4th of July ride

Happy 4th of July weekend!!! I hope yours is fun and safe. Speaking of safe, I thought it would be a pretty smart idea and much safer to ride before the 4th when maybe the traffic isn't so bad and there won't be as many nuts on the road after a party where they have had a little too much celebrating and now they are texting and watching the GPS instead of where they are going.

I decided to ride on Saturday the 2nd. Debbie was watching our Granddaughter and couldn't go. I left around 9:00. The weather was nice and cool. I rode to Bayside HD just to see if anything was going on. They were having a Corvette show and the place was jumping. I checked out some of the cars and talked to a couple of friends I hadn't seen in a while and then I headed out for Outerbanks HD in Kitty Hawk. Bad move.

So I left Bayside and headed south on 17. The weather was starting to warm up, but once I was clear of Portsmouth and Great Bridge the road opened up and it was clear sailing. I cruised south until just past the North Carolina rest stop where I picked up 343 to South Mills. I turned left on 258 and followed that for a very short distance and then kept right onto 34. This takes you to 158 south. so far so good, not much traffic and what traffic there was moved pretty well.

As I got near 158 I began to worry about traffic. 158 is the main road into Nags Head. well, imagine my surprise when I merged onto 158 and had no trouble getting into traffic. Traffic was heavy but it moved pretty well and I didn't see anyone doing anything stupid. Again, I began commending myself for wise decision.

Okay, ready? You knew this was coming. About 5 1/2 to 6 miles north of Grandy traffic came to all stop.Traffic heading North was moving well, but south was going nowhere. After about 10 minutes of baking in the heat, I was able to make a U-turn and head home. I don't know if there was an accident, or if everyone just hit the brakes when they entered Grandy, but whatever the reason it was a mess.

So, I left at 9 and was home by 12:30. Not much of a ride but I did managed to get in 140 miles. I think I'll enjoy the rest of the 4th of July weekend on the couch.

Ride safe.