CC20 - Day 25

If you are following the news, you might have seen the reports on Hurricane Delta reaching the US. I was East of it and didn't want to get into massive rainfall on my way west, so the motto today was: get west of the storm. 

And that's pretty much what I did:

Day 25 Route

I had this as my guide:

NOAA Screenshot for Delta

The NOAA app gave me a prediction for the storm path for Thursday and Friday and I planned my ride accordingly.

And since I already had quite a distance to ride, I decided to turn it into a full 1000 mile day. I didn't get the witnesses to make an IronButt Saddle Sore 1000 (1000 miles in 24 hours) ride, but that wasn't my goal anyways, I don't need the "badge", it was just fun to complete the 1000 miles. I had done this distance before, but that's a long time ago.

Here are the statistics:

Day 25 Ride Statistics

It was actually fairly easy. I left at 5:40 in the morning in Alexandria and arrived around midnight in Lebanon, MO (I got two hours back due to time zones). Had a good lunch break and most fuel stops turned into a short break. And since I was pushing the bike on the freeway I had to fill up quite a few times, six to be precise. Could have been okay with five, but I didn't "optimize" it, instead just filled when I felt like it.

And since I didn't stop much, I only have one photo from the day:

CC20 - Day 16

Since it was raining most of the ride today, I didn't take any photos. Also, because of my ear issues, I've only done a short hop to Knoxville, TN. 

The rain was light, but pretty much during the whole ride. Sometimes just some drops, sometimes a slight shower. Wasn't too bad though. The only annoying thing was drinking. My drinking tube is in the tank bag and that was under the rain cover ... so, only during stops today. No big deal, the whole ride today was only three hours.

Trying something new today with the map:

CC20 - Day 15

No riding today. Had to let my ears recover from continuous ear plug use. Tomorrow I'll ride to Knoxville. If I like the hotel I booked there, I'll extend the stay there for a few days and will do day trips.

CC20 - Day 14

From Cincinnati, OH to London, KY – it was a lot of fun today. I picked a route that brought me through some beautiful countryside, for me reminiscent of middle European landscapes – lush, green, hilly, rich colors and great riding. 

I was lucky, that the weather held. For a while it looked like it would be raining, but it didn't – it cleared up a bit and the weather was great for riding. 

At some point I was heading into a very promising county:

It didn't hold that promise though ... ;-)

As I was riding one of the many single lane roads, I came upon this very peaceful cemetery in the middle of the forest.

The route took me on a lot of single lane backroads, some turned to hardpacked dirt and gravel for a few miles, it was fine though, no deep gravel or such, which I try to avoid when I'm so heavily packed and have the big cases on. 

Since I had a rather complicated route today, I wanted to try something new and to not just provide a screenshot, but a way to see the real map. Let me know if there are problems with it.

First the screenshot:

And then the actual map: 

https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1hWf-BNIZ2cmpobNKn7FxJbI5IOXsYAKP&usp=sharing

Tomorrow is undecided yet, I might have to stay here in London, KY, since my right ear canal has become quite tender and is swollen. I'm not used to wearing ear plugs for so many hours a day. If this isn't significantly better tomorrow, I'll stay here another day and see whether it gets better.