Rambling thru life

Joe treated us like royal guests.  Had cold beer on had.  Made us a great dinner. His girl friend Brandy made us some excellant mashed potatoes with the dinner.  We spent the night at his home.  Terry took the spare bedroom and I had a blow up mattress on the floor. From Joes we turned home...  Sad note....  >sniff< The mornings ride though took us down some awesome roads.  One of which was a third of the devils triangle.  Following the road signs I got us a bit lost but it was still most fun. By lunch we only had 180 miles.  But night fall found us in Danville Illinois.  581 miles done.  400 of it on freeway.

This day we went from Forsythe GA to Joe's house by Maryland TN.  380 miles. One of the hi-lites of the trip with the ride down the Dragon.  The dragon is a portion of the road that is only 11 miles long but it has 318 curves in your path.  It starts in North Carolina and ends in Tennessee. As we were driving up the road to the cross the Dragon, we went through a town in Georgia.  At a stop light I yelled over to Terry, "where are we?".  He just shrugged.  A few stop lights later Terry says, "I know where we are, I used to live here".  Since he is older than I, the lack of memory must be age. Went stopped into Walmart so Terry could get a USB Memory stick.  Our bikes have a USB port that we can play music off of even charge our phones.  Terry has been using the music from his phone.

This days trip took us from Crestview Floriday to Forsythe Georgia.  314 miles for the day.  That puts the total trip milage over 2000. As we crossed over into Alabama the bikes odometer read 15000.  We made a stop at Andersonville and visited the historic civil war prisoner of war camp.  Hard to imagine the suffering that want on inside that camp.  More on that later. Thursday we are heading North across more two land roads with plans to ride the Dragon and spend the night with my friend Joe.

This morning we got a later start at 8:45.  I made a command decision to leave the big easy heading East on Route 90.  This road was right out the front of our motel.  A couple of times today we road right alongside the gulf.  And most of the day we were within 50 miles of the gulf. The day ended with us in Crestview Florida.  Our total miles was just under 300 miles In Biloxi Mississippi we stopped for refreshments and drove out onto a pier to enjoy them.  The recent Huricane had deposited a lot of sand onto the road and Terry got stuck.  Using the reverse function of the bike and a little man power we got it out. Around Mobile Alabama we took a moment to admire the USS Alabama.  The museum also had a B1 bomber as well as other air craft.  You could spend a whole day there. In Pensacola Florida we drove down the causeway.This place looks like it could be fun,  Lots of motels, restaurants and attractions, We stopped and admired the gulf view. The gulf seldom gets any surf

Here is the short story...  I will need to fill in the blanks later. We left Mcomb Mississippi at 7:45 and blasted the freeway down to Venice LA.  Venice is the last town on the Southern end of the Mississippi.  As far south as you can go in Louisiana. There was plenty of evidence of the last hurricane.  I was surprised at how industrialized the area was. I have no clue what the milage was.  (Note: 1330 was the trips starting milage in the morning) Leaving Venice we headed up to New Orleans and checked into the motel.  We then took a taxi to the French Quarters; not trusting to park our bikes on the street.  My friend Dale met up with us, showed us his apartment and then took us for a fast walking trip through the city.  Cafe du Monde, Jackson Square, Mississippi River Walk, Bourbon Street.  Then Dale treated us to dinner, and we went to a couple different clubs or bars.  The last one had a good blues band.  Thanks Dale for a tour and night.  I wish there was more time to talk. T

We reached the end of the world

Today we made the decision to stay off of 4 lane roads as much as possible.  From Texarkana to NOLA was over 400 miles by freeway.  This was not good.  We couldn't stay off Freeways and still make our goal of NOLA without this becoming another hard day.  So, we changed out plans around a bit and decided to cross over Louisiana and go into Mississippi.  Then tomorrow we will turn South into NOLA.  After having breakfast at the motel, we topped off the gas tanks and checked out tire pressure.  This put us on the road about 8:15 AM.  We headed south out of Texarkana to Atlanta Texas and then turned East. Todays ride was less tha 400 miles.  Although a short day in miles we were still on the road until 5:15.      As I drive down the road, a lot of ideas come to my mind about what to tell you.  But now as I type, my mind is blank.  As we crossed from Texas to Louisiana, I saw a sign that said "Pray for Todd".  Somewhere in NW Louisiana, people are praying for me. W

