September 6

I had hoped to be out of town by about 11AM this morning. It was not to be. Several last minute things came up, and soon it was noon, then 1.. I finally fired the bike up at 2, ran down to Lana's office to say goodbye to her, and hit the road for Huntsville about 2:15. Running late means that you take the boring but fast roads, so I hit 231 early on and made some time. I got some light sprinkles coming out of town, just enough to keep the outside temperature comfortable. The skies stayed overcast the whole way up, and my thermometer never read over 87. Traffic was moving well on all of the roads, and I tucked in behind whomever was running the fastest and used them to catch radar for me. One guy ran 90 for quite a while, I was sad to see him turn off. The FJR just eats this kind of riding up. It feels like it is just loafing along at 90, and it still has plenty of power to spare. It is a great cross-country bike. I sometimes call it my ICBM: Intercontinental Ballistic Motorcycle.

At my first gas stop, south of Montgomery, I pulled out the cell phone to call Eric and let him know I would be late. No service. "That's odd", I thought. "I am on a major road close to a big city". I rode on and pulled over once I got into urban Montgomery, same thing. So I left the phone on, put it in the clear map pocket of my tankbag, and hit the road again, checking it occasionally to see if I had service. I never got a signal. I was hot. I had recently changed cell companies because I had terrible coverage with my old one, and now I had the same problem with the new one! In Birmingham I found a pay phone (they are getting harder and harder to find nowadays), called Lana, and left her a v-mail to call Eric and let him know what was up.

As the sun dropped below the horizon, the temps dropped and I got a bit cool, but not enough to pull over and put on a layer...I was already late, and I only had another hour to go. I could stand being cold for an hour. I got turned around in the dark at the 231-431 intersection in Huntsville, but the GPS came to my rescue, and I only lost a few minutes. I finally arrived at Eric's around 8:30. Lana had called them, and they had held dinner for me. I called Lana on Eric's landline, and was expressing my displeasure with my cell carrier in pretty strong terms to her, while I fiddled with the cell phone with my other hand. Then a light dawned...I had been playing with network settings on the phone the other day. Beep, Boop, BLING! 4 bars. It had been my fault all along. I was just glad I had not had time to call the cell carrier yet. I would have eaten some crow, I am sure!

Eric handed me a Bass Ale and threw some steaks on the grill while Linda sautéed some onions and mushrooms. These folks know how to eat! We had a great meal, ice cream soaked in Amaretto for dessert, and hit the sack around 11.

The GPS showed that I rode 397 miles today, with an overall average speed of 76 MPH.