OBX for Lunch - The Long Way

101 degrees! That was the high today. A little much for 335 miles on a motorcycle.

We started our Sunday at the monthly meeting of the BMW Motorcycle Club of Hampton Roads at the Golden Corral.  Record turnout today. Well, I don't know about a record, but there were a lot of bikes there today.

 

For the rest of the day, I had a route planned out that took us to the Outer Banks for a late lunch. Especially late, since the trip there was about 220 miles, the long way there. The GPS did a good job today. I think I figured it out. When I laid out the route on MapQuest, the quickest route was only 80 miles. In order to pick up a few extra counties in North Carolina, I had to set via points on the map which would lead us the long way around to the Outer Banks. What I think I've discovered is that when I import the map to the GPS with "via" points, the GPS decides that it is not the fastest way and changes it. However, if I change the "via" points to "way" points, meaning it is a place I want to visit, it works. I can do that very easily on MapQuest before sending to the GPS and it works.

Today was so hot, we definitely had to stop quite a few times just to stay hydrated. I can't imagine taking a long-distance trip in weather like this. Just too hot. And the roads we took were rather boring, the best of them wrapping around Lake Mattamuskeet in Hyde county and Engelhard was a neat little fishing town, though it seemed like a ghost town. We passed a lot of burnt swamps, if that makes sense.

We went to Goombays for lunch, got there about 3:30 p.m., but since we had Golden Corral for breakfast, as anybody knows, that can last all day. Goombays was suggested by a friend of mine. We like to find the places that are not a franchise, this place was great. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of the bikes in front of the restaurant, so I've done a little improvising and embellished a bit using Photoshop. In the journalism business, this would be an obvious no-no, so it's called a photo illustration.

So, that was our day. We came back the direct way and surprisingly, didn't have too much traffic, even though it was a Sunday evening. I kept hoping it might rain on us to cool us down, but never happened. Stayed at 100 degrees the entire trip today. In keeping with tradition, we added a bumper sticker to the collection.