Matt's First Hurricane

A Nice Spot To Rest

June 11, 2012

Tallahassee, Florida

Feeling refreshed and rejuvenated from the day off of traveling spent with the Brown's, I knew I was getting close to my next night's destination in Tallahassee Florida when I passed a sign welcoming me to the sunshine state. At least I think that's what it said because unfortunately at that time I was completely engulfed in what appeared to me to be a hurricane. All of a sudden the sky's turned almost completely dark at around 3:00pm and after a vivid show of flickering lightening, the sky seemed to open up. I slowed down from 70mph to 50mph as that was the minimum allowed on the road, and turned on my turn signal as my bike wasn't equipped with emergency flashers. This is probably due to the fact that when on two wheels in gale force winds, and hurricane like driving rain, most intelligent people find a nice quiet place to sit it out but not this guy. I had someplace to be and I had enough 10-11 hour rides already. To make matters worse, my visibility was also compromised with the enormous amount of debris being blown into my blessed face shield. Looking out over a field I wouldn't have been surprised to see a funnel cloud forming, but thankfully there was only more sinister black clouds.

At the worst of the rain I could barely see the car's stop lights less then 20 feet ahead of me. Gripping the handle bars with white knuckles I slowed as far as I dare and pushed on trying to leave myself room in between the enormous 18 wheelers sharing the two lane road with me. After what seemed like an eternity the rain finally let up although the fun had just began. It was at this point that I had to start veering around pools of standing water on the road, also being careful not to run over any larger sized pieces of debris as both were now all over the road. I kept weaving in and out the lanes, looking for dry stretches that were also not blocked by pieces of trees, until finally I hit clear sky's and even more welcoming: clear roads.

Less then an hour later I pulled into Tallahassee happy to be alive, but also proud of the way both man and machine had tackled the elements. After I got into my room I saw news reports about how flash floods had caused havoc on the border between Georgia and Florida and I thanked lady luck again for helping me chose the scenic route going west across southern Georgia. Before the storm the scenery was nice, and the roads were even better: wide open. It took every bit of self restraint not to bottom out Saphira's speedometer fearing overheating in the 98 degree weather. Every time I'd round a bend, I'd see nothing but open road for at least a mile. If not a little desolate, driving Southern Georgia by bike was a relaxing route full of speed and few traffic lights and I was happy to be there.

What I wasn't so happy about was that after pulling off the first exit in Tallahassee, I still had heard no word from my couch surfing host in the city. Sending them a last minute email to try once more to get the address, I finally gave up and got a hotel for the night. With a pool, ice cold AC, and free breakfast in the morning I think I might the right choice even if it is more than twice the price for one night here as it is for my next two nights in New Orleans. Before hopefully finding a movie on TV to drift off to sleep to, I think I'll take a quick cruise to downtown Tallahassee, and see what sights there are to see on a sleepy Monday night.