The sun was low on the horizon, I was more than halfway home and I’d been on the road nearly 9 hours, so I asked my Garmin GPS to start looking for motels while I gassed up at a Shell station at Jackson’s Gap, Ala.
It came up with a couple of possibilities about 15 miles ahead at Alexander City. I settled on the Holiday Inn Express, which turned out to be a Comfort Inn.
They let me park my bike out by the front door for security and they even had a luggage cart, making it possible to haul all of my stuff – saddlebags, waterproof duffle, tankbag, seatpack, helmet and jacket – to my room in one trip.
I’d only covered 436 miles, but they were slow miles, mostly off of the Interstate on U.S. highways winding north and west from Tifton, Ga., across the Georgia-Alabama line near Columbus, Ga. and up toward Birmingham.
My average speed while moving was only 58.8 mph, compared with 65 mph on Tuesday and 66.1 mph on Wednesday, as I slogged through small towns and medium-size cities. Naturally, I hit Columbus at evening rush hour.
So I dumped my stuff in my room and trudged across the parking lot to the Taco Bell next door. I wasn’t all that keen on Taco Bell – they have Pepsi products that I generally dislike – but I was too tired to consider going any further.
Back in the room, I cracked open the half pint of Jack Daniel’s that I’d bought in Florida, poured about two fingers of it into a small plastic motel cup and sipped it while watching crap on TV. Maria called about the time I was ready to shut off the lights and I assured her that I’d be home tomorrow well ahead of the advancing rain.
Fade to black.
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