seafood crisis

Cruising along at 60mph on wonderful US 33 when I came upon the very recent truck accident. A panel truck full of seafood tipped over on one of the bends. The very polite, and very tough looking, state trooped explained what happened. I asked, harmlessly enough, if maybe we could cook some of of the fresh seafood on the searing pavement. He replied something to the effect: "Sun, I am not shure I guldurn thank that is a right funny comment"

Then another guy on a motorcycle pulled up and said he had to get to work. The trooped explained that the cleanup could take hours so the bike guy said he would lead me and 2 other cars over the mountain over another ridge. He said, roughly: "Tain't no road I ride iffun I could not, but sheet, I got to get ta wuk. Ya'll kin folla me if yid lik. Theys kwite a bit a gravel along the holler, but it ull get us there" We thanked him politely and followed.

What he did not say was that he was going to drive the gravel road, up and along Harpers Ridge, to the peak or North Mountain (3500 feet) at speeds that were just insane. I was sliding in the gravel, trying to wreck on every bend. One car stayed with us, the other is somewhere along Harpers Ridge whistling the tune to Deliverance by now.

This might be the first traffic jam in the history of Harpers Ridge. The guy who was leading us, who is behind the pick up truck in this photo, immediately blasted through the little gap between him and the other cars, leaving the rest of us behind. I saw one little girl come out of a house (shack) with a shotgun screaming something about "I'z gonna killa me one of 'em revnuers on a motersickle" I am sure I heard it. Nonetheless, Harpers Ridge views and scenery were incredible and we made it back to US 33, frazzled, but better for the adventure.

US 33

Something convinced me to make a right turn off of US 119 north towards Morgantown, north of Charelston, and head east on US 33 to meet up with Schultz in Roanoke. Turned out to be a great decision. US 33 is one of the greats roads I have ever driven, riden or rowed. Between Buckhannon WV and Roanoke VA is winds through the Allegheny mountains, up to 3500 feet, across the eastern continental divide, past Senaca rocks, Blackwater falls. The roads are in excellent condition. They climb, dip, wind, curve with spectacular views. I am now determined to travel every US Hwy in America (in between trying to visit every planet on earth). On this trip alone I have been treated to US 11, US 27, US 119 and US 33. All incredible. Who knew these great roads were out here....not me!

Senaca Rocks

Riding at sunrise just north of Charleston. It is more than real, it is magic.

Swell little town of Elkins WV

Diggers, diggers, diggers....that is what my kids used to scream at all construction equipment. If they were working we would stop for hours to watch them, no matter where in the country or where in the world we were. The badass diggers were doing some major stuff along US 33.

Whoops, almost went a whole day of blogging without my posing the vortex. hahahaha

Wartburg KY and beyond

I was cruising at 6omph on beautiful US 92 out of Stearns KY towards Charleston WV when US 92 just ended. No signs, no anything, it just ended at these red diamonds. Nothing to do but pull out the trusty road map and find another route.

This is a road up Pine Mountain off of US 119 north of Harlan. Sometimes these roads just seem to go up and off into the clouds. I hit the throttle and took a ride into the atmosphere.

So many beautiful streams, creeks, rivers.

This is what I call real riding, in Wartburg KY along the Obed River. Ahhhh

View from the top of Pine Mountain, north of Harlan, US 119, Kentucky. Just gets better every minute.

I was not sure how I felt about entering this highway. Was this some sort of message. I stopped and did a life inventory. It took about 3o seconds, not much on the shelves. So I moved on.

Getting closer to home as I recognized the Elk River and felt obligated to stop and patronize this establishment...what with the fact that I could not spend any of my beer budget last night in the dry counties of Kentucky.

Early morning sun on, yep, Kingdom Come Parkway. If it was I sign I took it to mean that I could go faster on this great road.

She is now officially named Comet I, and this old 1998 Roadkind has certainly treated me well. I am near 3000 miles on this trip and she has been ridden hard in 105 heat and pouring rain. At the moment it is so dirty I can't tell what color it is, but onward.

