Gas – E0 90 octane, unknown quantity or cost
End at 65,217 (201 miles) Longest day on this bike so far in a single session—103 miles; new world record for a single day!
A couple days ago I got the idea to meet up with Scott for lunch. He lives in the Raleigh area, about 3-4 hours from me. I found the town of South Hill, Virginia, is about halfway between us. A little closer to him but not much. It’s on US 1 in the I-85 corridor. Not much to the town—gas stations, BBQ joints—and it’s kind of run-down. We went to Kissin’ Smoke Barbeque. It was OK. A little dry. But the pie was AWESOME. Peanut butter chocolate chip with a chocolate icing drizzle. Wow. I picked up lunch, Scott got the pie.
It is incredibly gratifying to see Scott not just succeeding with the bike I sold him, but really enjoying riding on it and keeping it running in tip-top shape. I get little pangs of guilt when he has a problem with it, but that’s the nature of not just used bikes, but OLD used bikes to boot. I’m sure he doesn’t blame me for any of its issues. At least I hope he doesn’t! As much as I dig my bike, my blackened little heart skipped a beat when I saw his coming up the road.
After lunch, we backtracked to a Sunoco on the north end of town to get E0 gas. One pump; Scott paid and handed me the pump when he was done—no idea how much gas I got or what it cost, but I ran 130 miles on the tank to that point. Very kind of him to gift me a tank of gas. That stuff is getting expensive!
The 103-mile run home—no stops other than traffic lights—was a bit of a challenge. To my butt. The seat is not great for my size, but that’s not a surprise. I think a 400-mile day is going to be an ambitious goal, I’ll need to stretch that to 500 to be able to do long trips in a reasonable amount of time.
I took US 360 and the interstates a bit to get south of the city, then VA 288 to US 1, then on south to South Hill. To get home, I took US 1 north to Hopewell, then cut across to I 295 and took the long way on some back roads to get over 100 miles for that leg.
Tree pollen is kicking my ass—snot (lots) and headaches from that long day on the road. Sore throat too, but not as bad as two days ago. Taking Claritin. I’ll live. Time to take off my boots, blow my nose and have a nap. Meeting my kid and her boyfriend for dinner tonight.
I stopped at a random Exxon to pee and get water after about an hour on the bike on the way down. Random dude getting back in his work truck while I was putting my gloves on hollered “Sweet ride!”
