At first, there were some straights and, of course, I'd pull on him, narrow the gap, look to overtake him. But Deals Gap, aka Tail of the Dragon, is eleven miles of - allegedly - 318 corners and I can tell by my motorcycle's scraping hard parts around the hairpins, I won't be able to keep up with him. He'll own me and even if I pass him, eventually he'll force me to pull over to let him pass. The Victory's torque curve pulls hard out of the corner but going in hot, my head pivoting hard to pull the bike into and through the corner and I'm hitting asphalt hard, no touch-and-go here, and I decide to pull back on the throttle, concede the battle before it's really even started. I'm over 4,500 miles on the journey with another 6,000 to go. No need to damage anything here, ego be damned.
At least, the rain had stopped. The sights deluge during the first of the two rides I completed today and ostensibly the more scenic of the two, the Cherohala Skyway, was limited
What a contrast between AirBnB and a cheap hotel.
I'm sitting in a, frankly, nasty hotel in Lawrenceville, Georgia, a town not quite to Gainesville as I'd hoped, non-smoking of course, except that the towels smell like smoke, the bedspread has who-knows-what on it, and I insisted that I park my motorcycle in view of the front office because I didn't trust that someone wouldn't mess with it.
Yes, I checked - no bedbugs - but I wouldn't be surprised.
Why would I do this to myself?
I used AirBnB to find a great room the previous night in the Wilton Manors neighborhood of Ft. Lauderdale, $50 total, clean, great parking, wonderful hosts, walking distance to everything, including Rosie's, my favorite bar in Ft. Lauderdale.
I decided yesterday to pay $60 in Lawrenceville, Georgia, Days Inn, and while the owners are nice, $60 doesn't get you much. * sigh *
But I was in a hurry while at Volusia, getting the motorcycle's oil changed, and while one can get a place on AirBnB the same day, the owners have to verify and if it took them more than an hour and the answer was no, then I'd be - possibly - in trouble. As it turns out, I should've paid the extra and stayed at a nicer place or stuck to AirBnB and got a better deal. In Scrum we inspect and adapt. This is one of those times.
I'm on my way to Cherohala Skyway and Tail of the Dragon, two of the premiere motorcycle rides on the east coast or so I've read and one of my key milestones for this journey. It's roughly four hours from Lawrenceville, so not too far, plenty of time to get a good deal (I hope) on AirBnB somewhere in Murphy, North Carolina.
On a different topic, today is Melissa and my wedding anniversary, the first time we'll not be together for it in eleven years, at least as far as I remember (I'm getting older). I'm sad and I miss my fine lady, my wonderful companion, both in riding and life. I miss you and wish you were here with me. I love you, my little Hurricane, more than you can possibly know.
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