Day -6

While yesterday was a beautiful day to ride, today was even better! Temps in the mid to upper 60's, beautiful blue sky.

We set out this morning headed for Columbia (South Carolina, for any out-of-staters). We wanted to get a good feel for Interstate driving before next week, and an 85 mile trip to Riverbanks Zoo sounded pretty good. It was as good as I'd hoped.

I have to say, traveling for an extended period at 75 miles per hour was a little nerve-wracking on the trip out. It takes getting used to the the speed and vibration. It seemed like my eyes were vibrating! The wind from the trucks tries to push you around, and add a good little cross wind and it's something else.

Overall the Garmin did as I'd hoped; even though I wouldn't have gone the way it directed us, it turned out to be a good choice once we got off off I-20. At one point it lagged at a critical turn, and Linda had to slow down quickly, but for the most part, it got us to the zoo as well as expected.

The CB worked well until we got above say 60 mph. Then, it was difficult to understand each other. Even with a full helmet, there's still a lot of wind noise at that speed. Off the highway, though, it was great for keeping in communication with each other.

There have been a lot of changes at the zoo since our last visit (it's been several years). They've taken some of the "zoo" section away for the gardens. The polar bears were gone, replace with a big grizzly bear. The door that led you down behind the pool where you could watch the polar bear swim was blocked. The seals have been replaced; in the Spring there will be a kangaroo exhibit instead. All in all, we were disappointed.

On the way back, we stopped at Thunder Tower, the Colulmbia Harley-Davidson dealership. Looks really cool from the highway, and pretty big inside. It's about on a par with the Redline Power Sports dealership in Myrtle Beach. A lot of nice bikes, though.

Why is it that the trip home is always faster than the trip out? It seemed that way to us. The "vibrating eyes" thing wasn't as bad, the speed was easier to handle. When we got back to Florence, 45 mph seemed like standing still.

It was a good trip, and a valuable one as well. It showed us that we should be able to handle the 400 miles to Daytona (over a two-day run) with no problem -- as long as there's a hot tub and (several) beers at the end of the day!