Day 1

Leaving the convention is never easy. You have to say goodbye to friends and the return trip is never so fun as the getting there trip, unless you go touring before going home. We did not go touring this year.

The early morning was cool and sunny. By noon we hit some rain, but we skirted the worst of it and didn’t need our rain suits. We stopped for a picnic lunch at a rest area and used the last of most of the supplies. The afternoon was hot – about 90 degrees – and very humid.

We ran into rain again northwest of Nashville. The radar app showed that the rain might not be too bad, so we decided to tough it out and not wear the rain gear. As you can imagine, the rain was heavy and we rode through it for a half hour.

We finished the day in Lebanon, TN and stayed the night with our friends, Wanda and Ben. We went to dinner at a Mexican restaurant that had very good food.

After dinner, Ben made margaritas using his secret recipe; they were excellent.

Day 2

Wanda fixed breakfast featuring her biscuits and chocolate gravy; they, too, were excellent. While Wanda was fixing breakfast, Ben was watching the weather. It was raining and the clouds were pretty dark. Ben left for work in his truck and called back to say there were rocks on the road, the creek covered half the road, and the rain was very heavy. We decided to sit and chat and see if the rain would pass, It let up some, but didn’t quit, so we packed the bikes, donned our rain gear and headed out in the rain. The rain wasn’t too bad and it was clear by the time we reached Murfreesboro.

Twenty miles north of Chattanooga we hit more heavy rain. We quickly put on the rain gear and pushed on. There was a lot of stop-and-go traffic as well. The rain continued and got very heavy between Chattanooga and Atlanta. It was so bad the weather alert interrupted the music I was listening to with a report of 60 mile per hour winds, quarter-size hail, and possible tornadoes in northwest Georgia. We headed for the next exit and waited and hour at McDonald’s. When the rain let up a little we got back on the road.

The rain stopped by the time we got to Atlanta, but it started again, so we decided to stop for the night in Griffin, GA.

Tomorrow should be the last day. We’re hoping the rain won’t be so bad as it was today.