MACH.19 - Saguaro Country Day 2: Escapade

Saguaro Country

Day 2: Escapade
Monday April 29, 2019

One day long ago at an undisclosed location, the first biker to set up an overnight tent awoke and, I'm sure, threw back the tent flap for his first act of the day, and observed the weather. For many, the tent flap has been replaced by cell phones and The Weather Channel,  but the primeval urge to see what's in store for the day makes us all still do the same thing.

I throw back the tent flap... er, check WeatherBug on my phone... a little after 7am.  37F. THIRTY SEVEN DEGREES FARENHEIT!!  I've been scoping out temeratures in faraway places in the deserts and Arizona high country, but didn't anticipate these temperatures less than 200 miles from home! My casual decision not to include our leather cold-weather riding gear doesn't seem quite so casual this morning.

But we gear up in layers with the jacket liners and mesh jackets and decide to have a quick bite at McDonald's a mile up the road.  There we are rewarded with a friendly credit card chip scanner that provides a pleasant chime when it's time to remove the card. Most of these scanners issue a guttural "MEEP-MEEP" as an incentive to remove the card when finished processing.  I love this scanner.

Thus off to the California Sidecar factory five miles south, where my Escapade Excel wheel bearing were repacked by Ada, one of the two trailer assemblers. Trailer bearings on these small wheels should be repacked annually; those 12" wheels have a high rotation at 70 mph.  I usually do this job myself but with the trips to work on Dad's estate and an otherwise busy schedule, I just haven't had the time. While waiting, I chat with Dwight, the sales guy who's been there at least since 1997 when I got my first Escapade trailer, and Scott, the service guy who's been there just as long.  This is a first-rate company staffed by first-rate, caring folks.  This is my third Escapade trailer (the first was demolished in a rear-end collision down on the Sabine River on the Texas-Louisana border, but that's another story).

"I slept for only an hour last night," Kitty announces.  "No more strong black coffee for me after dinner!" We strike out in late morning for the general direction of Huntsville AL, 560 easy miles with two easy days to ride them.  By this time it's 47 degrees with heavy overcast; we're both using the heated seat feature, and in addition I've turned on the heated grips and opened the heater vents in the lower fairing.  I'm warm enough, but Kitty, in back where the still-air envelope collapses around her shoulders, is always more chilly than the rider.

After several hours of riding we eventually stop in Christiansburg VA for an early fuel stop and to warm up.  We have a bite of lunch at the Subway associated with the gas station.  After ew order and I insert the credit card into the chip reader.  When it is done, it says MEEP-MEEP. After hanging out for an hour and a half, we are both warmed up and the skies are crystal blue. With the clouds gone it's about 10F warmer than when we arrived.

Kitty puts on a balaclava in addition to what she's already wearing; we gear up and saddle up. "I'm too warm!" Kitty announces in the headset as roll out.

Fifty or so miles later we've run out of the Appalachian mountains into the flatlands of eastern Tennessee, where the temperature is a pleasant 82F.  Except we're still dresssed for 50-degree temperatures, and now we really are hot even with all the heated stuff turned off.  After a fuel stop and a modified undressing ceremony for both of us, we decide to ride out the last 80 miles or so of our 325-ish mile day to Morristown TN, where we've staged for quite a few overnight stops.

We finish the ride under sunny skies and a pleasant 82F to arrive at out stop.  When traveling in an ad hoc fashion without a known destination, I often call ahead in the afternoon to make a hotel reservation, but on this day we take our chances and have no problem finding a room.

We've seen a 47-degree swing in temperatures today, one of the highest single-day variations of our trips together. Tonight I hope Kitty can make up for the last night's sleeplessness; we have an easy ride of less than 300 miles tomorrow, about half of which is likely to be Interstate.  Tomorrow we sleep in. The tent flap can stay closed for as long as it wants.

MACH.19 - Saguaro Country Day 1: Easy Rider

Saguaro Country

Day 1: Easy Rider

April 28, 2019

It’s been a crazy 18 months.  Last year seems like a lost year because of family responsibilities while Dad was in hospice for 280 days due to an intractable hip infection.  Much of last year we lived away from home.  Dad passed away in late October 2018, and the family has slowly been trying to understand and live the new normal.  I’m a co-executor of the estate, so that has taken more hours than I would have guessed, and we’ve spent numerous weekends going through the contents house.

