"Life is the great adventure ride. Twist the throttle hard."

July 24 

We left Savannah early and rode up toward Charleston.  We took a break at the Frampton plantation.  It was a small post cival war plantation. 

We then rode up to Charlotte South Virginia and stopped at Patriot Point, an overlook of Fort Sumter.  There is a maratime museum with the aircraft carrier Yorktown and a submarine.  We toured both for a couple hours. The boys really like climbing through navy ships. 

In one room, we came across this old relic from America’s past — a flag with only 48 stars!  The boys and I were thrilled to see a piece of American history from way back in the 50s.   (Luv you mumsies)

Our last picture of the day is self-explanatory…

July 25 – Sout Carolina to Washington DC

We got up eary, and rode hard so we would get into DC in time to meet Chris’s Friend Maddy Lloyd.  Not many photo ops, as we were on the bikes for 9 hours.  We did stop at a Mexican place called “South of the Boarder”. It was the east-coast’s version of mexico.  Note the hamburders on the restaraunt roof…  We decided not to eat and rode on.

As we rode into DC, the hardest rain-storm of the trip hit us.  Traffic slowed to about 35 as even the cars had a hard time driving in it.  We got into DC around 5:00, and Maddy was alreay at the hotel.  All this luggage was taken off our bikes:

We picked up the bikes as the Harley shop with fresh oil, new tires on my bike, and the switch replaced.  Headed east along the golf coast.  To make good time, we took the Interstate East toward Orland where the boys want to go to Harry Potter Land.  Riding over the giant bridges that go over the rivers and bays of the coast was nice.  In Mobile, we stopped at the USS Alabama museum/memorial to tour the ship and a submarine. 

At the same location as the USS Alabama is a WWII submarine that we could walk through.   The boys had a good time climbing around inside the sub.  And no, no one climbed into the torpedo tube.

They also had a lot of aircraft on display, including an A-12 the predecessor to the SR-71.  We rode till dark, and took a break at sunset on a beach along the golf coast. 

July – 21  Florida Pan Handle

Florida is one very long state.  We entered it on the West end and Orlando was 300 miles away, and the Key West 800 miles.  We’ll hit key west next time…  We rode most of the day, taking a break for me to make a business call. 

Near Ocala, I saw a sign for a huge Antique mall, and decided it was time for a break so I turned into it.  Across its driveway was a 4″ deep sand burm.  I wobbled and almost layed it down, but made it through.  Anyone who ride bikes in sand knows, when the first bike wobbles a little, the next guy will do worse.  Chris hit it and over went the bike.  Nothing broken.  Chris said it’s OK to post this pic.

Tonight, the Florida sunset was awesome, and Sam’s got a great picture of it on his iPhone.

We made it into Orlando with storms looming.  We took a 15 minute break to let a lightning storm pass.  That radar-weather app is really nice.  Its remarkable that we made it all the way from Denver to Orlando without getting wet.  As the news is showing, its record hot out here, but while we ride, it’s not too bad.  We all desert and Baja ride and are used to the heat.  We take a break every 45-60 minutes, and when we get back on the bike, its refreshing to have the breeze again.  

Mom isn’t here so in the hotel, so tonight we watched the Dirty Harry DVD I brought.

July 22 – Universal Studios / Harry Potter Land

The boys spend the day at Universal Studio’s Harry Potter Land.  The got the day away from dad and I got to troll the antiqu shops.  The boys thought Harry Potter Land was great.  You’ll like the picture of their new Tee shirts comming up in a couple days.

Tonight, we’re all seeing an IMAX Harry Potter movie at midnight, and then after a late start tomorrow morning, we head north for the 1000 mile / three-day ride to Washington DC.

July 23 – Orlando riding north

After getting home from the Harry Potter 3D IMAX movie at 2:30am, we slept in and hit the road around 11:00am.  We rode all afternoon and didn’t play tourist at all.  We stopped in Daytona beach for lunch.  We’re in Savannah Georgia tonight getting a good night sleep for a long-day of riding north tomorrow.

July 18 – South along the Mississippi

We got an early start because there was still 430 mile to get to New Orleans.  Along the way, we took a break at the same place Grant’s army did during the Cival war and Sam and I did 4 years ago. 

From there, we crossed the Mississippi, and rode to Vicksburg.

, had lunch at a very local Juke Joint, and then toured the Civil War memorial park.  The park has miles of rodes winding through the battlefields, with monuments and artillery all over the route.

They also have the wreckage of a Cival War iron-clad ship called the Cariro.  It is on display in the park, and setup so you can walk inside it. 

We rolled into New Orleans at 9:30 and found our hotel in the French Quarter. Having a GPS on the bike is very handy at a time like that.  We went down to Bourbon street and had dinner.  The boys even ordered local foods. 

July 19  – The day off in New Orleans

We dropped the bikes off at the local Harly shop to have the oil changed, and the ignition switch fixed.  Then, took a taxi to the Cival War Museum and the national WWII museum.  The WWII museum was amazing.  The exhibits were very dramatic, and the 4D film narated by Tom Hanks was powerful.  Its a must-see exhibit. 

In the afternoon, we walked the city and then took a bus out to the swamps for a tour. 

As the boat passed by a spider the size of a small cat, the captain made it pass right by where Sam was sitting.  Anyone who knows Sam knows he does not do spiders.