The Blues Brothers Mantra

I always loved that scene in the Blues Brothers....."full tank of gas, 100 miles to Chicago, wearing sunglasses".....and here I am. I am 500 miles from home in Pittsburgh. I am at a hotel where I am the only guest. My budget is depleted. I calculated that I have enough money for gas...I don't need food as I have my trusty bag of trail mix....I don't need lodging because, well because I don't. I budgeted enough to have a few beers tonight, but that won't happen because I am in Kentucky in a dry county. I love it. If all goes according to plan I will pull into my driveway sometime tomorrow night with not a dime left. This is all the better to me in that I have a great job (hell I don't remember a day in my life where I did not have a job) but not a lot of income to show for it and it matters not a lick. The road still rules. Nice little hotel by the way, though I am not sure what it means that they rent rooms by the hour, or by the night.

Alabama/Tennessee

I think I have made a command decision based on some fairly heavy traveling in the last 3 years. US Routes are the best. I am US 27 today from Chattanooga TN to Lexington KY.

They are wide open, 55-70mph, rolling, beautiful, not full trucks. Trade of is you come to small towns about every 40 miles or so and you hit a few traffic lights some times, but you get to see the great small towns that are the real world and you rarely see all of the interstate stuff.

Second choice would be interstates because, well, they get you there I guess.

There are US Highway Rts. all over the country. Never far from interstates. Motorcycle, Car, Bicycle, or Boat, it is my choice of travel.

Alabama is, as the sign says, beautiful and I wonder why it has taken me so long to explore it. I will be back.

Desoto Falls, Little River Canyon, Ft. Payne Alabama

Sign claims it is a 100% pollution free reserve, meaning there are not any sources of pollution along the entire river. Just incredibly beautiful.

I miss road partner Schultz. Nobody comments when I pull over every 2o miles to take silly photos or look at dead snakes, and nobody to talk to at the water breaks. At the moment I am sitting 50 miles south of Oak Ridge TN in a wonderful rainstorm, inside a great little gas station market, playing on the computer, having coffee and watching the rain.

Seems I have believed this is how one should live all of my life.

This is video taken by a passenger, not me, US 27 in Tennessee with pretty fair storm clouds brewing on the mountain. I made it to a safe dry place before it hit.

The Route in a nutshell

Rolling down the road in Alabama

This is Jessica (married to Dave) She is a 24 year old soldier in the JAG office. She was stationed in Vickburg and making the most of her asssignment here. She has aleady done of tour of Iraq and one of Afghanistan. It was nice to share a meal with this bright young soldier.

2028 miles after we started, Bill and I would split paths today as he was headed east through Atlanta and points beyond to see his daughter in Charleston SC. My resources were starting to deplete (as I expected) so I decided to head north on all the back roads I could find.

So, we said goodbye in a gas station. Some observations about this particular travel duo.

• Both of us liked to get up very very early and agreed to grade our departures> A. was on the road by 7 A- 7:30 B 8 B- 830 no good grades after that.
• We split all expenses by running a river trip type log so it did not matter who payed for what or when, it all got settled even in the end
• Schultz showed the patience of job with my frequent stops at Harley shops (I like to see the different shops and get trinkets there) an my obsession with finding a charger for my camera battery. We stopped at 800 Radio Shacks until I found it.
• Schultz was not amused my frequent arms in the air poses and even asked me how many more he could expect to suffer through
• One night while I was snoring Schultz decided to suffocate me to death. He said that it was curious that I did not even fight the suffocation for a long count of seconds. Guess I survived the procedure since I am typing.
• We agreed to force the water hydration issue by purchasing large bottles of water at each stop and encouraging each other to drink them. The air temperature, hot bikes, and heat from the road were all fairly depleting.
• I found Schultz to be very considerate and accommodating in all respects. I noticed that he brought his normal high speeds down a few notches and I brought mine up a few.
• I noticed that he was willing to get of the interstates whenever I asked as I so love the less stressful back road routes
• Schultz fell in love with a paper napkin serviette in one of the hotel lobbies and spoke of it for days
• I full suspect that I am a pain in the ass to travel with because I like to stop, take photos, loaf around, and do my own thing. I think Schultz was very tolerant.
• All in all very good travel partners. Nobody bitched when the other wanted to do something, or anything.
• Schultz showed some good old character making it clear at one hotel that the teenagers cutting u in and jamming the elevators might need to be sorted out.
• I have traveled with no better voyager
• 
  

