It was time for a road trip to see 2 of my oldest friends. 53 years ago Tom and I were going through AIT at Fort Leonard Wood, MO and after the Army moved us to two different locations we ended up in Darmstadt Germany on opposite sides of a small parking lot, In different companies. I met Marcia at their wedding some 50 years ago.
So I took off on the Goldwing, having owned it for 2 weeks, and endured the traffic of West Virginia, the heat in Illinois, and 120 miles through St. Louis in the middle of Hurricane Beryl dumping tons of water on me.
I wrestled with the various routes for a couple of weeks, checking the weather along each and the mileage. The fastest was the route through West Virginia, Louisville, KY, St. Louis, MO to Columbia. The route with the highest level of heat and humidity was Asheville, NC, to Nashville, TN, Paducah, KY, Mount Vernon, Il, St. Louis to Columbia, The route through KY to Paducah, KY, St. Louis, to Columbia was the most enjoyable for a motorcycle ride but the mileage was estimated to be 100 miles longer than the other two. Since Tom and Marcia were going on a trip after my visit I decided to take the fastest route through WV. BIG MISTAKE!
The two most important things missing from the routing programs that load into a bikes GPS are weather and traffic. These two are important! Everything went smoothly until after NC52 connecting with I74 then a 2-3 mile backup getting onto I77 going to WV. Bumper to Bumper traffic not allowing people to merge into I77. It took me 45 minutes just to get to a point where I could squeeze into I77. The next problem was for some reason people traveling through WV have never seen a tunnel before. These tunnels are huge and divided between north and south. They are well lit and clearly posted 55 MPH! All the cars ground to a halt at the entrance at 25 MPH and slowly went through creating a 3 mile back up for each tunnel, with NO traffic on the other side of the tunnel. You might guess by now that the three upcoming toll plazas were the same. Yes, 2-3 mile stop and go backups. This has pushed me into the heat of the afternoon, not where I wanted to be. I passed through Charleston, WV to Barboursville where I found a Best Western at 5 PM. 8 hours on the road.
Monday I left early planning to stop in Mount Vernon, IL. The plan was to ride early about 400 miles and checkin early. Weather was clear but humid and traffic was minimal, so a good riding day. I stayed in Mount Vernon at the Quality Inn, it was ok but did have a bug problem. Well you get what you pay for at $89 room.
Tuesday I was watching the weather closely since Hurricane Beryl was coming across my path. The weather forecast for St. Louis to Columbia was for the heavy rains to hit St. Louis between 12:00 and 3:00 so I was going to leave at 8:30 am so I could be on the other side of city and the storm would pass behind me. With 80 miles to St. Louis I would be clear of the storm into the lighter rain going into Columbia. The weather forecasters have Double Doppler, Triple Doppler, Satellite imagery and numerous models to explain how accurate they are. Let me reassure you that they have no idea what is happening on an hourly basis. They may look and sound good on TV but from my helmet it was garbage! I was 30 miles down the road going into the middle of ST. Louis on I64, connecting with I70 and the skies opened up. Torrents of rain for the next 120 miles with visibility close to 100 yds. People ask "Why didn't you just stop for the night?" I was in East St. Louis and no one should ever stop there. I have to give credit to the Goldwing here because any other bike and I would have been forced to stop. The aerodynamics of that bike brushes the wind and water off easily and felt totally in control the whole time. I still got to Columbia dry.
We had a great couple of days catching up and it was so good to see them and spend some time together. Marcia always plans things to do like picnics and hikes. I would have stayed longer but you know these retirees, they were off on a trip after I left.
I took a different route back through Kentucky, VA into NC. My goal was to stay out of the heat. It didn't work, it was hot all the way home. I should point out here that the weather people forecast that the highs all across KY would be 85 degrees. The bike was saying it was 93 degrees, I know who was accurate. I took 4 days to get home and I drank lots of water and gatorade. I stopped in Paducah, KY, London, KY and since the miles and heat were wearing on me, I stopped at Willville to catch my breath and cool off on the porch. Will offered me the Bunkhouse but i wanted air conditioning so I booked a room in Martinsville, VA, partway home and cooled off there overnight. All toll it was a 2250 mile round trip leaving on Sunday and returning on Sunday.
Things of note: the shortest distance planned by Basecamp is not always the fastest. Opt for the road less traveled. The 2 lane and divided 4 lanes in KY had no traffic and the scenery was beautiful. All 5 motels were around $100 with Best Western Plus the nicest. At $100 you get a clean room and a hot shower. Don't count on the tv working or if it does the cable choices are minimal. The wifi will be slow. The ones cheaper than $100 may come with roommates, usually crawling around in the bathroom but there is no extra charge for this.
I always carry a $10 roll of quarters, a couple of laundry detergent pods and some Bounce dryer sheets. I do laundry every 4 days and no one has change. The dryer sheets are good to have if you become overrun with bugs on the windshield, wet the sheets and they dissolve the bugs away.
I would do that trip again in a second but I would add on 4 more days to enjoy the sights. I doubt I will ever see WV again in July and August.
