Friday – September 24th 2021

Riding from home in Douglasville, Georgia to the motel I had reserved in Kannapolis, North Carolina (Charlotte) via the Mileage Disposal Unit (Interstate 20 & 85) it should have only taken me about 5 hours to ride the trip. This part of the weekend trip was not about enjoyable riding or scenery, it was about getting from point A to point B in a reasonable amount of time.

If you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plans

I had planned to depart at 1:00 PM with an estimated arrival time in Kannapolis, NC at about 6:00 PM. However, due to work obligations, I was not able to hit the road until 3:30PM. I live in the Atlanta, Georgia Metropolitan area. Downtown Atlanta is about 28 miles from where I live in Douglasville, Georgia. Prior to moving here in October 2020, I lived in Southern California (and Minnesota 3 years prior there). Traffic congestion in Southern California is notoriously awful, especially around Los Angeles. Well, Atlanta’s traffic is also disgustingly bad. What makes matters worse in and around Atlanta is once you are off the freeways, there are not many large avenues, boulevards, or highways that serve as alternate arteries to the Interstates (there are some, just not as many in cities like around Los Angeles, Chicago, or even around Minneapolis / Saint Paul Metropolitan area from where I am originally from. Don’t get me wrong, I love this area and I am very happy that my wife and I dropped anchor here and purchased our home here, but the bad traffic reputation of Atlanta is to be heeded.

This coming weekend I be will rolling out on a short weekend road trip to the Charlotte, NC area. On Friday September 24th, I will ride through Atlanta, GA to Kanapolis, NC via Interstate 85. Interstate riding is nearly my least favorite type of riding (city riding in gridlock traffic is much worse on a air cooled bike LOL). However, riding on the interstate is a great way to chew up miles quickly when needed or when travel time is more important than quality of miles. I like the term often used by the late Neal Peart who called interstates “Mileage Disposal Units”. Very fitting and accurate name.

Here is the planned route on Friday