracking the way we came.  Only more direct equals longer time as it will be along the back roads; a 4 hour tour compared to a 3 hour blur.  I start seeing signs for other landmarks that were also on my hit list.  But we are out of time for today.  Until we pass a sign for Plains, GA and I asked Mr. Oilburner if he wants to see The Peanut, one of those ludicrous weird landmarks that we enjoy collecting.  So we did.  :)

The back roads home were gorgeous.  We passed through smoky valleys filled with the aroma of burning wood.  We floated through quiet neighborhoods where the smell of back yard barbecues wafted on the breeze.  We passed through small towns where the sidewalks were being rolled up for the evening.  We waved to families sitting on front porches watching the cars speed by.  We exclaimed about hearing the Spring Peeper frogs in the swamp through our helmets and over the engine noise.  Nearing the major metropolis the slow life dwindles and we jumped on the freeway to make some time getting home.

We parked our steads in the garage a little before 9PM.  Luckily these steeds don't require feed and watering after their rub down.  Our trusty steeds had carried us 410 miles (660 KM) in the last 9 hours.  They received well deserved hugs and pets.  Then we left them in a dark garage for a little slumber.

More pictures from the day can be viewed at Flickr.

And our track: