The Long Way Home. Friday

Mileage: 391
States: NC, SC, GA

Knowing that the earliest the cycle shops opened was 9AM, we slept in a bit (7:30) showered, loaded the bikes and got ready to go by 9 when I called and found a Michilen Pilot Road in the proper size at Boone Honda. The didn’t have the Dunlop D220 and the earliest they could have it was Tuesday. So the ST got a PR on the rear.
They wer very helpful and got right on it as soon as we pulled in. An hour later, the ST had a new shoe on the rear, air pressure checked on the front, and the rear member oil topped off.
One of the gentleman there had to wander around my VFR and decided it was “good looking” the kid behind the counter was amazed that I was from Texas. Surprised the service guy when I gave him my address too.

With the wallet $220 lighter, we set off in search of food around 11AM.
After pestering the waitress at Huddle House, we headed for the Blue Ridge Parkway.
BRP is a beautiful road. Sadly the 45mph speed limit hampers the amount of fun that can be had there. I constantly had to watch myself for accelerating out of corners well over the limit.

Jumping off the BRP in Ashville, got directions from some locals and made a bee-line for Atlanta. The chosen route took us down to Spartanburg, SC and then over to Atlanta. Unfortunately it was all interstate, but time was of the essence.
Traffic didn’t seem to have a problem rolling 80-90mph so we made excellent time. And somewhat surprisingly, the bikes loved it too. 46mpg on the VFR, 50mpg on the ST1300 :eek:
Just 9 miles from our exit, the rain started. Couldn’t have been earlier when both bikes temp gauges were reading over 100*F, nope, had to be just before we arrived so we are trapseing all kinds of nasty wet gear into the house. :giveup:
We managed to avoid the maniacs that wanted to run us over, and there are lots of them on I85 and in Atlanta! and made it to our destination about 8PM.