In 2018, Kitty and I managed only one overnight ride, to Knoxville TN to have Lewis Preston of Electrical Connection install LED headlights to our bike, named Crusader. Otherwise just a few day rides here and there.  So far this year, one ride to the Honda shop and home is literally all I’ve managed.

By God’s grace and the family’s blessing, somehow we’ve carved out a three week respite wherein tomorrow, we plan to strike out on a 6,000+ mile two-up ride. Kitty has been everywhere on the North American continent, USA and Canada, except for the Saguaro cactus deserts, so that’s our primary target. We've planned stops in Vicksburg, MS to eat crawfish (Mississippi Area Crawfish Hunt, or MACH.19), a little time with family in Gulfport, MS, wandering around in the deserts of Arizona and Utah, our third visit to the Grand Canyon, a bit of circuitous wandering through New Mexico in the general direction of home, and then a super-slab ride home.

Kitty and I have experimented for the past couple months with SpotWalla, an Internet cell phone technology that uses GPS signals from compatible devices, broadcast over the Internet to a web site that in turn drops breadcrumbs onto a map.  I use the Bubbler GPS app on my Android phone, having set it to update every 10 minutes.  Thus anyone with the link can see real-time updates (with a 10-minute delay) as to the route, speed, location, and other parameters.  I plan to use that on this trip; I have an on-board GPS unit on my Gold Wing, and I’ll still download GPS tracks as usual, but will load them into the computer and the mapping software after the fact.  SpotWalla seems to do a good job, with the added advantage that the maps can be zoomed on a PC and pinch-zoomed on a phone.  The current link for this trip (cannot guarantee that it won’t become a dead link in the future) is this SpotWalla link.  I have the link configured to protect some secure zones where data won’t be shown, and otherwise the link is configured to show the entire trip.

During this trip, I might blog. I might provide a SpotWalla link. I might post Facebook updates. Time will tell. I'm a free range biker, traveling with my favorite free range biker chick.

After significant planning, shuffling of schedules, and revamping of our packing lists, I think we're ready.

So now, after streaming one of our church services this morning, we lazily finish packing up our luggage and loading the trailer.  All this luggage begs the question about what happened to the couple who would strike out for the weekend with an extra pair of underwear, a T-shirt and jeans, and be perfectly content.  After performing the Dance of the Repositioning Vehicles in a Single-Car Garage, I back the bike and trailer out of the driveway, almost surprised I still remember how to back a trailer; we connect our helmet intercom, and we’re on the road at 1:40 PM for our lazy afternoon ride.

The morning rain has moved out, leaving in its wake a beautiful mid-70's kind of day. In an easy-rider break-in ride, we have a lovely short 120+ mile day to Lovingston, VA, near the location of the California Sidecar factory, where tomorrow morning I've made an appointment for some minor service to the trailer.  Lovingston is a tiny village, and we stay in what I believe is the only motel.  We intend to walk about a mile into town to a café for dinner, but the four-lane highway really doesn’t work for that.  So we cross the highway and wander into a wonderfully surprising little Italian restaurant called Vito’s.  We’ve been there once before but I’ve forgotten what a little gem it is, an unassuming tiny place by the wayside along a country four-lane road.

Tomorrow we plan to be at the California Sidecar factory early, and then start heading toward Huntsville AL where we hope to spend a day at the US Space and Rocket Center.

My Day on a Harley-Davidson

My 2012 Gold Wing is in the shop, having experienced a pulse generator failure just as we were ready to roll out for a 3- for 4-day cruise.  This is a big shop job to repair, so not something I can fix in my garage.

Unwilling to concede a day's riding, I spent yesterday afternoon on a 2018 Harley-Davidson FXLR Low-Rider Classic, rented from our local Eagle Rider establishment. (The Road King Classic I'd reserved on the website turned out to be unavailable, so this was the only option.)

