St. Augustine Florida to Willis Texas
I got up at 4am to start my 50cc. One of the things I need to do is get the form signed by witnesses. A police officer or fireman will do. Two others like businessmen or three other creditible witnesses. I called the sheriff's office and the dispatcher, while more than curious, wanted me to go to the office to the north of town.
So I headed out to the office. I initially missed the turn but eventually found the office. The front door was locked but there was a phone at the door. I picked it up and called the dispatcher again. The phone wasn't working real well and I lost the connection so I called back. She tried a couple of settings and we were able to talk. I explained what I was looking for and she said she'd send a sheriff out in a few minutes.
I was apprehensive. The office arrived and I explained that I needed an official witness to the beginning of my ride across country. He said that he didn't have to sign the form and I agreed and thanked him for his time. We went over to my bike and registered the starting mileage. He said he wanted to make sure I wasn't going to do anything dangerous. I reassured him that the event was about endurance and planning, not about driving fast. He signed off on the papers and I got ready to go.
I headed back across town to the beach. Since it's a "coast to coast", the implication is to drive from coast to coast so I went out to the beach and got my little sample bottle. The waves were pretty rough. I got down to the water line and had to head out several feet to the water. The a big wave started coming in and I had to rush back to "dry" land. I didn't make it so I quickly grabbed my sample and headed back to the bike.
On my way to the designated gas station, I passed a patrol SUV, probably wondering just what the heck I was doing :) I stopped at the Diamond Shamrock and filled up my tank, got the receipt, verified the time (5:50am), logged the entry and headed out. I went back to the road back to town, back to 16 and off to 95 north.
After 15 minutes or so, I started to nod off. I pulled over briefly, grabbed a drink of water and headed off again. 30 minutes later and again I was tired and sleepy. I was starting to weave so I pulled over again and took a break. I found I could last 15 to 30 minutes per ride before having to pull over. I tried singing, I stopped for gas, I took breaks but nothing kept me going for longer than 30 minutes. I was irritated enough that I almost bailed and simply headed back to Deal's Gap for another couple of days of riding fun but decided to keep going. It's an endurance ride after all. After the first gas stop, the left Gerbing's glove bailed on me. No heat. I checked the fitting and futzed around with it. After a few breaks it came back but only a little. Must be a loose wire but it sure made the ride chilly on the left side.
Now one of the things I was doing was drinking just water and eating just the nut mix I had. At the end of three hours, I finally gave up and grabbed a diet coke and bag of M&M's. This is a no-no in the 50cc bylaws? rules? suggestions? I basically bailed on the 50cc and took breaks when I felt like it. Weirdly right at that point I stopped having problems nodding off.
So I continued on through Florida. Now I did notice that the Florida cops seem to have a different point of view with regards to traffic enforcement. I kept seeing cops sitting on the side of the road, a couple of miles ahead. Of course all the traffic would slow down to the limit. How novel. Traffic offense prevention rather than punishment. I did see several cops that had pulled people over so traffic was reasonably sane.
Rita popped on the cell sometime later and I explained what was going on. She asked if I would pick up a hat when I went through Pensacola. Seems she was stationed there back when she was in the Navy.
Most of the rest of the ride was pretty uneventful. A Corvette wanted to show off his speed or possibly race. I just watched him go. he slowed down enough that in a bit we were next to each other again. I gave them a thumbs up and hit it myself for a squidly burst of speed.
Going through the lower parts of Mississippi and Alabama were short and fairly uneventful. As I went from Mississippi to Louisiana, I went over some Bayous which were very cool. Louisiana was quite flat, all the trees were at the same height.
Rita and I chatted and I almost convinced her to virtually ride with me and I might still be able to make the run. She strung me along until a bit before Houston and then bailed on me. I decided to head north instead of continuing on to San Antonio.
While going though town, I found that the drivers were pretty insane. Even the cops were a bit nuts. I saw a group parked on the side of the road. As we approached I saw a cloud of dust and dirt as one of the cops quickly headed off to the exit. Another cop quickly accelerated into the group of vehicles and hit his lights pulling over the person that was in the front. Talk about crazy. And a few minutes later traffic started to slow down and merge to the left. I saw a pair of headlights in the far right lane facing traffic. Uh-oh. It looks like the car had flipped several times. There were several people on the side of the road and a couple of other cars stopped to help.
I headed to the ramp to Rt 45 north and began a search for a motel. The weird part is that there were very few actual motels. I saw several Motel 6 signs but that's all they were. I'd take the exit but the sign would be in a car dealer parking lot. After roaming up the access road, I'd hit the entrance to the freeway and search again. Eventually I got far enough out of town that I spotted a Comfort Inn that was available right from the freeway. I pulled in and got a room for the night.