Key West or Bust, Day Zero

In the Balance
Saturday May 10, 2008

In May, it's Alamo Run time. Gold Wing riders from the Wings on the Internet newsgroup (http://www.woti.org/) normally gather near San Antonio for a barbeque, kick some tires together, and renew friendships. But this year, it's been cancelled, so other plans are in order. Roads exist to be ridden, and ridden they shall be.

Kitty & I have chosen a meandering mostly-two-lane route to Key West for our 2008 springtime ride. We chose Florida because it's the only mainland state except North Dakota we haven't visited together on our Wing. Key West because... well, because it's as far as you can go before turning around. The bike is ready, trailer is ready. We're pretty much packed. It's a lot easier now with the trailer than in the old days where every single item had to be carefully scrutinized and vetted to see if it qualified for the trip. Nowadays, we "just throw it in the trailer."

My StreetPilot 2720 GPS is completely programmed with waypoints, pre-calculated trip segments, and half a thousand "custom points of interest" that I downloaded from http://www.poi-factory.com/, including all the lighthouses along the South Atlantic coast. I've set up proximity alerts for a number of those that will alert us when we ride to within the distance I've specified. I recently bought a new handheld GPS unit, a kinda-cute little yellow Garmin eTrex Venture HC, that we can use to track our hikes and power walks throughout the trip, and the planned bicycle or walking adventures in Key West. Hotel reservations have been made where necessary.

We're psyched. We're ready.

And Kitty is sick. Sicker than I've ever known her to be in over 37 years of being married. Last night, on antibiotics but with a fever of over 102 F, leaving as planned tomorrow was looking pretty bleak. She's optimistic today. She's better but it's still not looking good to me. It is what it is, and we'll deal with it. I'm resigned to doing the right thing, whatever that may turn out to be!

We shall see what tomorrow may hold.