Day 2 (February 17/13) of Our Drive to Florida...A NEAR MISS!

So while we were sleeping at the Best Western in Radford, VA,.... it snowed!!!!

This is the scenery as we left early Sunday morning, and the weather in the Smoky mountains was snowy and -10 C. But we remained hopeful that as we drove further south the thermometer would rise!! And it did but only a wee bit. By the the time we got to Alabama it was hovering around +10 C and sunny. After lunch Jim noticed the hitch was pointing down toward the ground....NOT GOOD! He checked it out and saw the hitch was partially off the frame of the vehicle. Went to Walmart as everything is closed on Sunday, to try and get some kind of repair. They only do oil changes and batteries...trying to come up with a plan, Jim took his motorcycle off the trailer, repositioned my bike so the tongue weight was a lot lighter. Getting back on the road I was driving and Jim was following on his bike. We had at least 6 hours of driving left and the temperature got as low as 4 C by the time we made it to Destin, FLA at 1:00 AM. Jim was freezing and we were pretty tired, but arrived in one piece.

 

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Heading to Florida on Saturday February 16/13

This is the sunset on Saturday evening, our first day driving south toward Florida . At the end of this day we were in Radford, Virginia and the weather was clear, sunny and cool.

 

 

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Gettin' the Cobwebs Out

Yesterday, Monday February 18th was all about getting unpacked, taking the vehicle to get looked at and going to the store. Even though we didn't get to bed until 2:00, waking up at 5:00 was just our way. Once up and out the door, we headed to a body shop for advice on the hanging hitch. The kind gentleman who happened to be the owner took a look and told us nothing should be towed at all with the vehicle. Taking the back bumper off to try and build up some metal would be very costly and he couldn't guarantee it would even be repairable. With that information in hand, another solution was being thought of as we brainstormed. So we came up with the answer in asking Tara and Brett to drive down here 2 days before we are due to come home. They are going to need a proper truck to tow us home and our amazing friends, Dale and Susan are graciously lending us their truck!!!

Today, February 19th was a great day....although the view out the window was wet early in the morning...

After a couple hours of rain, it cleared up and we went for a ride!!! Rode to a biker bar called The Outpost, had a refreshment and talked with the owner who was very nice. He invited us back for the live band on Friday ... we may take him up on his offer. It was great to get the cobwebs out and see more of our surroundings touring on our motorcycles. We are right on Scenic Gulf Drive which is beside the ocean, and after our ride we walked on the beach to watch the sunset. Totally relaxing!!

 

 

 

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