FL 2 TN Day 3: Rain Storms
Today’s schedule would have been to ride far enough to cross the border into North Carolina, around 200 miles away. But, the weather forecast warned us to expect storms and heavy rain in the afternoon, so we set off good and early again hoping to make it past Columbia (about 100 miles) before the storms came in, which would leave us with 250 miles or so tomorrow. If we got further, then that would be a bonus.
By 10am we were already well over halfway to Columbia, but it was starting to get pretty cold, so we stopped at a gas station cum diner for a coffee to warm up. Watching TV as we hugged our coffee mugs to get some life back into our chilly fingertips, the weatherman said there was a 50% chance of snow-showers in Knoxville, TN (about 30 miles west of our destination, Gatlinburg) overnight and into tomorrow morning. Squinting at the map, it looked as though North Carolina was going to escape… Tave and I were contemplating giving up and going back to sunny Florida, but since our condo is already paid we decided to press on and only turn back if the roads became dangerous.
No sooner had we made our decision than the heaven opened, and huge sheets of rain were blown through the forecourt, soaking our bikes, our luggage and our enthusiasm. I dashed outside to push the Harleys under cover, and I was drenched just a minute later when I got back indoors. Stupidly, I had figured that the weather wouldn’t be drastically different just a few hundred miles north of Florida, and we hadn’t brought winter gloves, or waterproofs, and Tave was wearing sandals and no jacket. D’oh! Couldn’t have been much more wrong there.
From USA Today Weather:
Severe weather threat – On the southern end of the storm system, thunderstorms are rolling through parts of western North Carolina, western South Carolina, central Georgia, western Florida and southeastern Alabama this morning. Severe thunderstorm watches are in effect from eastern Georgia through western Florida. The main threats from these storms will be large hail and damaging winds.
10:30 came and went, and the rain wasn’t showing signs of letting up. We’d seen some hotels a junction back down the interstate, so we decided to call it a day and make a run for Orangeburg for the rest of the day. I left the scale on the map this time, so you can see how pathetically short a distance we’d covered…
We picked a hotel with a laundry, and when the rain abated briefly later in the afternoon got directions to Walmart for some fishermans wet weather gear, and Applebys for dinner. Pretty stylish, huh?
Here’s hoping the snow doesn’t stop us from riding into Gatlinburg tomorrow!
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