2009 May 13th: I woke up early this morning. I didn’t know that anyone else was up so I was trying to be quiet in the room. My back has been sore so I laid on the floor and tried to get it to crack. That didn’t seem to work so I sat up and folded my legs and tried to meditate for a few minutes. This position made my back feel better. I got up to go out to the kitchen and Robin and Annette were both up watching TV on the couch.
I sat down and had a fresh ruby red grapefruit for breakfast and then I started to get all of the luggage taken out to the bike. I moved the bike out of the garage and did a pre-flight check. Everything was good. I lubed the chain because I forgot to on Monday night. It still looked OK but I’ve been doing it anyway.
Once everything was loaded, I thanked my Uncle Robin and Aunt Annette for all of their great hospitality and then rode off.
I got on the I-95 freeway and rode that until just past the South Carolina border where I turned onto highway 17. I pretty much stayed on that the rest of the day.
The temperature was much cooler and it started to rain a little bit just north of Savanna, GA, but it wasn’t enough to get me wet. I did stop though and zip up all of the vents in my jacket and put on a tee shirt.
The whole way today, I was seeing a lot of bikes on the road. When I got to Myrtle Beach, SC, I realized why. It is Bike Week in Myrtle Beach this week. There were literally thousands of motorcycles. They easily out numbered the car 10 to 1. Every parking lot that I past had rows and rows of bikes lined up. There was a “Y” in the road with signs saying heavy congestion, and I didn’t even go that way and it was packed with bikes.
I did my best to ride straight on through. Most of the bikes were Harley’s but there were a few that weren’t. I’m guessing that I was the only one on a Ninja 250 and I didn’t see another person wearing a hi-viz green jacket. I definitely felt out of place.
As I got into Jacksonville, NC, I past a military base and I saw a V-22 Osprey in flight hovering. I really wanted to stop and take a picture but by the time I got to a place where I could, the plane pitched and went the other direction. These planes are one of the coolest aircraft made.
I rode until it was almost dark, which was almost a bummer, because I had a difficult time finding a RV Park to stay in. I did find one but they were closed. There was a number to call on the door, so I called it and Angela was nice enough to come over to the office and let me have tent site. She told me that normally they don’t allow motorcycles because of the noise. Once she heard how quiet the little Ninja was she was OK with it. I was relieved and very grateful. Thank You, Angela at Goose Creek Resort in Newport, NC.
I got my tent setup in record time and then I found internet and so I was able to post tonight.
The reason that I rode so late today was because I was trying to get close to the ferry for tomorrow. My plan is to take a ferry across to Okracoke Island and the other to Haterras Island. These two ferries will take almost three hours, so I wanted to get an early start. I’m also guessing that the speed limit is fairly low so it will take awhile to ride to the northern end which has a bridge.