This is the 5 mile bridge over Lake Ponchetrain.

A note on Bourbon Street and Beale Street. They are everything they say they are, and live up to their billing. Lots and lots and lots of great music. On Bourbon lots of barely clothed women selling lap dances. Great sensory experiences all of it.

This is a carefully produced professional video showing some of the fine back road in Sweet Home Alabama

7am, Vicksburg National Battlefield Park, Mississippi. Random photo by Schultz, but captured the mist, the arch, and even his own hand in the mirror of his bike. The park is intense.

How could we travel 100o miles on the Mighty Miss and not take at least on Ferry. This one connected at town called New Roads and a town called St. Francisville, both in Louisiana. I asked why there was not a bridge and I was told (taught actually) "why do we need a bridge when the ferry has been funny on near 200 years" As always, I know nothing.

Heading south on US 61 out of St. Francisville we saw Katrina like clouds forming in the sky. Rule 1, if you can not ride in the rain, then don't. So we stopped at a place called Wings (or something like that). It was dry, airconditioned and wonderful and there we met Laura who took immediate interest in our journey. It turns out that Laura is also a voyager. Her journey started when she was 14 and her aunt (a longhaul truckdriver) took her for a summer of travel.

Make no mistake, those dark, ominous, intimidating things over Schultz's head are storm clouds preparing to dump the real deal.

I just had to post this one. We were about 100 miles north of New Orleans. We had been on the road all day in 100 plus temperature. I thought I had lost Schultz at this red light until I turned around and realized he decided to stop 500 feet behind me, and all of the rest of traffic, in the shade under a bridge. Hahahha, classic decision.

Vicksburg to New Orleans

This is Schultz at the Mamie S Barrett, a long ago grounded towboat on the Mississippi forever enshrined on the banks about 30 miles south of Vidalia, Lousiana. We could only begin to imagine her history, but I will find it.

When in doubt, ask the chickens? We stopped for gas. I went inside to use the restrooms. When I came out Schultz was confronting chickens (chickens?) at the pumps. This was in a town called Two Bridges, Mississippi.

Oh the pain of being a real country. We visited the infamous battlefield at Vicksburg. I don't have to be the teacher here, we all know this great/tragic/glorious (hell, I don't know what it is) story. Grant attacks Vicksburg in 1863 to secure access to the Mississippi. Pemberton, the Confederate General in charge is ordered by Jefferson Davis to not surrender the town (which was also his birth place). All kinds of powerful military stuff happened. Grant, on orders from Lincoln, starts an old fashioned medieval siege that last for 47 days. All kinds of heroes, victims and all that stuff. The only thing I did not know at all was that Vicksburg, as a town, did not celebrate the 4th of July again (the surrender took place on July 4, 1863) until 1945 out of respect for the end of WW II. Wow, who knew.

Here is a great photo of my new second best friend in the entire universe and beyond...the Towboat Mamie S Barrett. I will not let her go much longer without a past. An incredible hulk of a boat marooned forever 100 feet from the banks of the Mississippi. There has to be a great story here. In the meantime she rests in peace now sharing her hull with the foliage of the river banks. (ok, since I posted this I found it. Mamie was built in 1921 in Jeffersonville Indiana. She had a long run as a two, then a theatre then a restaurant. She was grounded in the flood of 1993. She is 146 feet long and 30 feet wide. According to the stuff I found there is occasional interest in preserving or restoring her)

We took a side road following a sign that read "camping available" The "camps" were trailers on stilts on the banks of the Mighty Miss. How cool!!!

