I finished packing the bike, said goodbye to Heather, and headed for Birmingham, stopping for donuts and coffee at Dunkin Donuts. The ride was pretty uneventful, except for the downpour about 30 miles from tonight’s stopping point. That has kept my 20 year streak of getting rained on on every long ride I’ve ever taken intact. Slightly damper than when I started, I pulled in to the hotel and unloaded the bike.

After that, I hopped back on and rode over to Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum to ogle lots of motorcycles that I’ll never be able to afford. It’s a really nice museum, with five stories of motorcycles and cars. Each one has a card listing its specs and a small paragraph discussing its significance. There were a number of Harley-Davidsons and BMWs, as well as Japanese, British, and European motorcycles dating all the way back to the late 1800s. And to make it even more fun, the back of the museum looks out over the track, where we could see riders ripping through the turns. I really can’t say there was one favorite bike, there was just too much there to simply pick one. So if you get a chance, please pay them a visit, it’s well worth the time.

The severe weather that hit Oklahoma City yesterday is heading this way, so I decided to grab an early dinner instead of getting caught in even more rain. After a little googling, I chose Rusty’s Bar-B-Q and wasn’t disappointed. The ribs were fall off the bone tender, the sauces were tasty, and I left there stuffed. It was only a couple miles down from the hotel, and I made it back before any more rain hit.