TAT-2016 Post 23 – Tuesday, 15 March 2016

Last two days have been non-stop and exhausting. It is actually hard to remember what happen when. A short summary:

Monday – We all worked for a portion of the day getting loose ends done before we left for Charleston. I picked Terry up at home at 6:30 am and we drove to work. At noon I drove him to pick up the rental SUV and he returned to work while I had other errands to accomplish. Terry left work at 6 pm, picked up Edward, Steve and me then we hit the road to the East coast at 6:30 pm.

Nothing much to report about the 13-hour drive through the night except we all took turns driving while others tried to catch a little sleep. I don’t remember getting much. We arrived in Charleston around 9:45 am, all pretty tired.

Tuesday – Our top priority was to ride to the Atlantic Ocean for pictures. Little did we know the approximately 50 mile round trip ride would be heavy traffic all the way and back. In addition, it got up to mid 80’s temperature and we all suffered having on too heavy riding gear.

We had called the local police for the last several weeks trying to get permission to ride our bikes on the beach to get the “start” pictures. We kept getting promises but no specific instructions. Finally we tried one more time this morning with the same result. We gave up and rode to a place where the beach was within 50 feet of the bikes but separated by a sand bar and fence. We got several pictures of our bikes and us with the Atlantic Ocean behind us.  We finally decided that we had to dip our wheels in the water of the Atlantic and if we couldn’t ride the bikes to the Atlantic we would bring the Atlantic to the bikes. We found something to get some water from the shore and christened each bike in sequence. It may look like we are peeing on the front tires but it is actually salty Atlantic being applied.

We spent the rest of the day sorting our gear and packing, then repacking our bikes. I started a pile in the middle of the garage with all the extra stuff we were not going to take; the pile kept growing. When we finished we all had achieved a reasonable packing scheme that had reduced weight and duplication of our gear. I can now get everything I need in the tank bag and saddlebag. I must have eliminated 20 or 30 pounds of stuff. Edwards father will send the excess stuff back to Little Rock via UPS.

Terry, Steve and I are now at the hotel having free drinks and food they provide for business travelers. We three are still in the clothes we have been in all day and I need a shower badly. We decided on one more drink then early to bed; I’m betting I’m asleep before 8 pm.

We are being picked up by Woody at 6:30 am tomorrow for Day 1 of TAT 2016.