Day 4 Memphis to Vicksburg

What to you do when you are on a motorcycle, and it starts to pour down rain. Well, I guess there was a day when it sucked....not today. The rain clouds formed, we were scurrying for shelter and we found a great hiway bridge to hide under, and we could get the internet and it was like hanging out at a campsite with thunder and lightning and we were perfectly dry. Road is good again.

This is in Rosedale Mississippi and I promise that that is really the Mississippi River in the background. The route is spectacular and road incredible but we think we have only seen the river clearly about 4-5 times. We know it is there, it is on the maps, we can see the towers of the power stations and hear the tow boat whistles, we just can't see it often enough.

The cotton field here are so big it is, to me overwhelming. Here I am violating some state law and facing the potential anger of a local grower but I had to touch a real plant.

More proof, to ourselves as needed, that we are actually on the Great River Road since we do not see the actual river too often.

In Greenville Mississippi there is a place called Jim's Cafe. It has been on the food channel for serving one of the great cheese burgers in the south and for the wonderful hot sauce Gus, the current owner, makes. We stopped there today, not knowing any of this, but just looking for lunch. What a great surprise. This is Gus, whose family bought the place from Jim in 1934, and Susan the incredible server who is full of life, personality and great food suggestions.

Day 3 Chester IL to Memphis TN

Under the viewing tower at the Confluence were a billion mud hornet nests. I so badly wanted to throw a rock at one and see what would happen, but sanity prevailed.

Schults at one of the Official GRR stations.

Standing at the confluence of the Mississippi and the Ohio

Very Cool narrow bridge at Cairo Point crossing from Kentucky into Missouri across Mississippi.

How could I not stop and photograph this one.

A great nights sleep resulted in a very early morning departure from Chester. The temperature was 90 degrees at 7am, but here was a wonderful gentle overcast sky so it was perfect riding conditions. We followed a half dozen different roads, all empty, windy, straight, fast...along the river, away from the river. Wow, what a day on a motorcycle. We traveled through Chester, Rockwood, Wolf Lake, Ware, Horseshoe Lake (the self-proclaimed Goose Capital of the WORLD), Cape Girardeau, Thebes, Olive Branch, Future City, Wickliffe, Bardwell, Hickman, Clinton, Union City, Dyersburg, Phillippy, Doubles Bridge (which announces on its sign that is still unicorporated) Ripley and into Memphis.

And of course we crossed through Cairo IL, one of the most incredible places in America. Cairo is where the Great Ohio River confluences with the Mighty Mississippi. Though the Ohio is officially considered a tributary of the Mississippi it does do justice. The Mississippi ( I had to know this so I looked it up) is 2300 miles long. The Ohio is 1300 miles long. The Mississippi, from what I could learn, carries 800,000 million cubic yards of water a year. What that number means I don't know. The Ohio carrys 400,000 million cubic yards. Again, I don't know what that means. What I do know is that the point at the confluence is incredible and intimidating. There is a park there, very unkept, with a cool sculpture recognizing Lewis and Clarks visit ( they came down the Ohio and then turned up the Mississippi -these guys were nuts). Another cool thing about Cairo is that between that town and St. Louis it is called the "Graveyard" because of the number of boats that the River eats. We saw one sign that claimed that an 1867 study counted 167 sinkings on the Miss. in the Graveyard Stretch. She eats boats apparently.

The day ended with us arriving in Memphis at about 4pm. Once again Priceline ruled and we landed a $150 room in the Doubletree for $50 bucks. This is very relevant given the meager (nay non-existent) budget on which I am trying to complete this trip.

In Memphis we wandered, of course, onto Beale street and into BB Kings Blues Club where a band named Patrick Todd was just smoking.

