Gosh, I had so many things to talk about today during my ride from Orlando to Atlanta. What was supposed to be a 7.5 hour ride turned into 11 hours. Why? Miserable Atlanta traffic, thats why. 
Every time I go through Atlanta, using I-75, I get whacked with traffic. Virtually 100 percent of the time it happens. Today took the cake — just outside of 100 miles from Atlanta, the stop-and-go traffic hit hard and took about 4 hours just to go that last 100 miles. Well, thats bad right? How about in 90 degree humid weather on a motorcycle with a full-on heavy duty motorcycle outfit — take it up a notch.
That said, I have to do an advertisement for 5 Hour Energy for a second if thats ok. As usual, by noon, my eyes were rolling behind my head — I was seriously about to sleep again while riding. Like I have said before, the highway is intoxicating and so relaxing with noise, vibrations and often straight lines, I get dozy — often. Too often.
So, at noon I stopped and got a 5 Hour Energy — Berry favor if you care. OMG, its a miracle drug. I guess its a huge dose of caffeine, but whatever it is, man, it works. I was totally lit up the rest of my 7 hours on the bike. How is that possible? Serious, how can a little drink like that do such a great job at keeping me attentive and not wired either. I feel fine. I have to ask Google about this one. I bought another bottle late in the day for my next ride and this time I bought the EXTRA. I hope I don’t pop a blood vessel or evoke a heart attack on my next ride. Amazing shit.
The worst of it was just prior to that, I was real happy with my ride. No issues to discuss. No almost near misses. No mistakes. Just a nice ride on the Florida Turnpike and I-75. Well, as good as it can be. Every classic snowbird, red neck and lots of truck drivers shared the route with me. 
In fact, I think the birds are flocking north now since I saw tons and tons of motor homes and elders from every part of the North-East; Ontario, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois (not NE I know), … sharing my route. I’ve done that route by car probably 50 times over the years — usually terminating up in Toronto. This time, its going to be a bit of an erratic tour — in and out of I-75 and local roads — turning west and going somewhere — not sure yet. Thats the fun of it.
So before hitting the traffic, I was going to call this post — “Can’t Chew and Ride”. I had a huge amount of to-do’s with things I want organized and working for my ride — mostly electronics — while I was on the bike and some were resolved — others not. That occupied my mind while riding. Just a note, its never a good idea to drift off with thoughts on fixing electronic toys while on the road traveling at 75 or 80 miles per hour on two wheels. Every time I tried, I really came back to reality that I need to focus on my riding. But that did not come with some struggles. My GoPro still is not working and bugs me. After setting it up for a week — 3 weeks back — it now does not work — aka Bummer.
I guess I was also upset riding because I really could not focus on getting some good pictures shot. Ahhh, so many opportunities to get some great shots. So many losses. I love reading billboards and the nonsense messages on those displays ranging from messengers from God to Life or non-Life lessons to funny local shit and often local farms or stores prodding me to turn off — but I have to fight it off. That could be a project for a budding photojournalist. I could have taken pictures of the minions of motorhomes on the highway just lined up traveling north. The great local highway shops and tourist attractions that make tacky a nice word. People, yes, people. I could shoot everyone when I pull in at the truck-stops and make a book of The People at Truck-Stops. So many opportunities and my mind was scrambling over how to fix my electronics and stuff. I need to learn how to do both because this trip should be about journaling in photos my experiences. I’ll work on that.
On the positive side, I did get my iPhone talking to my helmet speakers — A+ there. Had music the entire journey. But again, not without incident. I put in my ear plugs this morning just after leaving the hotel in Orlando. Guess what? I could not hear the music. I though that it was broken again. Rats! No music — bad configuration again! Nope, I pulled over and pulled out my ear plugs and Oh Yah… Music. Those ear plugs are amazing. I also got my GPS working — hooray — to track my route throughout my entire trip. It publishes the route on a private web site. Happy about that achievement. Need to get that messed up GoPro working next. I hate GoPro’s. Seems like everyone knows how to use them — for some reason I fuck up all the time and find the UI a piece of shit. Oh well, we’ll work with it — I’m on a mission.
So I’m here now in Atlanta. Hanging for a day because its going to rain tomorrow. Then off to Porsche for my adventure at the Experience Center, 11am two days from now.