We didn't take any photos after we stopped in Madison for the night. So the rest of this report will be text only, but I'll try to be brief. The problem is that it's a pretty funny story. Now. It wasn't to funny at the time.

As usual we watched the local weather that night. The forecast was for cold, brisk temperatures, but dry. We all got prepared for what we hoped would just be a cold start to the day that would hopefully warm up as it went on.

Ha!

As we packed the bikes with our luggage near the front door of the hotel many of the other guests were giving us that "Oh my lord they're going to be cold!" look. The weatherman missed it. As it turned out, by a mile. It wasn't just cold, it was COLD! Not only that but it was starting to misty rain.

For the record, I wanted to wimp out and hold up right there. But nooooo. Julie decided that we might be able to get out of the weather if we went on.

Ha! Again!

The misting rain kinda sorta stopped and it just became...wet. But the further we went, the colder it got. Then an interesting thing happened.

It started to SNOW!

And I don't mean just a flake here and there, or just a touch of heavy precip. Nope. I'm talking big ol' flakes blowing sideways in the wind.

Bryan told me over the radio that he and Jordan needed to stop and warm up and frankly I did too. Plus I wasn't real thrilled to be riding a motorcycle in the snow. We stopped at the very next exit and pulled into a Waffle House parking lot.

Now, let me set this up. It's snowing. Two bikes with two riders each pull into the parking lot. It's snowing. Each of the riders are wearing rains suits and more. It's snowing. The bikes park and the riders dismount. One takes off her helmet and goes into the Waffle House headed for the bathroom. The others all leave their helmets on and are kneeling beside the bikes. Did I mention it was snowing?

It must have looked real strange to the patrons of the Waffle House.

As I knelt by the Nomad warming my hands on the clutch cover I intently listened to the NOAA weather radio on the comm unit and watched as the snow began to fall harder. I turned and glanced over at the kids who were both huddled over the FZ with their hands on its clutch cover. I glanced at the snow once again, then looked towards the restaurant and saw that every single person in the place was looking at us. And all of them had one of two looks on their faces;

"Oh those poor people..."

"Look at those dumb asses..."

When Julie came back I told her that according to the radio the snow wasn't going to let up. Bryan then told her (and I know he regrets having said this to his mother now...) "I can't do this Mom." So we all decided enough was enough and we had to find a motel. Now.

Fortunately there was one just down the street and we checked in. It was 9:30 am and we had made it 40 miles up the road to Athens, Georgia.

We should have just stayed where we were. Like I wanted to in the first place. (I just had to say that.)

It was a very long day. We had pizza delivered for lunch and sub sandwiches for supper. We watched several movies and repeats of the road races held in Daytona a few days earlier.

The snow finally let up a little while after lunch. I'm going to guess a half inch or so fell. It was bad enough in Atlanta that NASCAR had to cancel practice for the cup cars and a few races as well that were being held that week-end.

We all went to bed early, hoping for better weather the next day.