Gulf Coast Getaway, Day 13

Taking You Home
Friday June 4, 2010
Copyright(c) 2010, Jim Beachy

And this love
Is like nothing I have ever known, no no baby
Take my hand love
I’m taking you home
I’m taking you, home
Where we can be with the ones who really care
Home, where we can grow together
Keep you, in my heart forever
- Don Henley/Stan Lynch/Stuart Brawley

You wouldn’t think losing an hour would make much difference, but I find I’m a little sluggish this morning. Instead of rising and shining, I’m dragging and drooping just a little, so it’s actually after 9:00 AM by the time we finish breakfast and load out.

“And there we go!” Kitty says in my headset for perhaps the hundredth time this trip. She starts off this last day’s ride as she always does to signal that she’s situated on the bike and ready to move. Kitty is feeling strong, the way we wish she could have felt two days ago. All vestiges of whatever sickness inhabited her normally healthy frame have disappeared. Last night we rode until the GPS showed an estimated remaining riding time of just under five hours, so that’s about what we have for the day.

As we make the turn for the entrance to I-81 north, I mark a waypoint for the Wildflour Bakery, because I’m pretty sure we’ll be back. It’s a pleasant cool morning with temperatures in the low 70’s and a pale blue watercolor sky painted in wispy white watercolors with a few high cirrus clouds. Heavy storms moved through the Washington, DC area last evening, and more sever storms are forecasted for late tonight, but I’m optimistic we should slide on home between the storms.

Periodically, I hear Kitty repeat seemingly disjointed phrases or snatches of music in the headset. “Veggie Tales – Veggie Tales – Veggie Tales.” “Happy-cake!” “Aw, shucks!” When I ask her about this, it turns out these are all phrases uttered under curious conditions by Carter or Danica. I realize she’s replaying our visit with the Mississippi family in her mind. I judge this a pretty good place to be, so I’m mostly quiet so as not to intrude on her reverie.

We do talk some about the trip. We remember the spectacular white sand beaches of the Florida Panhandle that are now being threatened by the greatest natural disaster this country has ever seen, the oil blossoming from the seabed into the Gulf. While we were in Gulfport, the Federal government closed nearly the entire expanse of Gulf fishing waters in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida, and some of our Gulfport friends were nearly beside themselves because that’s what they do: fish! It’s been an unusual trip because we took some time out of the middle to visit our family, and it was surprisingly hard to make the transition back to biker mode. I smile as I realize we haven’t listened to any music the whole trip; we turned on the radio briefly one afternoon to get a weather report, otherwise it’s just been Kitty and me in our headsets. There’s a combination I can live with!

And here we are, making our last fuel stop 147 miles from home, and we plan not to stop until we arrive home. It’s as hotter and more humid here in Virginia as it was at any point along the Gulf coast, with the temperature hovering in the low 90’s. Running north through the Shenandoah Valley, we see huge cloud banks hovering over the mountains, many miles to east and to the west. The hot air cools as it climbs the mountains that form the valley, and the moisture-laden air forms giant white clouds that stand like a towering line of defense guarding our pathway homeward as we work north and east through the valley on I-81. There appears to be no threat of rain in our vicinity or anywhere we can see, just those monster white cloud banks demarcating the valley. At I-81 Milepost 300 we catch I-66 for the last segment home. I’m glad I have cruise control because it would be hard to hold down my speed for the last 52 miles.

We pull into the driveway, move some vehicles, and park the bike and trailer in the garage. There might be a ride tomorrow with some biker cousins and others, but I opt to leave the cleaning to some future time. We have ridden 333 miles today, and a total of 2,422 miles for the trip. As vacation rides go, this has been another short one for mileage but we sure did enjoy the time with the family.

Maybe next year will the time to pull the trigger on my already-sketched 8,000-mile “Rocky Mountains One More Time” tour that will take us from Jasper, Alberta in the north, and southward along the spine of the Canadian and US Rockies into New Mexico before turning eastward and eventually home.

It’s been a great ride: The bike performed flawlessly; Kitty in fact did not fall off the bike in a fainting spell; we saw places we’ve never seen before; running the back roads of South Carolina and Georgia brought into sharp focus the economic crisis from which we are in some ways shielded here in the Washington, DC area; we made some new friends and got reacquainted with some old ones; we spent five days with our beloved family and grandchildren. So it’s all good. Touring the country with a woman of beauty who is so quick to see beauty is one of the greatest treasures of my life.

So for now, I’m content. But it won’t be long before I once again hear the call of the Slow Road, or perhaps the Long Road, or even the Technical Twisty Road, and I know my bike will be ready to answer the call when it comes.

See you then!

GPS Track Day 13

GPS Track For Trip, Selected Waypoints Included