Lamonster
SpyderLovers Founder
This was the first day on the road. I've been watching the weather to get an idea what I was up against for the ride out to Daytona. I knew it was going to be cold but the snow and ice over the mountain was my biggest fear.
I woke up at 4:30 am pretty much wide awake but there was no way I was leaving in the dark and I needed it to warm up a bit too. I got caught up on some web work and took a shower and suited up for the cold ride.
I had two pair of socks on, jeans, snow pants, chaps, thermo under shirt, denim long sleeve, Gerbing jack with heated liner and Gerbing glove. By time I got suited up I could hardly breath or move. I said goodbye to the wife and father inlaw and headed toward the mountain.
I needed fuel so I gassed up and set the trip meters. One is set for fuel and the other is set for this trip.
I must say for the most part I was pretty warm. I used the heated grips on low and even going over the mountain when it was 22 degrees it kept my hands and fingers warm. I was really surprised what a good job they did, I never did plug in my Gerbing gloves, didn't need to.
The roads were covered in sand and the wind was blowing like crazy. I got behind a big truck that was throwing sand and snow all over me and the RT but it was kind of nice to have him blazing the trail ahead of me so I could tell what was up ahead. There were only a couple of places that still had snow on the road but there was ice on a few of the turns and that had me puckered up pretty good when I would hit that. The RT did great and held the road just fine.
About an hour and a half into the trip my feet started getting pretty cold. It kind of felt like walking in the snow with the wrong shoes on. Now I'm thinking about heated socks if I ride in this weather again. By the time I got over the mountain and past Asheville I decided to pull into a rest stop and move my feet around a bit and plug in my jacket. I was getting a little cold. It's funny because a trucker came up to me and asked if I was cold and I felt like saying "what do you think?" , instead I just said "yep".
This was the last pic I took. The rest of my time was driving to try and get there before dark.
The time on my GPS was off and it said I wasn't going to be into Daytona till 11:30 pm. I couldn't figure out how that could be seeing I was on the road by 9:30 am and it was only 600 miles to Daytona. I didn't figure out the time was off till my second fuel stop.
I started off getting 30 mpg but it went down from there. The wind was blowing so hard that it pretty much fought me the whole way down to FL. I was getting pushed all over the place. Passing big trucks was a real rush seeing you never knew if you were going to get sucked into them or blown away from them. I think I would rather have rain than wind on a trip like this.
I had some joker try and run me off the road too. The guy had a 1 ton truck with a Harley in the back and was towing a trailer with a t-rex logo on it. I was in the fast lane flowing with the rest of the traffic and leaving enough room to stop when this guy tried to fill my space. I closed the gap a little and he dropped back. Then he comes up on me again and looks me in the eye and just started coming over in my lane. I had to slam on the brakes to avoid being hit by him and run off the side of the road. I won't tell you the rest of the story but it wasn't pretty. I did see him again and motioned for him to follow me to a fuel station but he kept going. I hope to see him in Daytona so we can have a little talk.
So that little deal kept by blood boiling for the next 200 miles or so and I was making pretty good time. I got to Daytona about 7:30pm and grabbed a bite to eat before heading to the condo where Magic Man and the gang are staying. All in all it was a good trip besides the cold and the trailer queen that almost killed me. I hope to have an uneventful day tomorrow.
Lamonster- SpyderLovers.com
I woke up at 4:30 am pretty much wide awake but there was no way I was leaving in the dark and I needed it to warm up a bit too. I got caught up on some web work and took a shower and suited up for the cold ride.
I had two pair of socks on, jeans, snow pants, chaps, thermo under shirt, denim long sleeve, Gerbing jack with heated liner and Gerbing glove. By time I got suited up I could hardly breath or move. I said goodbye to the wife and father inlaw and headed toward the mountain.
I needed fuel so I gassed up and set the trip meters. One is set for fuel and the other is set for this trip.
I must say for the most part I was pretty warm. I used the heated grips on low and even going over the mountain when it was 22 degrees it kept my hands and fingers warm. I was really surprised what a good job they did, I never did plug in my Gerbing gloves, didn't need to.
The roads were covered in sand and the wind was blowing like crazy. I got behind a big truck that was throwing sand and snow all over me and the RT but it was kind of nice to have him blazing the trail ahead of me so I could tell what was up ahead. There were only a couple of places that still had snow on the road but there was ice on a few of the turns and that had me puckered up pretty good when I would hit that. The RT did great and held the road just fine.
About an hour and a half into the trip my feet started getting pretty cold. It kind of felt like walking in the snow with the wrong shoes on. Now I'm thinking about heated socks if I ride in this weather again. By the time I got over the mountain and past Asheville I decided to pull into a rest stop and move my feet around a bit and plug in my jacket. I was getting a little cold. It's funny because a trucker came up to me and asked if I was cold and I felt like saying "what do you think?" , instead I just said "yep".
This was the last pic I took. The rest of my time was driving to try and get there before dark.
The time on my GPS was off and it said I wasn't going to be into Daytona till 11:30 pm. I couldn't figure out how that could be seeing I was on the road by 9:30 am and it was only 600 miles to Daytona. I didn't figure out the time was off till my second fuel stop.
I started off getting 30 mpg but it went down from there. The wind was blowing so hard that it pretty much fought me the whole way down to FL. I was getting pushed all over the place. Passing big trucks was a real rush seeing you never knew if you were going to get sucked into them or blown away from them. I think I would rather have rain than wind on a trip like this.
I had some joker try and run me off the road too. The guy had a 1 ton truck with a Harley in the back and was towing a trailer with a t-rex logo on it. I was in the fast lane flowing with the rest of the traffic and leaving enough room to stop when this guy tried to fill my space. I closed the gap a little and he dropped back. Then he comes up on me again and looks me in the eye and just started coming over in my lane. I had to slam on the brakes to avoid being hit by him and run off the side of the road. I won't tell you the rest of the story but it wasn't pretty. I did see him again and motioned for him to follow me to a fuel station but he kept going. I hope to see him in Daytona so we can have a little talk.
So that little deal kept by blood boiling for the next 200 miles or so and I was making pretty good time. I got to Daytona about 7:30pm and grabbed a bite to eat before heading to the condo where Magic Man and the gang are staying. All in all it was a good trip besides the cold and the trailer queen that almost killed me. I hope to have an uneventful day tomorrow.
Lamonster- SpyderLovers.com
opcorn: corn out and enjoyed reading it, I felt I was almost there, I opened the door and let in a cool 55 degrees, to try to simulate your experience, my wife said to me to "shut the door or else!", and proceeded to close it. deja vu (1 ton truck Harley guy) 
hyea:
