We met up at his house on Saturday night, then hit the gas station for the official start of the ride, around midnight. A short jaunt on Interstate 75 got us to 27, a 2-lane surface road that makes its way across the bottom half of the state to the other coast. We rode that road for miles and miles and ... well, you get the idea. It was pitch black out, and hardly anyone else on the road - heck we had a lane each all to ourselves. The ride through 27 was almost dreamlike, with nothing to cut through the darkness but the lights from our bikes, and the occasional lamp from one of the few processing plants we passed on the way. Two Sheriff vehicles hurried past, lights ablaze, but thankfully they weren't after us.

We had intended to stop after only 80 miles, to help "break" ourselves in for the long ride, but we did about 150 before our first stop in Sebring. It was cold at this point, and I got into my rain jacket to use as a liner for my perforated Joe Rocket Santa Fe. It would only get colder in the next several hours, till well after the sun had come up, and even two t-shirts, the rain jacket, and the JR couldn't keep me warm. I hid from the freezing wind behind my double-bubble windscreen, in full-tuck Ricky Racer style. Rali was doing better as his jacket wasn't perforated, and his Interceptor's windscreen is taller.

Above, Rali, somewhere on the turnpike. At right, me, laying down for a stretch.

We eventually hit the turnpike, then back on 75 - but now in the central part of the state. I'm not a coffee drinker but at one of our rest stops I greedily guzzled down a hot cup of something that was being advertised as coffee. I still have my doubts about it, and my stomach still twitches at the memory of it all. At this point I was cold, tired, and my stomach was feeling rowdy. Rali seemed to be doing OK, and in high spirits. Good. We were now about 400 miles into the ride.

We made it to Georgia, but Albany was still a good ways off. We had decided on Albany as it was a good midpoint at just over 500 miles from our starting location, and looked like a decent town to explore. We stopped at the Welcome Center for a photo op and a stretch. I was getting over the bad coffee now, it was warming up, and I had my first bite to eat of the day - life was good.

Albany was a nice little town, if somewhat nondescript. We got there at about 10:30 AM. Soon after, we hit a Waffle House and had ourselves a real meal (thanks again for lunch, Rali!). We went over our route back and tried to find a different road out, just for a change of scenery, but got turned around by about 30 miles when the directions from a gas station attendant turned out to be somewhat inaccurate.

After getting back on the same route we went in on, we eventually found our way back to I-75. We made good time, really eating up the miles without jumping into hyperspeed, but I was getting very, very sleepy by then. I think I might have fallen asleep while riding at one point, because I remember looking around me all of a sudden, and recalling a short dream... Yes, we stopped soon after...