Whew, #2.  In an effort to outrun the weather heading for the area; today’s ride was another day on the slab – 544 miles worth.  I contemplated just spending a day in El Dorado, AR but decided that if I had a chance to go, I should take it  – and it was one of those chancy decisions.  This is what I was trying to outrun.  In my motel rooms I watch the weather channel exclusively – btw I’m all caught up on the Highway Through Hell (a weather channel tow truck series). Predictions were, tornado possibilities (tourcon level 3), up to 2 inch hail, and places in Alabama could get 8 to 10 inches of rain!!  I wanted NO Part of that.  In these situations I would usually just stay another day or two wherever I am, let these weather systems go on through, then continue my leisurely adventure – but this time around, I have date in Georgia.

This is a screen shot from my phone’s RADAR app just after I got here.  My wife was following my progress vs. the storm and said it was nipping at my heels the whole way.  That system is building and moving northeast on a line just about parallel to the eclipse zone of totality.  Speaking of the eclipse, I did notice it got quite a bit darker at eclipse time but it was pretty dark to start with where I was.  No use for those fancy eclipse glasses I bought – maybe emergency welding glasses…..

The day started out well enough and I was very happy to see that this was going to be my breakfast road.  Sadly, it’s not a smooth road and speeds much over 40 mph made the bumps pretty painful.  Oh well, when you’re going slow you get to look around and it was a nice way to start the day.  After about 45 miles I’d made my way down to I-20 and was still dry; that changed 15 miles later.

I didn’t think I would be able to avoid all the rain but in a show of great optimism, I didn’t put on any of my rain gear.  Now – in my defense, I’ve done this before and it’s worked at least 5% of the time.  I’ll spare you all the gory details, and just say that three times over the course of the day, I got quite wet and completely (almost anyway) dried out before getting quite wet again.  Probably should have put the rain gear on but it always looked like that time was going to be the last time – until it wasn’t.  I blame my mom and my little brother for making things look so good and then sending some more rain my way.  They would both think that was pretty funny.  And – FOR SURE if I’d gotten all suited up to start with, they would’ve made sure I was dry the entire way.  The spirits I ride with……..

There’s not much to look at when you’re hauling ass down the Interstate with rain clouds chasing you but I always try to get a picture crossing the Big Muddy.

I was only going about 50 mph when I took this picture, but it was so dark that the shutter speed couldn’t keep the picture from being blurry.  This next one is the view looking North.

Since this is I-20, I’m sure many of you have seen this before.  Other than those couple pictures I kept my hands on the handlebars and didn’t stop unless I had to.  I stayed on the front of the wave of the storm and only got a small taste of what it was bringing.  I’ll be here in Sharpsburg visiting my Georgia family for about a week.  Then I’ll be going south to West Palm Beach, FL – any suggestions on route of travel, interesting places to see along the way, or good places to eat would be appreciated.

Oh Yea – I almost forgot.  I told you that I have a date in GA.  On Friday and Saturday I will be in Augusta – one of the patrons at the Masters.  That’s right – the ticket in golf that you can’t get.  One of my best friends (more like a brother really) got a couple tickets somehow and called to see if I’d like to go!!  Uhhh YEA.  So – if you are watching the Masters on Friday I’ll be wearing a bright yellow shirt.  Fore Please……