The Trip Home Sunday morning was just a continuation of the the cold wet weather that we had experienced the previous few days. After loading our bikes and trailers we said good-by to Rich and Lucy, as they were headed to NASCAR country to visit friends and family. Leroy headed out to Cherokee and Frank set out alone for Plant City. Fortunately the rain was light and although the wind had increased our riding gear kept us dry and relatively warm. We left Salem headed westbound on I-81 then southbound on I-77. Hopefully when we dropped out of the mountains just north of Charlotte we would leave some rain and cold air behind. Unfortunately the clouds persisted as we continued to head southward towards Charleston. As we approached Columbia, South Carolina the skies darkened and we were caught in a Florida style downpour. Traffic crawled to a snails pace and many cars pulled off the roadway. We exited the next off ramp and encounter standing water that was deep enough to float our trailers. Fortunately there was large gas station with a convenience store that we pulled into to fuel up and wait out the storm. As the weather improved we headed out through Columbia to I-26 and onto Charleston. The weather improved as we continued southward on I-26 and passed over I-95. At a rest stop just north of Charleston we took a quick break and finally were able to rid ourselves of our Frog Toggs and heavy garments. There was actually blue sky up there - the first we had seen in days. At about 5:30 we check into our motel and headed to "Sticky Fingers" for some southern style BBQ. The next morning we headed out to Patriots Point and toured the naval vessels that were on display there. .http://www.patriotspoint.org/splash.asp As we walked up to the Yorktown we began to realize how large it was.
Even Dennis came aboard - he got to try out a cool lift system.
We got our exercise today. Gene Henry, one of our members was stationed on the Kearsarge, an aircraft carrier and related his experience of the Kearsarge and the Yorktown meeting in the Pacific. He gave us a guided tour of the innards of the Yorktown. Of course he couldn't pass up a chance to sit in one of the Panther's that was on station in the hanger bay.
Following our tour of the Yorktown we ventured over to and climbed aboard the submarine Clamagore, the destroyer Laffery and the Coast Guard Cutter Ingham, all of which were W.W.II vessels. The sun began heading toward the west and we still had to make it to Savannah by that evening, so we headed across Charleston on US 17 and westward to I-95. Late that afternoon we arrived at Pooler where we had reserved rooms for the night. After unloading our gear we headed to water front in downtown Savannah. Fortunately the downtown area wasn't too busy and we were able to find some parking places only a few blocks from the waterfront.
We took a little time and browsed some stores before locating a Pub where we enjoyed our dinner.
As we walked out of the Pub there was a deep blast of a ship's horn. Up the channel came a large dark image of a ship. We waited as it passed us, not three hundred feet from the docks. It was an enormous container ship headed out to sea. Then another blast and a second ship passed. Each of their masts just clearing a bridge that passed over the channel. It was time to head back to the motel. Tomorrow we would be heading home and our last day on the road. The next morning we woke up to some fog, but fortunately it was light enough not to cause us too much of a concern. Just that we once again had to dawn our rain gear. We followed I-95 to the Georgia-Florida line where pulled into the Florida Welcome station to rid ourselves of our rain gear. The fog finally gone, we enjoyed an overcast sky to Jacksonville then west on I-10. At Baldridge we exited and followed 301 south to Ocala and then I-75 to SR 56. We exited onto SR56 and once again were brought back to reality. Welcome home.... bumper to bumper traffic. Slideshow of Patriots Point and Savannah
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