I spent the better part of three months planning out my road trip. What clothes to pack, tools to bring, roads to travel, places to stay over, friends to see along the way etc. It took me all of one day to realize I screwed up.
After the long ride to West Virginia I sat every night, rerouted and rethought my trip and the possibilities of carrying out such a long distance over a period of roughly four weeks. No matter what combinations I chose my time on the bike would far outweigh my time off it, which was not what I envisioned for this adventure ride.
I found out that I could comfortably ride six hours in a day IF conditions were optimal, but even with great conditions, I would only cover about 300 miles. When I ran the math on the distance I needed to cover and added time for incidentals like weather and time off the bike, I would have needed closer to six weeks time to make this the trip I imagined it to be.
I thought about just riding up to Minnesota and back but that wasn’t the reason I chose to do this. I tried to reroute the ride going southwest to South Dakota and the miles still added up to more than I could be comfortable doing. Turning this trip into an Iron Butt ride was not an option for me.
My thoughts then turned to planning a ride back home over the course of the next week.
I map out a route that will take me through the Appalachian mountains down into Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia then finally end up back in Florida. I planned the rides to be no more than six hours and which worked out well in the end.
So as I head out for home Thursday morning, I’m both upset that my plans didn’t work out but also anxious to get back home. First stop, Bristol Va.