We covered the final 450 miles of our 2432-mile journey and encountered challenges along the way. We packed up the bikes in the rain and rode through the light rain. By the time we got to I-75 the rain stopped and we were able to take off the rain gear.

We had lunch in a town in southern Georgia. The Subway was in a real store – not in a shopping center or gas station!

(I’m not very good at taking selfies. I’m concentrating on the blinking green timer light and forgetting to smile.)

A while later the sky darkened and we put the rain gear back on. We rode through rain in southern Georgia and northern Florida.

As soon as we left the rain behind someone opened the oven door. The air temperature registered 99 degrees on both our bikes! We quickly shed the rain gear and filled our Camelbacks. The temperature settled in around 96 degrees and dropped to 84 when we had cloud cover, but most the afternoon it was in the mid-90s.

Traffic on I-75 from Lake City to Ocala was crazy. All three lanes were full and cars in the left lane were doing a steady 80 mph. It was impossible to find a “sweet spot” and set the cruise control. Once we passed the exit for the Florida Turnpike, however, the traffic disappeared.

On the way home we stopped at Trader Joe’s for chocolate and wine. Once we got home we lowered the thermostat, unpacked, started the laundry, and kicked back with a glass of wine and a piece of chocolate.

Update

As I was riding I thought about adding a little clarification to the report of Heading Home Day 2. We encountered heat and rain, but those were not the major factors that made the day so difficult. The stop-and-go traffic was our biggest concern. We hit several 10-mile sections where we moved in 1st gear, stopped, started, and repeated the cycle. One slow-down was caused by merging traffic where I-59 joins I-24. There simply aren’t enough lanes to handle the volume at that point. Rain causes accidents and there were long backups behind those accidents. The most curious backup, however, was on the HOV lane through downtown Atlanta. It wasn’t raining and there were no accidents. We never did figure out why it was jammed. (We did notice that a lot of cars with one driver used the HOV lane as their passing lane.)

Next

We have a few days at home to prepare for our next trip. We leave Saturday for Shark Week VII, a meet-up of Road Glide riders. This year it is in Cherokee, NC. Drew is going to join us and we will get to see the Tesla String Quartet in concert in Waynesville, NC.