Other than the availability glitch, the reservation process was professional and easy.  I'd called my insurance company, Erie, and confirmed that my motorcycle policy covered rental bikes just like my auto policy, so I declined the supplemental offers.  Thus I was required to provide a $5000 deposit, to be refunded upon return.

I chose a 160-mile country route that's very familiar, a loop from Fairfax County VA to Boonsboro MD and home via Charlestown WV.  Except I accidentally did it backwards, because... umm, well, there was no GPS to alert me when my turn arrived as I was contemplating how different this ride is from my normal ride :-). The route included a variety of lovely easy-ride 2-lane roads, a few narrow unlined roads through the woods, and a 10-mile stretch of 65 mph 4-lane. My impressions of the ride fall into two categories: the machine; the ride.

First, the machine.  This retro-looking machine has thoroughly modern components with keyless start, electronic ignition; the new "Milwaukee-8" water-cooled 107 cu in (1746 cc) engine; monoshock rear suspension that preserves the retro hardtail look; a small multifunction display that cycles through all the display modes; a security system; LED headlight (one each); and, on this model, ABS braking.  It features throttle-by-wire.  It weighs 633 pounds so it feels like a toy compared to my 900-pound Gold Wing.  At 64.2 inches, the wheelbase is more than two inches shorter than the Wing's. Seat height is 26.2 inches, deserving of the moniker "Low Rider."

This model as equipped had only a vestigial passenger seat, no fairing or windshield, and absolutely zero storage capacity, not even a place for the registration card. (The emailed contract from EagleRider served that function.)

Finally, the ride. The big twin engine rumbled to life instantly when pressing the start button.  A loping, irregular engine firing sequence is a characteristic of Harley-Davidson engines at rest, but it was only by the end of ride that I actually didn't worry about whether it would stay running at a stoplight! I found it smoother than I expected but after more than four hours my hands were tingling.  It's a very strong-running machine with tons of low-end torque and an extremely a favorable power-to-weight ratio. When I cranked hard on the throttle, the visceral deep-down shake of two big cylinders accompanied by the characteristic authoritative growl from the exhaust was exhilarating and, I suppose, one of the things that H-D riders cherish about their rides.  I liked that part of it. A lot.  The hand tingling, not so much.

Throttle tip-in is very gentle but responsive.  One thing I didn't like was the stiffness of throttle rotation, which made it difficult to feather the throttle to make tiny adjustments.  I kept overshooting and correcting.  Steering is quicker than the Wing (rake is almost the same at near 30 degrees, but trail is several inches greater because of the bigger 19" wheel with a higher-profile tire.) I found it eager to attack curves but it didn't stay in its lane with the same relaxed line driven by the Wing.

I was baffled by the suspension.  It was much stiffer than I'm accustomed to, yet it was surprisingly forgiving and never harsh.  For a bike of  this design (whatever that means), I think they probably got it right.  The monoshock rear suspension is adjustable but I didn't mess with it.

Seating position of a cruiser, with forward-placed footpegs and higher handlebar positioning, is so much different from my upright long-distance touring position that I can't even describe it.  In riding position, the seat curves up around the lower part of the back for support. At first the riding position felt uncomfortable but four hours later, without a single break, I was still doing ok, although my butt was a little numb.  It wouldn't work for me for all-day, multi-day riding that comprises most of my trips.

Other than my teen-age years, my entire riding career has been behind a fairing.  Since then, this was my first exposure to road speeds with no wind protection.  I'd put in a pair of ear plugs from a set my wife had gotten back in the day when I was a snorer (that's another story) but even so the wind noise was intense. I have a Shoei RF-1100 helmet, which is generally considered to be an excellent noise-damping helmet.  But even at 40 mph it drowned out the puny horn on this bike, and at 65 mph on the 4-lane stretch, it was distractingly, annoyingly, loud, filling my whole dimension of conscious thought.  If I had a bike like this, even if I only did Saturday afternoon cruising, wind protection would be the very first thing I would need to add.

