Rode my VFR to Wilmington NC for business

I love riding to business meetings. Obviously, it's a chance to ride, plus the mileage reimbursement far exceeds the consumables used, so I end up pocketing a decent amount. :-)

Wilmington is about 225 miles from me, and it takes about 3.5 hours to get there, so I left home at 6:00am to be there for a 10:00am meeting. It was just barely getting daylight when I left, and it was a bit chilly, in the low 50's. Hardly any traffic was out yet, so it was an absolutely wonderful ride up there. It was really awesome watching the sun rise as I rode. I thought my electric gear was put away for the summer, but I was very glad I took my vest; I ran it nearly the whole way up. 50 degrees at 80mph is pretty cold (at least for this southern boy :-) ).

The meeting went well, and I was done by around 1:00pm. I began heading out toward Wrightsville Beach, but traffic was terribly thick; there were tons of cars and even more Harleys; I later learned that it was bike week in Wilmington. I aborted those plans and rode through downtown Wilmington and enjoyed the architecture, and then got headed back home.

I stopped for a photo in front of the USS North Carolina


I had barbecue on my mind, but I didn't see a single barbecue restaurant in Wilmington. My GPS indicated one about 50 miles west along my route, so off I went; unfortunately it was no longer there. I was starving and really didn't feel like hunting for anything else, so I settled for Hardee's. It turned out to be a good place to stop, as the food and coffee were good, and I struck up a conversation with a nice lady in here 50's who rides a Suzuki GS550 and has been riding for years. She said a VFR might have to be her next bike. :-)

Stopped at South of the Border at the SC-NC state line for a photo:


Got home around 6:00pm and covered about 500 miles. Superb day.