Day 5

Hmmm....it's snowing in Chattanoonga, TN! Well, not much to do except go on with the plan. I start out the day by attending one more seminar at the SETC conference. This one is about the lighting design process. I come back to my room around 10:30am and pack up all my stuff and then wait out the snow as long as I possibly can. Check out is at noon, so that's when I'll take off. By noon, the snow has more or less stoppped. There is still the occasional light flurry. The roads are pretty clear, the only real issue is the cold. So I settle up my account with the hotel and get on the road. Today is pretty much a ridding day, trying to make it to Orlando, FL. Well, I gave it a shot, but by 7:45pm I'm still about 3 hours out from Orlando, so I decide to call it a night. The sun has set and the temperature is dropping; not that it rose much durring the day. When I left Chattanooga it was 34 degrees, and maybe got as high as the low 40's during mid-day. So I find myself a Super 8 Motel, and settle in for the night. Tomorrow I'm going to make a bid for Key West, FL. Mapquest says it's an 8 hour drive more or less from here. Let's hope it is a little warmer tomorrow. Well that's about it for today. Sorry there are no pictures, but I'll take some for sure when I'm down in Key West, and then on the way back up from there when I go through the everglades.

Day 4

Good day today. Kind of like being at work, but not. Woke up early, showered, made some coffee, and then made my way down to the convention center to pick up my regristration material. Oh, did I forget to mention that I'm in Chattanooga for the SETC conference. Well, this is one of the two conferences that I'm attending while on this little journey. So I spent the day attending a couple of seminars, which I won't bore you with, except to say that two out of the three were good; the third left a little something to be desired.

Well, that's about all the news. I've got a little more of the same tomorrow morning, before I pack up and start heading south towards Florida.

Day 3

Since I don't have too far to go today, I sort of make it a lazy morning and enjoy my brief stay in Nashville. Finally by lunch time I figure it's warmed up enough and I pack up the bike, bid farewell to Emily, and hit the road. I cruise on out of town via I-24, but soon pull off the interstate onto Rt. 70S going from Murfreesboro to McMinnville. Rt. 70 is pretty nice, very much like Rt. 29 back home. Once in McMinnville, I turn south onto Rt. 56. As I ride along, I can't get over how many nurseries I've passed since getting off the interstate. They're just all over the place. The farther I go, the better Rt. 56 gets; especially as we turn up into the mountains.

I finally reach Chattanooga around 5:00pm, and sign in to my hotel. Now all that's left to do is to take a nice long hot shower, unpack, and get some dinner.

Here are a few pics from the day.

Day 2

Woke up around 7:30. Showered, then went to partake in the continental breakfast in the hotel lobby. Waffle was nice, but not much else besides coffee and apple juice. Anyways, I slowly packed up my stuff and decided to hit the road. BRRRrrrrr, it's cold! Only about 34 degrees! Thank God I only have about 120 miles to go to get to Nashville. After about 50 minutes, I pull over to fill up on gas, switch gloves, and get a hot cup of coffee. Then, back on the road. I finally reach Nashville around 11:00 am, and spend the rest of the day hanging out with my friend Emily and her husband John, and their two kids.
That night, Emily takes me out on the town to show me a little bit of Nashville.

Day 1

Well, what a day! I guess if I get the bad stuff out of the way first, the rest of the trip will be a breeze! All was going fairly well, in the morning; I had about 40 minutes of light rain once past Charlottesville, VA, but it didn't last. However, as I'm driving through Winston-Salem, NC on business 40, it starts to rain. Looking ahead, I see that it's quite dark. So, as I'm pulling out of Winston on 421 North, I pull over and put on some rain pants and switch to the full-face helmet. It was a good call, I had rain and wind, quite heavy at times, all the way to TN!
Well, I was going to try and make it to Nashville tonight, but being a little wet and definately cold, the temperature has dropped to atleast 40, I've decided to pull over for the night and get a nice warm hotel room. I'm about 120 miles east of Nashville, but it's now 10:00pm and I don't HAVE to get to Nashville tonight. So, I've layed out my things to dry out, and tallied up my expenses for the day, downloaded some pics, and now writting up a new blog entry.

Well, that's about it. Here's a few pics. Nothing exciting, just the bike prior to departure, my companion on this trip, and my hotel room for the evening!

T Minus 15 Hours!

Well, here we are the afternoon before my departure. Wow, it's been a hectic week leading up to this. Just about everything little obstacle that could fall in my way has. However, the bike has been cleaned up, I put in a new battery today, I went ahead and pre-loaded most of my gear, so I more or less feel ready to take off come tomorrow morning. If I've forgetten anything, as I always say, it must not be necessary! Or, I'll just have to pick one up along the way somewhere ! :)
Anyways, still a little prepping to do so this will be it for today. Enjoy my self portrait.....if this uploading of pictures thing works!

Day -1