Raise the Banner, Wave the Checkered Flag

A monumental day, record ride, continual rain worries. I made it all the way from Folkston, GA to home in Jupiter, FL in one day - 350 miles (best distance yet), 9 hours with two McDonalds coffee stops. I left Folkston at 8am, showers showing on the radar at several points along the route. Keep asking the man upstairs if maybe he could spare me the rains, or at least make them minimal. I would be heading, say south, with dark rain clouds up ahead, and just before I would get to them my route would turn, say east, where the sky's where less threatening. Just outside of Palatka it started to rain, a lite rain, enough to suit up. My first Mac stop was in Ormond Beach, still raining. By the time I had finished drinking my coffee and programing my GPS for the next leg, the rain had stopped. The roads continued to remain wet though clear to Titusville. The rest of the way was almost all dry riding - 1/4 mile from home a lite rain again started - I just made a dash for home at this point - really didn't get wet.
Other than two 1/2 hour doses of semi sunshine, it was a gray dismal day - but I managed to keep my spirits up for the entire ride.

This shot was taken about 20 miles out of Folkston on CR121 in Florida. It was about a half hour later when the clouds started looking black. Sky looks white here, but it is actually lite gray.

This is when it was time to suit up.

In Ormond Beach, fueling up after my Mac break.

Here's the routes for today. I found a really great route around the west side of Jacksonville, little traffic, and mostly country type riding (little city stuff).
Had to divide it into two parts (Google maps only allows a certain number of dots).
North part: http://tinyurl.com/7v2agsg disregard the little jog at Bryceville (a Google flaw)
South part: http://tinyurl.com/87tdmdz

Tomorrow I'll give a wrap up on my trip, and some shots of me riding the "tail of the dragon".