Day 0 - The Good, The Bad, and Other Observations

I call it Day 0 because I am the only one to ride on Wednesday.  Four other riders join me tomorrow, and since they are the majority, I called Thursday Day 1 in all of our trip planning.

THE GOOD
I enjoyed an absolutely wonderful day of riding for about 640 miles.  The problem is that I rode 691.1 miles. The solitude was refreshing. It wasn't terribly hot. And the brithday-present-from-Jaimee Cool Vest worked like a charm. The AirHawk R seat cushion worked well, too - so much so that at the 600-mile mark I was thinking that I could keep going if I needed to. And that's good. Because tomorrow I will need to keep going. And then the weather changed.

THE BAD

Yes, the weather turned ugly.  And if that wasn't bad enough, I left an hour later than I hoped, and the result was that I hit the weather AND rush hour traffic in Baton Rouge. I'm not a fan of riding in the rain. I'm not a fan of rush hour traffic. I'm really not a fan of combining the two.

But that's not all of the "the ugly". My first adventure of the trip came at my first fuel stop. Got off of my bike to hear, "that is one beautiful bike." Well, I liked that, and quickly struck up a conversation with a photographer for Harley Davidson dealerships. (I failed to notice he was traveling in a van covered in Harley graphics.) So I was trying to be interested in the conversation while looking through my wallet for my debit card. We are pretty much a cashless family - so the debit card is an important resource.  And it was nowhere to be found. I looked. And looked again. And again. While carrying on conversation with the Harley photographer. No debit card. Nope. Didn't make the trip. This is ugly.

OTHER OBSERVATIONS

• I rode in four states today - Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana.
• I saw 13 State Police cars while on Florida roads.  I saw none in Alabama, none in Mississippi, and 2 in Louisiana.
• Drivers in Louisiana drive faster than drivers in Florida, Alabama, and Mississippi. Without question. At least 5 miles per hour faster than those in the other states. I found that interesting.
• I captured no video and few pictures today. There just isn't much to see on the interstate - and the first few days are mostly interstate, as the real ride begins in San Francisco.
• I am looking forward to seeing my friends tomorrow. Their names are Randall, Trent, Matt, and Steve. Readers will meet them in the days to come.
• I can't wait to share this experience with my best friend, who also happens to be my wife. I will be reunited with her on Saturday night if we stay on schedule.
• I am grateful to my Lord for a safe, pleasant ride today - and especially for safety while riding in the rain and traffic. He is good. He is faithful.

OH, YEAH - ABOUT THAT DEBIT CARD

"We" [translated Annette] found it, though. At a place in Orlando where I used it to claim some will-call tickets on Monday. The card will meet me - along with Annette - in San Francisco. Until then, it's all AMEX.

Here's the Spot Tracker map of today's 691.1 miles. You can follow along using the link below.

http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0qkJsBHuPg0jD6se4XqDq6zPQmDdIn1zT