I am definitely on my way back to Florida, narrowing the distance by 441 miles. Most of the roads were nice to very good; only a few stretches of limited escape highways. Some parts of 219 were superb. That is not bad for travelling in a fairly straight line towards your destination. I covered so much absolute distance, I had to zoom out the thumbnail map one level.

It was grey almost the entire day, with a few brief spells of the sun coming through and the rain coming through. With all this greyness, I found it difficult to find good shots for pictures, and stopping was not possible most places either. I did find a good "scenic view", with a bit of sun thrown in. Unfortunately, I recognized the scenic view: I had already photographed it. I had forgotten that I already did some of US 219 on the way up.

This turned out to be the second time this vacation that I had considerable difficulty finding lodging. In this case the reason was obvious: the place was swarming with bikers. Every motel was loaded to the gills with them. This weekend must be some sort of equivalent of Deal's Gap for bikers. Certainly, stretches of 219 form definitely shades of the tail, with a cleaner road surface. Somewhere in the middle of 219 I passed what seemed the center of the event. It looked like a circus, with big tents and such, much bigger than the lodge at Deal's Gap. Driving at 55 mph or somewhat less on average due to sharp turns, I saw bikers streaming in for hours.

I finally managed to find lodging at the intersection of 219 with the Interstate, (whichever), though even there most of the motels were filled. The price you pay for the freedom of not having a fixed schedule is potential trouble finding lodging. But so far, I have not yet spend one night in the car.

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