Trip wrap-up

Sorry I let my blog laps after my stop in Key West.  I am filling in the remaining details now (February 2010) before they fade too far.  Leaving Key West I put on some epic miles and made it to central Florida in time for dinner.  From there I road clear through Georgia, dodging some biblical flooding in some parts of the region.  I made it to South Carolina that day.  I got myself a little too drunk that night and had a slow start the next morning.  I decided to skip "The Tail of the Dragon" due to wet roads and a hangover.  Not the best recipe for technical motorcycle riding.  I stopped in High Point, NC to visit the Red House Furniture store (look it up on youtube), and then starting putting the miles away.  I decided I was going to make it back to Northern Virginia that night even if it killed me.  Luckily, it did not kill me.

I ended up spending about two weeks in NoVA.  I needed to kill time before an obligation in Connecticut.  I used the time to visit with all of my friends in the area  I also did overnight trips to Pennsylvania and to North Carolina to visit some folks I missed on the trip.  It was great catching p with everybody and I slept on many a couch.

From NoVA I road to Long Island, NY and the spent the night with my cousins.  The next day my cousin David road out to Orient Point with me.  From there I boarded a ferry to New London, CT where I was scheduled to attend my 5-year homecoming at the Coast Guard Academy.  I figured it would be a good way to wrap up my time in the service.  Unfortunately there were not as many people in attendance as I was originally hoping, but I did have a good night at Mohegan Sun, despite the wet ride home.  I spent the night camping at our old Rugby Pitch (field) and hit the road after the rugby game on Saturday.  I was scheduled to ride North to meet my Dad, and our friends Randy and Bob.

We met in Sturbridge, MA.  The mercury was taking a nos-dive, and we woke up to find a nice frost on the motorcycle seats.  We road through back country roads to Vermont and watched a Patriots game in the hotel  room.  Or original plan was to spend a few more days on the road, but a looming early snowstorm led to cut the trip a little short.  The next morning we left on frosty bikes and headed towards the New Hampshire coast.  We took a brief detour through Kittery, ME before having lunch at one of my old haunts in Portsmouth, NH.  From there we made a quick highway run through Boston and back to my Parents' house on Cape Cod.  And thus ended my trip.  The total mileage was just over 18,000 miles.