11 hours and 524 miles… is just a little too much. We dodged rain in the afternoon going through Tennessee, but the ride was beautiful. A little sunburn on the arms. We stopped at Dale’s H-D in Mt. Vernon, IL and got some shirts… HAD to do that, of course! When we finally got to Newport, TN to the hotel, we were very pleasantly surprised by the Ruby Tuesday there. We’d quit going to RTs because, well, they just sucked. This one was excellent; good service, outstanding food and a great salad bar. Maybe we’ll hit this place again on the way home.
Lessons learned: Make sure you double-check mileage to that hotel you found for a great rate, otherwise you may end up riding an extra 50 miles or so. SPF 45 sunscreen would have been better, but just getting the spray-on stuff on the right parts would have been a big plus. Bring glass cleaner and Rain-X next time. More microfiber rags would be good. And either the Harley seat is compressing, the windshield is growing taller, or I’m shrinking… riding this thing in rain gets to be pretty challenging when you’re looking through a speckled face shield AND the windshield.