Long hot day…  Left early, standard routine.  Nice and cool leaving MI. Absolutely nothing to report.  The faithful were in church so traffic was light.  Construction in OH for the first 50 miles or so speed was down.  If any of you have driven trough Northern OH you can visualize.  Quite flat.  Occasional trees.  Lots of farming.  One unique feature that still amazes me after all these years is the use they make out of highway side retention ponds.  You know the small ponds that they put in to control runoff?  a couple of hundred feet long.  Right next to the highway.  Well, they turn them into summer resorts.  Put some sand at one end.   Spots for some trailers.  There ya go.  I guess you do what you can.

I took this while the band was on break and the farewell crowd was breakfasting..

By the time I hit Columbus, the heat and humidity was building.  I stopped at a Panera Bread in the Brewery district for a break and to cool off.  When the heat and humidity builds the ole body feels it..  Aches big time.  Time to take in copious amounts of water.  Works out to about every hour or two, stop for water.

Drive was easy.  Bike did great.  Its a heat pump though.  You basically have a car engine between your legs..  At speed, still hot but not too bad.  At lights, it toasts you right up.  This thing has ‘speed creep’ as well.  I have been purposely been trying to relax and such.  A few times I looked down and was a bit surprised at the pace.

Southern OH is much prettier than North.  As soon as you hit Chillicothe the hills begin.  Cross over into Kentucky and also much nicer.  Much of the area, maybe most, is waiting for an economic renaissance.

Very nice roads in KY.  4 lane.  Winding through the hills / mountains.  Nothing there though.   The highway (US23 – Which happens to start in Jacksonville and go right through Brighton, MI on the way up to Sault Saint Marie) bypasses most commerce centers in this part of the world.  So after a 150 miles of that, I crossed over into Virginia.  I am in Norton, VA, in a Super 8, first floor, next to the ice machine and am sitting in the parking lot with a bucket of ice, bottom shelf scotch, a fine cigar and pushing this out, watching the sunset.  I figured 450-475 miles today.   Maybe 10 hours.

Oh, you will love this.  I did not really eat today so naturally the craving for garbage food was huge.  There is a Hardee’s next to the hotel.  So after a quick shower I walked over, was going to eat there quick and then go back and have a drink..  I know blah, blah, blah…  Well they were cleaning the floor and half the dining area area was closed off.  They had some bleach solution covering the floor and the place was overwhelming with chlorine.  I took my monster burger (no fries!) and mega drink back to my room.   It wasn’t that good.

I am feeling like Jerry Seinfeld.  A blog about nothing.  🙂    That’s ok.  I enjoyed the ride.  Absolutely liberating. Still so much to learn regarding riding skills.  Solo riding, well good and bad.  I find myself pushing sometimes for no reason.  Eager to get to the destination.  The heat and humidity do not help.  Reminds me of crossing the west on the way home last year.  Yeeeech.

About 200 miles left tomorrow.  Easy.  Through VA, a small part of TN, then into NC.  Looking forward to it all.   You bet!

Absolutely delightful out now.  Plenty of scotch left. Not many pics.  I do have some GoPro stuff, but most is ho-hum.  More pics tomorrow.  Maybe.  🙂

I am sitting here laughing at my own jokes, enjoying the end of the day, revisiting all that happened and most importantly, just utterly relaxed.

Damn, Life is good…