Alas, it is true. Our annual summer motorcycle ride may well have occurred and we didn't take the motorcycles. That's so sad I'm beginning to tear up...
An unexpected alignment of the stars and planets provided us 6 consecutive days in July where we didn't have our regular real-world routine to deal with. I promptly made plans to ride down to Birmingham, AL to visit the
Barber Vintage Motosports Museum. About 750 miles south west, I used our rule of thumb based on years of riding to limit our daily mileage to less than 350 miles, this meant 2 days down and 2 days back giving us 2 days at the museum...more than plenty!
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Not wanting to have a repeat of
last summer's water works, I also checked the weather report. Unfortunately, rain was forecast over the mid-Atlantic states for 4 out of the 6 days.
Recalling the unpleasantness of last year's trip caused me to reluctantly admit taking the car was a wiser decision than riding. The first two days were great riding weather, cool temps and overcast skies, and I grumbled during regular waking hours. However, the next two days the bottom fell out and I had to admit I was happy we weren't on the bikes.
We ended up making changes to our itinerary and added Memphis (to visit friends, a most excellent decision) and Bowling Green (to visit the
National Corvette Museum) and then zig-zagged through KY, WV, and MD to get back home.
Here are some photos from the roughly 150 photos I took at the Barber Museum (I was partial to the Moto Guzzi motorcycles):