Okay, so I am really late publishing my cross country journey, but it’s better late than never I guess right? 
So here ya go, day one!
Day One – Friday April 10, 2009
Well, after spending all morning packing up and trying get everything into my motorcycle bags I realized the I didn’t have enough room to fit everything that I originally planned on taking….like my computer. I had to go back to UPS store and ship the rest of the stuff that I couldn’t fit.
Then, it was on to the North Hills to pick up my full faced helmet that Cyrus was kind enough to give to me and to say one last good bye to my friends. Good byes are always tough, especially when you’ve made such good friends in one place.
Anyway, on the road I go… when I left Raleigh it was sunny and warm, well about an hour in to the trip it started raining, then it started pouring. I stopped at the HD dealership in Charlotte to pick up some new gloves. The gloves I had were not waterproof or warm by any means. So, an $90 pair of gortex gloves later….I had dry and warm hands.
After leaving the HD dealer, I stopped at a biker bar next door for some lunch and was trying to wait out some of the storm. At this point is was pouring so bad that there was zero visibility. After I finished my lunch, the rain actually stopped. Although I knew the storms weren’t over I had to get back on the road and try to get as far as possible. I had to be in New Orleans on Saturday night because I had reservations and I didn’t plan on missing them.
So back on the road I go. After about 20 minutes I hit rush hour traffic and with the storms, plus it being Friday….this was not good. I can sit in traffic, in fact I just drive up between the rows of cars anyway. J After bobbing and weaving through the traffic, I saw a bunch of flashing lights….there apparently were a couple of accidents up ahead. Well, back in line I go. L So as I sit the rain starts coming down again and hard. So I am just sitting in rush hour traffic which is literally not even moving and then it starts to hail. Yep, that’s right hail and it was big hail. The closest exit was off in the distance and there were police everywhere so there was no riding up the side of the road to get off.
I sat in this hail storm for about an hour until I finally made it to the exit. I got off the exit the hopes to find shelter. Luckily there was a gas station right off the exit. I hung out there for a while trying to see what was going to happen. The manager there informed me that it was only supposed to get worse. I checked with weather.com on my blackberry and he was right. I was driving right in to the storm, not to mention traffic was not moving. At this point I have been on the road for 8 hours and have only made it just about 30 miles south west of Charlotte….that’s not very good time. In fact, that’s about double what it should have taken.
I was in luck, there was a Holiday Inn right down the street. It was 7pm and I was wet, cold and tired. It was time to call it a day. I pulled up to the Holiday Inn, walked in the lobby and said to the front desk associate “I need a room”. She looked at me like I had 2 heads and said “well I would say so”. She among everyone else I encountered along the way thought I was crazy….not like I haven’t heard that before anyway. J Well, fantastic first day of my journey, this crazy guy will continue his journey tomorrow.
February 23rd, 2010 at 8:33 pm
That’s awesome that you had the opportunity to do this. Can’t wait to hear about the rest of your trip!