The Rest of the Story ... for now

As it turned out, Saturday was the last day spent at the rally.  It was a day without rain, but without much sun as well.

Activities included, unexpectedly for me, a small art show with mostly familiar street art show wares.  Perhaps the most unique were paintings that were made by using fish and crabs rather like wood blocks - they were covered with paint and then printed onto paper.  The resulting images were actually rather interesting.

Down the block from the art show was a car show that had many cars from the '60s and '70s including a disproportionate number of Ford Mustangs.  However, there were a couple of fairly unusual cars as well.  There were three original Mini-Coopers, a Buick Riata and a '47 Oldsmobile.  A few of the more contemporary cars had graphics painted on them that were reminiscent of the kind that are frequently seen on custom motorcycles, but with a lot more space to work with.

After the art and car shows we took a little ride around the area to look at the condos and other residences.  To the west of Panama City Beach there are areas just packed with high-end developments.  The attraction, I'm sure, is the beach as the so-called communities, while upscale, look pretty boring to my eye.  There is clearly some very pricey real estate that is right on the water.

The balance of the day was spent at a few of the other rally venues including one at the Marriott in Panama City itself.  That there was one there was a surprise to me.  It was not all that unlike the others with vendor booths and the like with the difference that there was a live band and many of the booths were inside in a large ballroom.

The original plan was to leave the rally either some time on Sunday afternoon or Monday.  That got significantly modified as a result of looking at all the threatening weather on the route home.  By Saturday there had already been severe weather north of us and more was forecast including a major storm front coming through Panama City Beach on Monday.  The plan was modified to an early exit on Sunday morning with the hope of getting at least to Montgomery, and perhaps beyond, before the weather deteriorated too much.  Monday would either be spent waiting for the weather to pass or riding to Nashville where I could get the now-malfunctioning latch on one of my side cases fixed at the BMW dealer there and we could do a little sightseeing..

Plan B turned to Plan C.  We actually rode all the way to Murfreesboro, TN, a total of 440 miles, with the last 100 or so being in mostly light rain and the trip to Nashville being cancelled because of the weather and flooding there.  Monday it was on to home with only one detour for a washed out road, but no rain.

Trip total = 1,650 miles (roughly 1,550 to/from and 100 while in Florida).  A good time was had by all.