It was a fun afternoon and I enjoyed the different experience.  But there was nothing about the ride that I enjoyed more than I would on my Wing.  The Harley-Davidson big-twin sound was fun. For an afternoon.  I didn't enjoy the wind noise but that's not a negative attribute of the bike, it's just physics that can easily be fixed. I can see why riders have a great degree of loyalty to Milwaukee Iron.  I had a fine afternoon cruise.  I'll be glad to get back my Wing, with its cruise control, GPS system, XM Radio/Traffic/Weather, well equipped to head out on the Long Road.

MACH 15: Day 11 - Interstatement 2

Wednesday Day 11
May 6, 2015
Copyright(c) 2015, Jim Beachy

It looks like a stormy afternoon and evening in northern Virginia.  Since we have a short day and thus the opportunity to avoid mid-afternoon storms, we roll out of Roanoke, VA in time to be home before the storms, but still fashionably late at about 9:30 AM.  The sky is lightly overcast and the temperature is 70 F.

As Interstates go, I-81 is more interesting than many.  It presents a constantly-changing vista, and the sometimes misty mountains on both sides of the Shendandoah Valley are usually visible in sharp contrast to the rolling farmland of the valley.  Two days ago while traversing the wooded rolling hills of Alabama, I mentioned something of this to Kitty.

"I'm not bored!" she responded.

I looked around for a few seconds.  We were on what by most accounts would be called a "boring" stretch of Interstate, leading straight ahead through interminable wooded surroundings that many would pass through with barely a glance, and be glad to be done with it when something changes.

"There are tiny multicolored flowers by the roadside.  I like that the road has shoulders between us and the ditches on each side.  The leaves on the trees are different shades of green.  Those white flowering bushes smell good."

"So, life is what you make it?" I asked.

This exchange represents a microcosm of our rides.  Of course we love the dramatic Rocky Mountain scene or a surf-blasted rocky seascape as well as the next person.  But it's impossible to be at these places all the time.  So why not make the best of the distances between those spectacular scenes?  That's one of the reasons we ride:  If only the best scenes matter, let's just hop on a plane, go see it, and go home again.  To us, that seems like a really narrow life view that leaves so much potential on the "never did that" list.  We believe that every scene has interest, and we try to take something of value from every situation, because every situation offers something.

I prefer two-lane roads when traveling two-up with Kitty, but when it's time to make an Interstatement, or when you have to go somewhere fast, the Gold Wing may be unparalleled in that category.  Of course, riders of other marquees may differ, but then, I'm the one writing the blog.

Less than an hour and a half into our trek, we pull off at Staunton, VA for a comfort break, and I fuel with a half tank remaining.  It could be our last stop.

But the day is growing warmer, and so are we under the liners we'd inserted into our mesh jackets.  So we pull off into a rest stop to remove the liners.

At rest stops and hotels, people almost always want to talk, especially when we travel as a couple. It's an interesting dynamic, and wen traveling solo not nearly as many people approach me.  I think Kitty's presence helps people see us as a "safe" couple and encourages folks to initiate conversation.  They fall into two categories:  First, those who ride a motorcycle and want to talk about motorycling, compare notes, seek common shared experiences.  The other category is those who don't ride, who are curious about what it's like to ride cross-country for thousands of miles on a motorcycle.

The first group always wants to talk about shared experiences, a conversation without a lot of questions.  Here are some of the questions we hear from the second group, the non-riders, the casual "that seems like fun" or "I wish i could do that" group.

The most common question is "What's it like pulling that trailer?"  My answer is always the same:  On the road, you would not know it's back there except that it appears in the mirrors.  It exacts a fuel mileage toll of around 15%.  I can feel a little of its weight when starting or slowing.  And I always joke "You have to remember to drive 6 feet from the gas pump before making your turn!"  Actually, that isn't a joke.  It's important!  And, then there's the backing-up-the-trailer thing.  For aspiring trailer-pullers, I'd recommend practicing in your driveway.  When all your neighbors are gone.  It does take a bit of practice.  Every time I back into or out of a parking space, I still make it a game to see if I can get the bike and trailer aligned perfectly and pointing in the direction we want to travel.

