The Captains Logs: Day 1: Kissing Jersey Goodbye

11:00 AM to 11:00 PM

397 miles

398 Hillcrest Ave: The trip begins.... regulators, mount up. We get off to a late start because I had to get a haircut, purchase a camera for the trip, and pack before we can leave. Sorry Mike.

Bike Shop: Got a cargo net to hold the backpack, Mike gets some raingear, and I get a padded jacket (just in case).

Turnpike South: We run into some traffic but use the shoulder. Luckily we did not get tickets.

Jay Quiqley's House: We visit a nice little retirement village in south Jersey. Jay laughs at us. His pit bull jumps on Mike and scratches his arm. We get the keys for Jay's house in Florida and get going.

South Jersey: We hear another motorcycle behind us at a red light. (Yamaha R6 black and graphite with red highlights) The rider asks where we're going. We tell him Florida, and he doesn't believe us. He seems pretty impressed that we're making the trip. He does a few wheelies for us. We ride with him for a little and then part ways.

Delaware: The Delaware bridge is nice going across.

Maryland: We run into a sudden thundershower around Baltimore. As soon as we come out of a tunnel the rain hits us like little pebbles. We pull over and use the iphone to see where the storm is coming from. Turns out it was only passing by. We didn't even need the raingear. Back on I-95.

Washington DC: We run into severe traffic on I-95 due to a special event at the FedEx center. We use the navigation on the iphone to take the 495 Beltway around DC. Wonder what was going on at the FedEx center?

North Virginia: We are starving having thus far survived on junk food from gas stations. We pull over in hopes of finding an Outback steakhouse which we saw in the AroundMe application. It proves too elusive to find and we get back on I-95.

North Virginia (a little more south): We pull over to try to get some food again. The Virginia Grill we had seen signs for on I-95 is nowhere to be found. We end up eating at a pizza hut. We are frustrated that we had to struggle so much to even find a pizza hut. The locals seem to be surprised to see us. Mike and I contemplate the life of living in Northern Virginia, which I think scared us both. We get ready to dig down for 88 more miles to Richmond Virginia.