Sep 14 - Lumberton NC

It was an easy day so far. I was up early, as usual and did the blog. After that business was complete, I packed the car, finished by about 7:30. That gave us an hour to relax, play with Emma, etc. etc. before saying goodbye just before 8:30. Emma walked Abby to the car and we were all on our way.

We took 422 to I176 to I76 to Harrisburg, the I83 to Baltimore, the Baltimore beltway on the west side -- new to us -- I494 Washington Beltway to I95 -- also new to us as a route south, since we've always taken the Beltway East and/or the Baltimore Washington Parkway. It was easy driving most of the way with a slight slowdown south of DC for construction and lane merging. Once past Richmond the roads were relatively deserted. We got to Lumberton a little after 5pm and right now we're in our Best Western room prior to going to dinner. I think that we'll hit the "Ruby Tuesday" close to here and pig out on their salad bar.

Tomorrow we'll finish the drive to NSB, which should be clear sailing and shorter than our normal drive ... 7-8 hours ... getting us into NSB in good time. As I type this I knock on wood though, since obviously anything can happen on a car trip.

There were a couple of things that I forgot to mention about the NYC ride ... both police related ...

At one point in the ride we go on the Pallisades Parkway for 0.4 miles. The cue sheet is clear -- walk your bike from "rotary" (American for Roundabout) to rotary, state law etc. etc. I wondered whether this was just "good form" and started riding on the grassy shoulder. There was no pavement on the shoulder and traffic was busy. Right after I started I could see a half-dozen riders ahead of me walking, so with a sigh, I dismounted and started walking. Right after that a police car went by ... good thing I was law abiding, right ?

Later in the ride, in fact almost at the end, I slowed to let Mark the Texan come up beside me and asked him what he was doing in New York. Before he could respond I heard over a loudspeaker "RIDE SINGLE FILE" and I raised my hand to indicate that I'd heard and rode ahead of Mark. Duh ... I'd passed the police car just a minute earlier and we'd been warned at the beginning of the ride that they do give out tickets in NJ for this ... double duh. Oh well, we didn't get a ticket anyway !

I also forgot Aug 11 along the way. It was a quiet day -- got my hair cut, visited French Creek Outfitters and picked up something for Alex; Sandy went out with Jeffrey and Sara and Emma ... that's about it. Sandy cooked dinner and Jeffrey and Sandy stayed up late talking. I was going to need an early wake-me-up so hit the sack early (well, at my regular time).

It's 87F here. It's been blisteringly hot every time we got out of the car. Did I expect any less ?

Onward ...