Business or Pleasure?

How about both?

We decided last year that 2019 would be our Key West trip.  Like our Texas trip 2 years ago, we were not going to attempt this in the middle of summer.  Unlike our Texas trip, we were able to make spring happen, and will not end up leaving in peak hurricane season.

So, instead of hurricane tracking, today we are spending Good Friday in Winchester, VA, more or less unable to watch anything on TV other than tornado warnings.

Vacation doesn't actually start for a week.  But Donna needed to be in Orlando for a conference next week, and would have been flying from Florida next Thursday to do laundry, pack her bike, go to bed, and turn back around to head right back.

I regularly work remotely, and getting some special dispensation on the two in-office days next week was a pretty easy deal.  Remote is remote, right?  Show me where it says where "remote" is.   And so, Donna ended up saving the company some plane fare, and herself some extra travel, and we'll put in the miles a week early.

We took a half-day Friday to get a head start, and then spent the week watching the forecast deteriorate into a day of thunderstorms and tornadoes.  This morning's actual conditions were slightly better in the short term, and our decision ended up being whether to ride into the weather Friday afternoon or leave home in rain Saturday and ride out of it.  Come lunchtime, we were caught up with work and getting restless, and figured any head start we could get would be money in the bank in case the weather ended up not improving as the weekend went on.

We left at lunch and got to Carlisle before having to gear up, and then got through Maryland and West Virginia before hell broke loose.  We've been through worse at least once, but bashing through blinding rain is never a great day.  It was coming down in sheets and even cars with with the wipers on warp drive were going 45.  We passed a tractor trailer that had just run off into the median and down the bank, and the driver was thanking his stars it was only stuck and not on its roof.  After a second Biblical downpour episode, it was time for us to call time out and get a look at the radar.

We got off, found a Sheetz and booked a Candlewood one exit south in Winchester.  By the time we finished our coffee, the rain had paused and aside from being soaked inside our rainsuits, the ride was drama free.  So here we are, in early, organized, 200 miles ahead of the game, and looking at a dry morning.  More rain was right behind, and the only thing on TV is said tornado warnings, but we're showered, fed, have seen no lightning, and disaster is looking pretty unlikely in our particular location.  And my drawers stayed dry.  You may not know how huge of a statement this is, but let me tell you that's the line between somewhat tolerable and Lord you can take me any time.  Donna's entire groinal region was soaked, for the record.  If it gets in, that's where it ends up.

Anyway, tomorrow we should be out on the road early and hauling ass.  We've done basically this same trip in 24 hours on Sportsters, so doing it in 2 days on actual touring bikes with a 200-mile head start should not be too daunting.

So far, so good.