Day 21 (9/26/11)

Last night was a short night for me as Tom and I stayed up late sharing stories and hanger flying. We had a great time and it seemed like the middle of the night when I heard people starting to stir in the Meehan home. Tom and Carolyn were getting ready for work, so it was time for me to pack up and be on my way. Other than my first day when we left at 4:30 a.m. this was my earliest start of the trip. It helps not having to pack up a tent and sleeping bag when getting ready in the morning. I pulled out of Pennsacola at about 6:15 a.m. and immediately changed my clocks to Eastern Standard time. I lost an hour before I had gone 40 miles. Oh well, it would be a big mileage day anyway and most of it on interstate highways. My bike quickly found its "sweet spot" at about 73 mph and the miles began to tick away quickly. About mid morning I stopped for a sausage McMuffin and a cup of coffee. It was warm and humid which is not my favorite riding conditions. I much prefer the low humidity and cool temperatures I had experienced in much of the west. I passed through Montgomery Alabama and then Atlanta Georgia. Traffic was not as bad as I had expected, but things would get worse as I got into South Carolina. I can tell you that the economy in South Carolina is booming. Everywhere you look you see big name manufacturing plants and automobile assembly plants. I passed a Nissan plant back in Jackson Mississippi yesterday. Today I passed a Kia plant and a Hyundai plant. I know BMW has one in Spartansburg and I think there is a Mercedes one down here somewhere. They are huge and the parking lots are full of late model cars owned by the workers. The highways are filled with trucks of all shapes and sizes delivering to the various plants. Signs of commerce and prosperity are everywhere. There are plenty of high priced cars on the roads. BMW's, Mercedes, Hummers, you name it they are here. I crossed parts of Lake Lanier and there were new boats everywhere. It is clear that the worlds automakers have abandoned the union mentality of the upper mid-west and Northeast in favor of the non-union workers of the south. When I drove across the upper midwest the signs were everywhere of states in decline. AND... I have not paid a single toll since Chicago. I did see signs for an "Express Lane" that will be toll in Atlanta as of October 1. I am not sure what this is, but it looks like you will be able to pay a toll to go into a high speed express lane to avoid traffic congestion, I guess? I will have to do more research on that, but there are no toll booths for all the lanes that I saw anywhere. It looks like the toll for the express lane will be paid only by the "Peach Pass". I did not see any markings that it would be compatible with E-Z Pass. I only took two pictures today. One of the huge Kia plant and the other of the textile plant that makes the Sunbrella cloth that I sew boat covers and sail covers from. I just happened to spot it while getting gas and needed to take a picture. The guard at the gate was proud to tell me that not only do they make Sunbrella, they also made the flag that flies on the moon to this day. Pretty cool!
Well, I stopped short of Charlotte for dinner. I decided to let their "rush minutes" pass before transiting the city. As it was, there is a new bypass that is not in my 5 year old GPS that took me around the city in short order and put me on I-77 North toward Virginia. Since it was still light I decided to ride until dark and put more miles behind me. This will make tomorrow a shorter day and allow me a dinner stop at my favorite place in Annapolis tomorrow night. I will leave you in suspense until then. I ended up regretting my decision to keep driving as it started to rain and got very foggy. Fortunately, I had donned my rain gear at the dinner stop so I was prepared. The fog on the other hand was not fun at all. At one point, I was down to 35 mph with my 4 way flashers on to give the trucks on my tail something to aim for. :-( As soon as I came to an exit with motels, I stopped and called it a day. Miles for the day was somewhere about 675. Let's hope the fog clears tomorrow morning. Two days left!