Southern U.S. Day 13

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Day 13 May 16, 2013

Because I went to bed so early I woke up at 3:30 and decided to get up and have a nice leisurely morning. Then I looked at the map and realized that I was two hours south of Tampa and if I didn’t get past before rush hour, I would be stuck in traffic all morning. So I left at 5:15 and made it past Tampa without too much trouble. The weather was good, nice and cool and it was nice watching the sun come up. That is such a peaceful time of the day, even if you are tooling down the road at 72.5 mph on a Goldwing.

I had planned on stopping in St Petersburg to see the Dali museum, but it would have delayed my trip by almost a full day, so I decided to skip it.

I rode up the interstate because I wanted to get to north Florida as soon as I could because it is 5 – 10 degrees cooler. After I turned of Interstate 75 onto Interstate 10 the ride became more like my trip last September. Up till now I was pretty much riding through wall to wall towns. The panhandle is not nearly as populous so you ride for a long time without seeing much civilization. Not as sparse as the west but way less crowded than the Atlantic coast.

I got to the motel about 1:30 pm. They were very friendly here, too. They were fascinated with my motorcycle and my trip. The desk clerk was from Patterson, N.J. and chatted up a storm. They even made me “Guest of the Day” which gets you the parking spot directly in front of the motel.

I went up to the room, took a shower, nap, and Tylenol. I should have taken the Tylenol first because when I woke up at 4 every muscle in my body was screaming.

After the Tylenol reduced the soreness to manageable levels, I took the bike to a car wash to get rid of all of the love bugs that decided to die on the front of my bike. Then I drove around Tallahassee for a while. It is very pretty, and clean, unlike other state capitols.

I wasn’t very hungry so I had dinner at Applebee’s which is connected to the motel. After dinner I went to the room and had a couple of drinks and fell asleep writing this blog. If Chris didn’t call me around 9:30 I might have slept at the desk all night.

I am planning on getting to New Orleans in the early afternoon, take a nap and spend the evening in the French Quarter.

https://plus.google.com/photos/101506993269424417039/albums/5878869979182235473?authkey=CNS9pMWx3qz6Lw

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