Bikes are running well. We have traveled over a thousand miles now. So many great towns, so much water and such a powerful river, so many great people. The road rules, and following the comet is rapidly becoming a way of life.

Day 2 Made it to the Mississippi

We left Indianapolis on Saturday morning and plowed ahead on I 70 in brutal heat. The temperature coming off of the pavement was, I am certain, 1000 degrees. As we approached St. Louis we hit a massive construction traffic jam. This was, I am sure, the hard part of the ride, but it was worth it. We arrived in St. Louis with the spectacular Arch in view and the, finally we reached and crossed the Mississippi River and saw the first Great River Road Sign. Yeah.

So, we were in Missouri for no longer than 30 minutes and we managed to break 3 laws. 1. we forgot to put on helmets (and were politely reminded of such by a nice driver) 2. We decided to park at an illegal spot near the arch, and were found out almost immediately by very nice park police. I explained that my bike was having mechanical difficulties (which was true, but not the reason we parked there). The nice park police lady asked us to move the bikes, but not before she agreed to pose for a photo. 3. Leaving our illegal parking spot we decided to drive through a red light to beat the traffic. No foul was incurred.

After a quick stop at a local Harley shop to confirm that my bike was going to explode, we headed south on the Great River Road.

Well, we headed south for about two miles and decided to stop at a local tavern to congratulate our having made it this far. At Brandy's Inn on Rt. 3 in Cahokia IL (which we came to learn was the first anglo settlement in IL --goodness how little I know) we met owners Dave and Laurie. As holds true the world over, people are good and nice -- there are just a few bad folks out there who ruin it for the whole world. Dave and Laurie took immediate interest in our trip and guided us to a slight route variation along the limestone bluffs of the Mississippi. What a cool ride. The bluffs are lined with cave openings which blow a constant 66 degree breeze, kind of like a massive airconditioner. To be sure we found the route Dave decided to ride along with us for 20 miles. How cool is that.

At Valmeyer IL we left Dave to continue south and immediately got lost. Well, we didn't really get lost, but the road we were on ended at a spot where the Miss is running high. It just ended. Schultz's gps guided us to an alternate route on a road called, quite naturally, Levee Road. It was gravel and dust and slow and not nice to motorcycles, but great none the less.

At a second watering hole, just to wash the dust you see, we met a very nice bartender named Tina and a patron who was not so nice. She, the patron, wondered out loud why anyone would ever visit the south. She then gave us a brief lecture on race and the such. Rise above, I say, though it is hard sometimes. Schultz looked at me, said "drop it" before could comment, and we left. Great little town this was though....Prarie Roger Illinois.

A few more hours of riding along the river basin (the river is not always visible) we stopped for the night in Chester IL, a great little town where, again news to me, the guy who created the cartoon character Popeye (E. C. Segar) was from. There are statues of Popeye everywhere.

Bikes are covered with lime dust. Sean and Schultz are covered with lime dust, but a great travel day with lots of adventure.

July 16th Day 1

Great ride from Pittsburgh to Indianapolis. Fortunately the weather predictions were predictably incorrect and we had nothing but clear skies and intense sunshine. This is one of the hardtail stretches of the ride, all interstate, to get to the Big Muddy. Camped for the night in Indianapolis. Thanks Drew for the Priceline idea. I never used it before and it worked. We stopped 30 minutes from Indianapolis and bid on hotels and found one for $150, bid $40 and got it. I wonder what would have happened if we bid $10. We'll find out. Lots of time to think on a motorcycle. Today I thought about my great friend John W. who lost his dad this week. I had a chance to be around his family for a day while they were doing the grieving thing and it was incredible, intense, and inspirational. Grieving is a weird science, but it works. What a great family and extended family he has.

Schultz drove way too fast today in different city limits. An airport limo cut him off so we chased it for miles. I don't know what we were going to do if we caught it, but we showed him. hahahah