Just got back from something I rarely do — five days away from the Internet, email and cell phones.

Left Thursday morning to ride with motorcycle friends down to Spartanburg for the South Carolina Harley Owners Group (H.O.G.) rally, a three-day affair that including a fun Saturday ride up to Chimney Rock State Park in North Carolina.

Then, on Sunday, rode across South Carolina to Myrtle Beach for a long-overdue dinner with old friends from my newspaper days in Illinois. They’re retired to the beach area now and live in Little River, SC, just north of Myrtle.

I had thought of riding on down to Florida, following the route that my mother took on her solo motorcycle ride from Meadows of Dan to Tampa in 1946 but a tropical storm flooding Florida and Georgia put an end to that idea…for now.

Rain fell as I left to ride the Harley home Monday morning and the wet stuff stayed with me until Rockingham, NC, where the sun came out for a pleasant trip back into Southwestern Virginia and home.  Arrived in the late afternoon, tired but relaxed after a good weekend