rest day numero dos

i'm not very good at resting on rest days. today we took a trip to beaufort out on the coast, so i could finally see the atlantic ocean. after spending 4 days on the eastern seaboard, i thought i was about time i found the damn thing. turns out, my brother patrick has been here a month and hasn't seen it yet. it was about a 90 minute drive or so and we had to go to the outer banks (they trick you with a fake coast line), but we found the beach. many pictures were taken, and i rode a dolphin like a surfboard:




the pacific is still better.

to be honest, i'm not really digging the rest days. i'm enjoying the visits, and from that sense it's nice to have more than one evening to see people but, from a riding standpoint, it's really throwing me off. i think from here on out i'm going to try and get some miles in each day. i'm staying with people for the next 4 nights or so, which will help me keep moving since i have a schedule, but after that i'm freeforming it until walla walla. i have some national parks i want to hit, but other than that it's just traveling solo. i think my original itinerary had me taking 4 days between omaha and walla walla, which would put me there a day before my brother gets back home. also this would give me some very long days, so i might throw an extra day in there so i can see about properly doing yellowstone. after that it's just getting home. i have a feeling that, at that point, i'm going to be ready to get off the road and may not care about scenery much. but who knows?

tomorrow, however, i have a relatively short day to DC. i'm avoiding 95 like the plague, but i'm actually paralleling it most of the day on hwys 301 and 1. i thought about going out to the coast and through norfolk, but then i looked at the weather report and it seems that they are expecting rain all day out there. on the interior it's supposed to be around 70 and partly sunny all day. only perfect riding weather. it was a tough call.

if i have time i want to stop at a civil war site around fredericksburg, but i want to get to DC in time to actually go to the mall and see the sights (i've never been), so we'll see how the timing goes. i'm hoping for an early start, so we'll see.

next time you hear from me, i'll be in our nation's capital!

rftc,

scott