Dateline Dallas, Tx.:
My fall trip has finally arrived, too bad fall hasn’t. I had the bike packed so at 7:00 am on Saturday I was ready to go. My wife took a picture.
She said she wanted something to remember me by. Gives you that good feeling when they say that.
My goal this day is just to ride about 200 miles to meet up with the North Texas Norton Owners Association Rally at Lake of the Pines in East Texas. This is just a few miles from the border with Louisiana. My cousin was going to the rally with his cousins on his mother’s side of the family. They were entering a Trident and Bonneville in the show. I had my usually good trip zig zaging the backroads of East Texas and arrived right behind my cousin. We had to pose for a photograph.
I have 6 cousins and we are all within months of the same age. We are called “War Babies” since our dads returned from WWII we were born in 1946 and 47.
The rally was fun to see. These guys are mostly in their 50s and they love these bikes because they were the superbikes of their youth. It is fun to listen to them discuss issues they have had with restoration, the little projects they have done on their bikes.
The field of bikes entered.
One ugly Duck or is it a Wood Duck?
The Norton with the fairing was ridden from Pubelo, Co. He designed and built his own electronic fuel injection system for the bike. Impressive.
Another Ducati ridden to the rally
My friends winning Trident and Bonneville. Alongside are two matching Nortons owned by a father and son.
I camped out with them that night and then at 6:00 am Sunday morning someone started up their Norton and woke me up. So I packed up and hit the road for Natchez, Mississippi.
More great roads in Texas before crossing over into Louisiana. This is definitely timber country with lots of pine trees and swamps. I had mapped my trip using Google maps and I picked the backroads that had the most wiggle and still headed in the right direction. We call them FM or farm to market roads in Texas. They call them logging or mill roads in Louisiana and Mississippi. I stopped and got my favorite road meal at a combo gas station/market. That would be sausages, pork’n’beans, and crackers. I tied the sack on the back of my bike with my elastic net holding everything in place. Then I picked up highway 118 in Mississippi. This was a great road with lots of elevation changes and curves. This went for about 30 miles and then road conditions started going south (pardon the pun). Many road patches followed by stretches of 20 yards of rocks and dirt followed by pot holes. I hit one hole (I thought it was a shadow) and I swear I lost a filling in my tooth. There is nothing but trees and an occasional shack off the road. I stopped near one and thought, “I’ll see if anyone is here and ask if this road dumps into a major highway or just dead ends. I take off my helmet and I swear I could hear a banjo in the distance. So back on with the helmet and I say “Trust the GPS”. Finally the road improved a little so I stopped to eat my tasty lunch.
What! No lunch. It apparently flew off on one of my many pothole encounters. I thought about going back to look for my treats, but who knows how far back down that road I would have to go, plus the banjo player may be eating it. No lunch today.
The temperature was 92 and humid. I’m really tired of riding in this heat, but what are you going to do. I dodged showers all the way into Natchez, Ms. Now I’m east of the Mississippi river.
The rain had me captive in town so I was drenched. After waiting in a Sonic until the rain let up to a drizzle, I rode around and found a Comfort Inn to spend the night. While covering my bike for the night I hear a plunk. WTF. I look up and the cover had pulled my right mirror off. Rats. Now I look like a one eared rabbit. Thankfully, it was the right mirror. I put the parts in my bag for repair when I get home.
Monday morning I get on the Natchez Trace Parkway to see what it is all about.
One of the riders at the rally said I would bail after a while because it is boring. I see one problem immediately. 50 mph speed limit for the next 441 miles. So I ride and it is pretty, but by lunch time, enough already. I bailed off the trace and rode into Jackson, Ms for lunch.
It is so humid that rain just starts coming out of the sky with no clouds. It is the first time sweat has ever dropped off my helmet onto my face inside.
Decision time. My original plan was to do the Trace to Nashville then go south into Birmingham to see the Barber Museum. So I decide to forgo Tennessee and head on east for Birmingham. I get to Columbus, Ms (on the border of Ms and Al) just as the sun is going down. I don’t see any state parks in range so another night in a motel is in order. Surprise! There is a convention in town and no motel rooms are available. The only one I could find had prostitutes milling around so I think “NOT”. Back to the trusty GPS. It says there is a bed and breakfast on the edge of town. So I call and the lady says she has a room. I take it and ride out to see what awaits me. Much to my surprise it is a very nice looking two story home outside of town. The lady is about 75 and she shows me to my room. A huge bedroom that is all first class. Cool. I clean up and get on the bed to watch Monday Night Football. Dallas is playing Buffalo. Needless to say it was the most exciting game I have seen in years. Dallas has 6 turnovers and then wins with a 52 yard field goal with no time left. A great night indeed.
The lady fixes me a great southern breakfast in the morning and after a short conversation I hit the road for Birmingham.
I guess I have been warned by Alabama.
My luck has run out. It starts raining and it rains all day long.
This time I had on my rain suit so I didn’t get wet, but my choice of roads doesn’t go well with rain. Twisting back roads while dueling with logging trucks plowing through rain is not fun. You can’t pass these monsters because they are kicking up enough water spray to totally blind you. Follow too close and you are buffeted and blinded with spray as well. So I grit my teeth and stay with it until just outside of Birmingham I break out of the rain.
There is a beautiful state park (Oak Mountain) south of Birmingham so I camp there.
Finally, a cool night with stars. I laid on my air mattress and listened to the owls converse. But wait, why is my butt touching the ground. Then my back. Yep, I have a leak in my air mattress. The horror. I spend the night on the cold hard ground.
I learn the next day that I had ridden through a weather front and now it should be clear sailing with lower temperatures (80s). About time. So I ride over the the Barber Museum and boy what a place that is.
I spent most of the day drooling over all the bikes. They even had the first bike I bought new. A 1973 Triumph Daytona.
Made me kind of sad to look at it. I felt really old standing there. After all my bike is in a museum so that says something.
Such great memories. I would have never guessed back then that I would still be riding around the country 30 years later on a motorcycle. So being the optimist that I am I just think lucky me. Keep on taking adventures while you can.
This looks like a work of art.
Hailwood's actual bike
I don’t know anything else to do around there so I start heading back for Texas. I think I can make it to the Mississippi/Louisiana border, but it will be a hump. Sure enough it gets to be 9:00 pm and I’m 20 miles from the border. It is night, I’m wiping bug guts off my face shield and a memory comes back. Almost a year ago to the day I was riding at night in east Texas and I decided to pull off to clean the bugs off my face shield only to go down in a slam bam fall. I fell crossing over a half resurfaced FM road. That fall almost cost me my riding career. Well, did I learn anything? I pulled over at the next motel and called it a night. That 20 miles is not worth it. So I stayed at a Best Western in some little town in Mississippi. I never did see the name of the town.
Thursday morning it is about 60 degrees and all sun. So I load up and head west on Highway 82. At the Texas border I catch I30 into Dallas. Mind numbing but quick.
A photo with me and my fellow interstate travelers. Love those 18 wheelers.
Just as I get on the I635 loop at Dallas a teenager nearly clips my pannier doing a race driver imitation. “Welcome Home to the City of Idiots”.
I pull into the driveway at 4:30 p.m. Another 1700 miles of fun and adventure on a bike.
The bike performed flawlessly. It now has 10,300 miles on her.
Now, lets get to work on the mirror.
shivers...
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