I'm often asked "Do you wear contact lenses?"  Yes.  And I have less trouble wearing them on the road than in an office with dry, cool air blowing over my face all day.  We wear full-face helmets, and behind those and the big windshield, there is not much wind unless the face shield is open.

"What do you do when it rains?"  I sometimes answer "Wish I were at home in bed."  But not really.  We have high-quality rain gear made especially for motorcycle riding.  This means that the pants and jacket sleeves are extra long, awkwardly so off the bike, but when in riding position, they are perfect.  The suits are built to take the buffeting of many days at road speed in the rain should that be necessary.  We recently switched to TourMaster (http://www.tourmaster.com) two-piece suits which we have yet to test, as we didn't hit any rain on this trip.  It is rare indeed that rain has changed our route, although we occasionally avoid severe weather by hanging out somewhere safe.  But there was that time in New England, coming home from the Gaspe Peninsula, when... well, that's another story, actually already written in another blog segment.

"How do you keep your feet dry?"  We both have Cruiserworks waterproof boots (http://www.cruiserworks.com), although I recently learned that they've discontinued the women's boot line.  These 12-inch boots are made for motorcycling with grippy oil-resistant tread on the soles and reinforced arch support to minimize fatigue and vibration from long hours with feet on the pegs.  They look like any high-quality leather boot that you could wear into a restaurant, but they are absolutely waterproof.  They are expensive, but one of the best motorcycle apparel investments we've ever made.

Under sunny skies, we make the turn at I-81 Mile Marker 300 onto I-66 when XM Weather makes a sublimely ridiculous announcement in the headset:  "Weather alert.  Precipitation in the area.  Clear, with rain in the area."  I check the weather screen and sure enough, behind us, working in the mountains of West Virginia, are the beginnings of pop-up showers that often occur due to uneven cooling and heating of the atmosphere.  There's no rain in our intended path.

We arrive at home by mid-afternoon and slowly unpack.  We've been in six states on our short-for-us tour of 2,707 miles:  Virginia, Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, and Georgia.  This has been the only tour I can recall where we had no rainy weather, instead riding for all 11 days almost always in brilliant sunshine.  In another unusual twist, temperatures have been unusually pleasant, with the highest noted temperatures hovering at 84 F and one brief foray to 86 F.

An hour later the entire area around  home is being pelted by dime-sized hail and torrential downpours.

GPS Track for Day 11

GPS Track for Entire Trip of 2,707 Miles

GPS Elevation Graph

Below is the GPS elevation graph of the entire trip.  It literally represents a cross-section of elevation above sea level for the tour.  I've included it because of several interesting features.

First, the striking identical "bookends" with exactly the same elevation profile.  This happens when the same route is taken on both outbound and inbound legs of the tour; in this case, it is the profile of the segment between home and Knoxville, TN, where the route was almost exactly the same in both directions.

Second, the profile of Tennessee's Cumberland Plateau is visible between the 500- and 600-mile distance markers, with a dramatic elevation change from about 800 feet to 2,000 feet.

Last, spanning mileage markers of about 950 to 1,150 miles, you will notice the extraordinarily flat profile of the Mississippi Delta, where the elevation showed a gradual decrease of only about 100 feet in 200 miles of travel.  Is it any wonder the Mississippi River winds about like a snake in that part of the country?  Just after that, between 1,150 and 1,200 miles, you can see the brief rise into the wooded hills north of Vicksburg, MS, and then the return to near sea level.  And from this point, only about 100 feet above sea level, the Mississippi still travels well over 300 miles until it empties into the Gulf of Mexico.  Awesomely flat land!

MACH 15: Day 10 - Interstatement

Tuesday Day 10
Cinco de Mayo, 2015
Copyright(c) 2015, Jim Beachy

437 miles today, 2,490 miles total.

"It's only 624 miles to home.  We can be there by 8:00 PM plus fuel stops," I say in the headset as we strike out northward on I-59.  It's another gorgeous morning, not a single cloud visible in the entire sky from horizon to horizon.

