Going, Going, Gone...

So we started our Disney gorge feast at Magic Kingdom, then we moved onto Epcot Center, and then onto Animal Kingdom. If you go online and read the reviews, people tend to dislike Epcot and Animal Kingdom, most claim you can see them in half a day. We didn't feel this way, we all really liked Animal Kingdom. But then we really like zoo's and animals, so maybe that has something to do with it. On Christmas Day, we decided to go back to Magic Kingdom. Now, we've made some mistakes on this trip, starting with my route around Houston that caused us to bed down in Beaumont instead of Baton Rouge. But I think deciding to go back to Magic Kingdom on Christmas Day was as big of a mistake, maybe bigger.

The park was crazy! Maybe it's me, but I really can't understand what makes people want to stand in a line for over 70 minutes for a ride that takes two to three minutes tops. I couldn't believe how many people were at the park. I hate to think what the park looks like during a busy day during the summer. Nearly everything had at least an hour wait until you get on the ride. Thankfully we finally figured out the fastpass thing and we were able ride a couple of the rides that we missed on Monday. We purchased the five day tickets, but after four days of Disney, we were spent. Teri and I made the decision to pass on day five of Disney. The fact is, we were only going to go to a park for a few hours since we had planned to ride 400 miles to Andalusia, Alabama.

We got an early start today, a first for us on this trip. After eating at what had become our regular breakfast spot, we left the local Waffle House aboard our BMW motorcycles. This is what people don't understand about motorcycles, you don't have to wait in a line for 90 minutes and the ride can be as long as you want. Today that ride was eight hours long, not two to three minutes and it was, at least for me, every bit as thrilling as a Disney ride.

When I think Florida, I think beach, surf, waves. Everything related to beaches, and part of that is how Florida itself promotes itself in advertisements about Florida. However, today as we passed through Central Florida, I saw a part of Florida that reminded me of Virginia, complete with horse farms and hay bales. As I passed through the area, I couldn't help but think that the tourism bureau of Florida needs to promote that part of Florida. One thing has impressed me about Florida and that's the amount of parks. Seems you can't throw a rock without hitting a park, makes me kind of wish we had done a tour of those types of parks instead of Disney's parks. Oh well, we have bikes and know how to travel. Maybe next time. :-)

Delays, Delays, Delays

Off we roared onto 290 East headed to Florida. GPS devices are wonderful tools, but they can be a bit dangerous too as we were to find out. I decided to try and skip Houston and skirt it by getting off 290 and taking 2920 through Tomball. Great plan on paper, but the reality is, the traffic and traffic lights are horrible going that way. We were in stop and go traffic and really starting to frustrate us as we both realized my error in just looking at the maps.

We finally got on a roll after dinner (and nearly an hour behind schedule) as we rode on US 90. Then we came to a screeching halt. We were near Liberty Texas and according to a couple of folks who got out of their cars to come talk to us, there was a pedestrian/car accident and the pedestrian had died. As we sat there for over an hour in traffic, Teri and I decided that our plan on making it to Baton Rouge was nowhere in the plans now. It would be nearly 1130 PM if we tried. Our best option was to stop in Beaumont, and try and make up the time tomorrow. The sad part is we had made reservations online, which to get the discount required a non-refundable prepayment. Oh well, we're on vacation right? 

We got started late the next day, well late for me. Typically, I'm on the road by No later than 6 AM. That wasn't happening on this trip more like 9-10 AM. I rerouted our trip to hit I-10/I-12 to cut down our miles. What I didn't realize was that I-10 was just as frustrating at times. Construction, traffic accidents, and who knows what forced us to a crawl on I-1o multiple times the next day. The pay off was once we hit the Florida state line (much later than anticipated), the traffic was nearly non-existent and we flew down I-10 till we finally go off the major road and onto state highways. We rolled off the road and into our motel room about 9:30 PM. Only about 7 hours later than originally planned. 

Photos (not too many so far 1-10 doesn't really inspire me to take photos): http://flickr.com/photos/82683679@N00/collections/72157611407160309/

The Planning Goes On

The California trip planning goes on. I think I finally have a route that seems to be OK. I’m going to try to figure out how to post it here later.

Initially my route included stopping in Phoenix to visit my sister. But my brother-in-law has somebody in his family who has a big celebration going on when I'll be in town, so I'll catch them on the return trip. 

• Day 1 (Friday) - I'm going to ride to my mom's house and have dinner with her. That will give me a two hour leg up on the trip with 124 miles. 
  
• Day 2 (Saturday) - one of the short days. I'll go from Kerrville, TX to Deming, NM a mere 580 miles.  
  
• Day 3 (Sunday) - this will be the long day. Deming NM to Bakersfield CA. This is the 800 mile day. 
  
• Day 4 (Monday) - another short day with a short 250 miles to Milpitas, CA. After Sunday, I'm sure I'll want a short day.

I did get an appointment to get my tires replaced before I left. I thought about riding on them until I got there, but then thought better about it, or should I say, my wife talked me out of doing that. Something about being safe. Go Figure. 

Update: The BMW now has new shoes, so now the bike is really ready for the trip.