We actually arrived late in the day on Saturday. I discovered that
Towing your pride and joy for 14 and a half hours is rather stressful.
Towards the end the tongue loosened up on the trailer side. It’s really
fine but to watch the bike moving more than it was in the rearview
mirror was a little disconcerting. I’ll have it fixed before we go home.
I should have gone out Sunday. But I was spending time with family and
helping out my Brother-in-law. He and my Father-in-Law had already
changed the oil and I helped out and got my hands dirty while rotating
the tires on his truck. It was during this that I had repeatedly told my
Son to stop sending a toy stroller belonging to my daughter down the
driveway uncontrolled. It almost hit the motorcycle and I told him to
cut it out..
We got the air compressor out and I wheeled the bike behind my
brother-in-law’s truck and turned around to see my daughter come flying
down the driveway in the stroller that I had told my son to not send
down the driveway… She then flies uncontrolled at speed into the front
bumper of my truck… So, my wife makes a trip to the ER to get 5
stitches on Miranda’s forehead. She was lucky, 6 inches to the left and
it would have been a tow hook in the teeth.. Oh and she hit so hard that
the “check airbag” light comes on every once in a while now.
Monday became a Bust because the clouds rolled in and it rained the
entire day….. Sigh…..
A quick look at the forecast predicted cloudy skies for Tuesday.. Screw
it! I came here to ride and by god I will ride! Now in unloading I
realized I had forgotten my Tank bag, small camera, and of course my
tank bag has my rain gear.. So if it rains while I’m out… I’m getting
wet…So a special thanks to the in-laws for letting me borrow a small
camera.. I loaded up a backpack and with my cell phone, and a few
Mountain Dews for the road.
My original plan for the not getting too lost was to put my GPS in my
tank bag behind the clear top… With no tank bag a 24 dollar purchase
at Radio Shack and a bunch of Zip-Ties and I mounted my GPS to the left
side of the handlebars. I’m still trying to decide if I want a permanent
mount for this thing or a future better GPS…It’s nice for when you
have no clue where the hell you are…
Looking back a typical NC road in NC from the church...
So all loaded up I rode for a few hours winding in a south east
direction.. Motoring around a few back roads of Wake Forrest. I eventually found Route 96 and I went through towns like: Rolesville, Emit, Zebulon, Jordan, Selma, Smithfield, until I found a church parking lot to pull into and figure out where the hell I was… (Oh… bad choice of words??)
I decided to turn around and pick a different direction. Suddenly, I saw signs for one of the Battlefields from the Confederate Wars. Pointing the bike in that direction down route 701 I blasted the 17 miles to the battlefield. I never actually went to the visitors center but continued along and found an entrance to one of the federal earthworks occupied by the federal troops in the battle of 1865.. It was muddy as all hell but I snagged a pic of the bike in front of the entrance to the woods and another deep inside the woods where I chickened out and would not go further with the bike.
Entrance to the Federal Earthworks..
Could not go any further than this...
I rode back towards the visitor center and found a bit more of the
battlefield memorial site that has quite a few headstones from members
who had fought during the battle.. There was a special memorial erected
in 1893.. I walked the fields and realized it was downright eerie
quiet… You could hear yourself breathing and there is an occasional
bird song but otherwise not a car to be heard, not a single plane
overhead.. As I walked I spotted a set of trenches that were left over
from some of the original battle but get rebuilt for re-enactments that
occur.. Indeed there was even a cannon put in place.
A cannon in the trenches
Hmmm I just realized the Cannon is pointing at the VFR in the distance...
As I walked back marveling at the quiet I noticed the bike sitting where
I had left it. Sitting near the monument and behind it across the road
cotton fields. Even though it was chilly, cloudy, what a ride!
The VFR sitting near the Monument. Not the Cotton fields on the other side of the road
I got back on the bike and headed back to the in-laws… It was at this
point I noticed the GPS is not very smart for the return trip… I
should have just winged it but I was realizing I probably should have
had another layer on and I wanted to get back. So I put in the last
address I had and then realized I was further south than I thought and
had the GPS take me through the center of Raleigh……Ick!…
All in all I did almost 200 miles.. Certainly not a lot but considering
the threat of rain was just almost always there, and on top of that, I
was getting a bit chilled, I did pretty well I think… Tomorrow looks
like the weather will be a bit better so maybe I will head towards the
Blue Ridge mountain Range… Although I wish I could make it all the way
to the Dragon but I do not think it will happen on this trip.. Tune in
tomorrow (hopefully) for my next entry!