I find the perfect seating position on the big comfortable seat and it's one of those mornings when I feel as though I could ride the 600 miles home without ever changing position, without ever stopping except for fuel stops.  I think Kitty might actually be thinking the same thing.  My Gold Wing becomes an extension of myself, effortlessly gobbling up miles and miles of a black magic carpet that magically appear in my windshield, pass under my boots, and disappear in my mirrors.

As we cross the state line from Alabama into Georgia, we lose the hour we gained a week ago and I watch the GPS-synchronized clock in my multi-function display suddenly jump ahead one hour.  Since it's slaved to the GPS time, and the GPS knows where it is at all times, it also knows exactly when the time zone changes.  It also factors in time zone changes when it estimates destination arrival times.

We catch I-24 and ride for several miles in Georgia before crossing into Tennessee.  Reality intrudes into this Interstatement when we stop for a comfort break at the Tennessee welcome center, 45 minutes into the day.

In the welcome center, strapped to a trailer, stands a 15-foot cow, its origin and purpose a mystery.  From the front, this is one scary-looking cow!  Just as we are ready to leave, a man wonders over and starts talking motorcycles.  His name is Mike; he's a trucker, and is also the Safety Coordinator for the GWRRA (Gold Wing Road Riders Association) chapter, or perhaps for the entire state of Tennessee.  He's quite a story-teller, and an hour after our stop we finally set off northward toward Chattanooga.

"Well, I had visions of riding all the way home today," says Kitty.  "But one stop like that pretty much changes that picture."  She's right:  To ride over 600 miles in a day, especially one where we lose an hour, requires a commitment to steady (not fast) riding and minimizing stopped time.

We navigate through Chattanooga and Knoxville amid heavy truck traffic, pick up I-40, and stop for fuel at Exit 419, just south of where I-81 splits off to the north from I-40.  My buddy Ray and I used to meet at this exit for breakfast on many of our cross-country rides together.  We both had GPS units and left our homes at the respective time to have us to this exit at 11:00 AM on a particular day.  For me, that mean leaving the house between 3:00 AM and 4:00 AM; I had a little farther than Ray, but we always ended up here just minutes apart.  Today, it's just fuel and lunch at a Subway, then we're on our way, after being informed by a guy in a red pickup truck that my left low beam headlight is out.  I add it to the list of service items for when I return home.  I'll also need a new rear tire before my next trip.  The stretch from Chattanooga to Knoxville is among my least favorite Interstate stretches because of the heavy traffic generated by the convergence of five or six Interstate roads, and I'm glad to have it behind me.

We ride 206 miles from here without a stop or a pause, crossing from Tennessee to Virgina at Bristol, which is bisected by the state line.  I give Kitty many opportunities to stop for a break or for the evening, as it's now after 5:30 PM local time.  But it's her idea to ride without a break to the next fuel stop, which we complete at Christiansburg, VA, and then ride the 30 miles or so to Roanoke, VA, to the same hotel where we stayed on our first night.

About an hour before, I was startled by the XM Weather announcing "Weather alert.  Precipitation in the area.  Rain in the area."  Sure enough, several small pop-up showers were making little green splotches on the display, but none in our path.  It's the first rain or even water-bearing clouds we've seen since we left home Sunday a week ago.  I don't recall any trip taken this time of year, when the weather is at its most active, where we have made an entire trip without rain.  We'll see tomorrow - looks a little sketchy.  The closest we come today is at the fuel stop, where a few drops of rain splatter on the windshield.  The temperature has dropped from a trip-high of 84 F to 72 F, so we insert the liners into our mesh jackets for the remainder of the ride.

By the time we arrive in Roanoke, the sky is once again cloudless and the temperature has risen to 82 F.  After checking in at the hotel (we'd not made reservations and we are fortunate they have a few rooms left), it seems apropos to walk to the Mexican restaurant next door and join the Cinco de Mayo revelers.  But by this time it's after 9:00 PM and the revelers are mostly leaving the restaurant just as we arrive.  Apparently the revelry stops early here in Roanke.  So we enjoy a sedate Cinco de Mayo celebration and excellent Mexican fare.

Today's GPS elevation graph is of some interest, showing significant elevation changes with a maximum elevation around Wytheville, VA.  We've covered four states and ridden almost 450 miles today; we expect to be home tomorrow after a short ride of a little over 200 miles.  

