Hoping this is a short post
I just wrapped up the overall planning stages of my road-trip down to Florida. Sure, it’s not a horizontal cross-country trip but a vertical one. Given that I live close to the tip top of USA, a drive south to Florida is 19 hours straight if I took highways the entire time.
The current trip I have planned is 29 hours of driving over 4-5 days as I’m adding an extra day in case of rain that keeps me stranded in one place.
Tentatively, here’s the plan:
- Day One leaving mid-afternoon on Friday or Saturday depending on Rain. 7 hours of driving on mostly state-highways (not Interstates) from central VT through Albany down to Williamsport PA. I’ll setup camp for the night.
- Day Two: Up at 6AM, on the bike by 7 to get some breakfast & coffee in Williamsport and heading south through Virginia. I aim for 6 hours of riding this day as well as my body at this point will start to be a bit frustrated with me. I’d like to make it Roanoke and camp here for the evening. Hearty dinner & drinks after I setup camp is in order
- Day Three: Up at 7:30-8AM after 10 hours of sleep and plenty of water before bed. I’ll be down to Deals Gap (aka Tail of the Dragon) by 2-3PM in time for a couple of runs on the Dragon. This would be on Monday so traffic down there is light.
- Day 4: Deals gap to St. Augustine Florida via Atlanta is 9.5 hours. Via Savanna, it’s 8.75 hours. This is fully doable in a single day if I push myself. I’ve ridden for 10 hours straight in July with an extra 2 hours for food & fuel breaks. It’s also 2.5 hours less driving to make it to my grandmother’s house in north central Florida and stay there for the evening instead so I would be at her place on Tuesday night and instead of 9 hours, I’d only do 7 hours that day and feel fresh for my 2 hour ride to dad’s place the following day.
- Day 5: Roll into St. Augustine Wednesday around 11AM.
I think this would be the best scenario in that it’s possible Wednesday at 6PM is possible if I end up only making it to Atlanta or Birmingham Tuesday night then drive to St. Augustine on Wednesday. The possibility is that there’s rain covering AL/GA that permits me from keeping a good pace. Yeah, I have rain gear but sometimes it’s easily just to camp out at a coffee shop and lose 5 hours than push myself. Plus, setting up a tent in the dark is never fun but I also don’t mind riding long into the evening if I have to.
On the subject of weather, the lows in NH should be around 35 when I leave, highs of 45 but once I’m south of PA, lows will be in high 40s, highs in low 60s and SC, GA and AL weather is lows of 50s, highs right at 68-70.
I have full gear, thermals, heated gloves and hand grips. I’d like to be able to pick up some larger hand wind-guards before the trip but those are $150 so maybe next year. It’s usually my hands that get cold first followed by the top of my thighs and then my chest starts getting cold and that’s with thermals but only when the temp is 28-35F. 40F+ and I’m fully toasty. No issue there.
I booked a refundable flight for 11/20 so I’d have a full 4 days with Dad worst case scenario and fly out that Sunday. If it takes me longer than 5 days to get down, I’ll re-schedule the flight for a day or two later.
My bike will be chained up @ Dad’s on a battery-tender until I fly down in March and pick it up to take home. I have to factor in an extra day on the return visit to leave my bike @ BMW in Jacksonville for new tires and 6K miles service (oil, filters, inspection, etc).
In an upcoming post, I’ll be talking about the gear I’m using for the trip and how I’ll be living for a week on my motorcycle.
PS: Here’s the route:
