The Next/First Big Trip

When I was in school I bought a 1980 BMW R100RT. At Thanksgiving my family asked what I was going to do over the Christmas break? I replied, "I'm riding my bike to Key West". It turned out to be the coldest winter on record. It snow flurried in Miami! When I was riding past Richmond, I swore I was going to pull into a cheap motel and lie about the trip. I made it to Key West, the warmest it got was 45*. I froze the whole way down and the whole way back.

I'm planning another trip to Florida by bike. Over the past couple of years I've taken the bike back and forth using the Autotrain. Every year I take a trip in September because my wife virtually lives at the office for the Federal Government end of year. This year she has a new job, it may be different. I still intend to take a trip. Since I need to get the bike down to the Florida house I thought I'd ride it down. I've decided to take and leave the Sabre down south. I would then be free to work on both the K100 and the GL500 throughout the winter.

When I've taken the bike on the Autotrain I've packed for a point to point trip; meaning the stuff on the bike is what I needed when I got down to Florida. On this trip I intend to camp over the course of a week trip. I intend to only ride about 200 to 250 miles a day. I'll set up camp early, then take a look around the area.

The Route
I don't really even like driving on 95 and other big highways, I hate riding the bike on them. I've decided to head west out to Skyline Drive and the Blue Ridge Parkway. I don't think I can handle riding the whole way at 40mph; I'll probably hop off from time to time to make some time.

The first leg shown in the map above is from Annapolis to the entrance of Skyline Drive in Front Royal Virginia. As much as I dislike 495 I intend to leave early on either Saturday or Sunday, traffic should be very light. Google shows it as 109 miles about two hours. It's another 22 miles to the Mathews Arm campground. For a total of about 130 miles. The park maximum speed limit is 40mph. The 22 mile run should take a little less than 1/2 hour.