I wanted to do a long ride. I thought I'd ride the Sabre down to the house in Juno Beach. In the past I've used the Amtrak Autotrain. The last time I rode to Florida, it was the winter break of 80/81. The bike was a 1980 BMW R100RT; I pretty much stuck with I95, it was terrible. As it turned out it was the coldest winter on record for Florida, it snowed in Miami! No kidding they had snow flurries. It never got above 45 degrees in Key West while I was there. To say the least I froze all the way down and all the way back.
This time I'll be riding a 2000 Honda Shadow Sabre 1100. The beemer had a full fairing with lowers and hippo hands (large hand enclosures for the end of the handlebars). The Sabre has a 3/4 windshield. I'll be riding the early part of October instead of January. Instead of trying to go full speed down I95 I'm plotting a course down the Appalachian mountains south. I'll try to stay on secondary roads that will most likely have speed limits in the 50 to 60 mph range. I hope I'll find this a much more pleasing experience with the fall leaves and mountains as a backdrop.
I was originally going to leave the second week of October due to some social obligations; the EDC Crab Feast was scheduled for September 28. Kari and I usually travel over the Columbus day long weekend, this year her new job doesn't give her that day off. I now intend to to leave on Sunday September 29. I'll actually leave early in the day and shoot around 495 before there is any traffic. This will cut a little time off my usual route of heading over to 29 up to I70 and down into the mountains, all to avoid 495.
My intention is to do between 250 and 300 miles a day. I expect to leave each day fairly early in the morning, but possibly after rush hour according to my location.
I am concerned about the seemingly early fall and cooler than normal weather. A quick survey of the western routes showed that the East side of the mountains is about 5 degrees warmer than the West side. As I intend to camp at least half the nights I'm out there, warmer is better than cooler. Camping will cost about $35 per night, I expect to be on the road 5 or 6 nights. Camping expense would be $210. However if I spend three nights in a hotel at $70 per night would be a total of $210 with 3 camping nights $105, for a total of $315.
For food I intend to take some breakfast food and snacks. I expect I'll eat lunches and a few dinners on the road. Actually, with my 250 mile days I hope to breakfast in camp leave early. I expect to be at the next camp early in the day, probably around 2 or 3 pm. This leaves me time to set up camp and ride around seeing the sights. I'd have a nice dinner and return to camp. Lunches should be no more than $5 at fast food spots. Dinners should be in the $20 area. So, Luches $30 total. Dinners 5x$20, $100 total, with a grand total of $120.
The boys (college friends) and I just took a ride out and through Skyline drive. Although we hopped on 81 a few times we stuck mostly to secondary and country roads. My gas mileage on the bike shot up to 45 mpg. I attribute this to the new clean plugs I put into the bike before leaving. I'm going to calculate my total mileage at 1200 miles this is about 200 more miles than heading straight down I95. I'll calculate my MPG at 35, and the average pricee of gas at $3.60; this brings me to a total gas expense of about $125.
The cost for the trip should be Lodging, $315; Food, $120; Fuel, $125 grand total $560
The next pages will be the proposed trip log.
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