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On Monday, April 30th, my visit to northern Georgia had come to the end and it was time to return home to south Florida. I departed from the Riverbend Motel around 8:30 AM and followed the route to Orlando shown in the adjacent map. (Click on map to enlarge.)
This route is somewhat different route than on my trip north and passes closer to Athens in order to bypass Winder, Monroe and Social Circle along Hwy-11. When I drove through those towns previously, I found that Winder in particular is too congested. I prefer to ride through the very small towns, where I can obtain fuel and perhaps food if necessary. From Madison the rest of the route south was nearly the same as the route north. I joined the traffic on I-75 near Jasper, Florida.
In Orlando I stopped overnight at my friend Larry’s home.
Day #13
Tuesday, May 1st was the final day of my return trip. Since I was not in any hurry to cover the final 2½ hours, I decided to follow a favorite route, US-441 nearly to Okeechobee, avoiding the Florida Turnpike or I-95. The adjacent map shows my return route. (Click on map to enlarge.)
Around 11:30 AM I finally mounted up and headed out of Orlando. Along the way I stopped at the Holopaw Café for lunch at 12:30 PM, finally finishing and continuing on at 2 PM.
Around 4 PM I pulled into the storage facility in Jupiter where I keep my motorcycle.
The trip went very well and I really enjoyed spending 10 days in Helen, which gave me the opportunity to explore the Appalachian Mountains more thoroughly than I had previously been able to do.
The next ride on my schedule is to Sparta, North Carolina for the Memorial Weekend. Check back in early June for my travel reports from that journey.