Today was the first official day of the trip.  It was a long day in the saddle.  I left Bethany, MO at about 7:45AM.  Met Terry in Waldron, Ark at about 3PM.  Arrived in Texarkana, TX at about 6:30PM. Almost 600 miles. Terry story goes something like this:  He was at the dealer at 8:35AM as they opened. He was given the royal treatment at the dealership; and even recieved a full tank of gas.  He left everything in his old bike at the motel.  After closing the deal around 10:30,  he drove the new Blue bike to the motel and loaded up.  Then stopped and visited some relatives in the city of Ozark.  He and I talked around noon and agreed to meet in Waldron. He was happy that he had an opportunity to take two lane roads to our meeting point. As for me?  I had nothing very eventful happen.  One fun thing: The bike is parked outside with the odometer reading exactly 14000.   

Well folks.  I got out of the house and onto the road around 1:45PM.  I traveled south on interstate 35 from Minnesota, through Iowa and into Missouri. I made one pit stop in Clear Lake IA for bathroom and Gas. I stopped for the night at 7:30 in Bethany Missouri.  Todays journey was 365 miles straight down the interstate.  Not a very glamerous ride. The traffic through downtown Minneapolis was atrocious; stop and go, bumper to bumper. It was Friday and perhaps people were probably trying to get out of the city for the weekend. On the south side of town, a tow truck driver was doing his best to catch up and pass me.  As he went past he gave me a thumbs up and was mouthing the words nice bike.  I passed him a little bit farther down the road and got another nod.  Farther down the road, I went by a car with two kids in the back seat that were waving and giving me the thumbs up.  When I waved back the driver looked over at me, smiled and gave me a nod.  In Northern Iowa, a carload of

Louisianna, Alabama and Mississippi is this years primary motorcycle long distance trip. Three states I haven't been to on a motorcycle. A long awaited and anticipated journey that is about to begin. Journey's such as this do not just start, they evolve. An idea or concept that grows out of time. Although the three key states are the principle goal, Additional goals have come out of this. Touching the edge of Texas and traveling the pan handle of Florida to cross those two state are secondary goals. Traveling through the state of Georgia to get that state is a tertiary goal. Completing the dream involves a stop at my friend Joe's house. Joe lives on the tail of the dragon in Tennessee (more on the dragon later). After that it will be a freeway blast home.   We have a alternate plan in the event a huricanne slams into the Southwest. You have to worry about things like that during the fall months. If diverted, we ambitiously will head to Winslow Arizona. There

You can either have a spirit of a city slicker, a working farmer, a traveling pioneer, or a wandering cowboy. The hussle and busy city life will strangle most even with after a good golf shot. Sitting at home, watching the corn grow and playing the guitar is good for some. Sitting on top of four wheels hoping to find an adventure is for others. But riding the plains or blazing a trail through the mountains on a steady stead is a cowboys life. Through out time, the spirits persist. Each of us has more than one. In which case, there will be conflict until the dominent spirt wins.

What a scam. You get a 4:30 appointment and when you get there you wait. 40 minutes waiting so far.  Tonight the wife and I will be going to a mn gwra meet and great social hour.  We will most likely take the car cause of weather temperature. Right now its just I've 52 degrees.  Sigh, what happened to the early spring.

Today was a wash out.  We woke up really late in the morning and found that it does rain in Florida.  We had lunch at the resort and then went for a drive.   We found Disney city and went to see the movie; Safe House while the rain continued to fall.  It was an action packed movie.   Not like our day.   We had  a good steak for dinner, stopped to get some groceries, then headed back to the resort for a quiet evening. Throughout the day we saw motorcycles heading east to Daytona.  Although a bit of jealousy was brewing, I was nice and dry sitting in the cage ( car). Our day of aclimation complete, we look forward to the Krolls.

It was a busy morning with all the packing, cleaning and prep work to go.  The flight was uneventful. First landing was in milwaukee.  Then a plane switch and we landed in Orlando around 11pm.  The resort was busy at check in. But the resort was dead at 3am...