GPS Track (Dark Gray)

MACH 15: Day 9 - The Road More Traveled

Monday Day 9

May 4, 2015

Copyright(c) 2015, Jim Beachy

The two older kids and Kevin are up and out the door by 7:05 (why do they start school so early, anyway?).  We say our good-byes and I notice when Kitty puts her helmet that I'd forgotten to wax it after the kids had plastered it with fingerprints.  I start to get out the waxing cloths and wax.

"Stop!  I want those fingerprints on my helmet!" says Kitty emphatically.  So she dons the helmet, fingerprints and all, including those all over the face shield!  This definitely wouldn't work for me, but if she wants the grandkids fingerprints on the helmet as a reminder, well, it's her helmet.

It's almost 9:30 as we ease onto US 49 northbound, and we stop immediately to fuel.

"What do you have in mind for a stopping time this evening?" asks Kitty.

"Whenever we feel like stopping," I respond.  We have a little over 1,000 miles to travel and there's no particular rush.  "How about 5:30-ish?" she says.  That sounds like a plan.

 

We ride at the speed limit on the four-lane US 49 to Hattiesburg, MS, where we catch I-59 north and then run into I-20 at Meridian, MS.

This is an uneventful Interstate day, followed most of the day by the pleasant sweet, heavy scent of a flowering shrub that we identify as the source, but don't know what it is.  We don't necessarily ride tank-to-tank, and when we do stop I top off the fuel whether it's necessary or not.  Much of the Interstate between Hattiesburg and Meridian has been newly resurfaced, and this is as nice a road surface as I recall being on.  Kitty even comments about it.

Eventually we make our way northward on the Birmingham Bypass, I-459, contemplate stopping at Gadsen, AL but Kitty suggests riding until we need fuel; so for this leg, we do ride tank-to-tank without stopping.  I've commented before about my LD Comfort riding shorts (http://www.ldcomfort.com).  These riding shorts have made the most amazing difference in my ability to ride long distances with absolutely no "tired-butt syndrome" or pain on the underside of the legs where the seat applies a pressure point.  Kitty has a pair as well, and on a former trip she was not greatly impressed.  This trip, though, has made a believer out of her as well.

Neither of us have any sign of butt-fatigue when we stop for fuel and for the night in Ft. Payne, AL after our easy 412-mile ride.  We find fuel, a nice motel, and a great steak and fajita place all within walking distance.   The weather has been brilliant for this whole trip, and today was no exception, starting out at 64 F and ending at 80 F, a very pleasant sunny ride.

It's a nice way to end the day.  But I'm a little sad as I wax Little B's handprints off the trailer.

GPS Track

MACH 15: Day 8 - Around the Neighborhood

Sunday Day 8
May 2, 2015
Copyright(c) 2015, Jim Beachy

Our son Kevin's biggest workday is Sunday.  This morning, while most people are are taking a break or sleeping in, he arrives at work before 5:00 AM.  He's the lead pastor of Gulf Coast Worship Center.  Apparently he has more material than he can cover in one session and in a rare moment, forgot his notes at the office.  So today he has to pare away almost half his sermon by go time.

The rest of the family arrives before 9:30 AM, all traveling in the family van while the bike and trailer rest safely in the garage.  Apparently the sermon surgery is successful and his take-a-stand message seems to be intact and ends at the normal time.

Today is a celebratory day with about 20 people scheduled for baptism.  Baptism here is by literal immersion, and a large portable swimming pool has been set up outside.  After the service, everyone gathers around the pool while smoke from the BBQ grill wafts over the viewers and those being baptized.  Afterwards everyone enjoys the products of the BBQ grill in a picnic atmosphere.

The grandkids have been anticipating a motorcycle ride since the time they knew we'd be riding to Mississippi, so one by one, we tour the neighborhood on the big red bike with trailer attached.  The neighbor's kids want a ride too, but we kindly tell them only our family is allowed to ride on the motorcycle.  And thus through the neighborhood many times over with three different passengers.  Many folks are on their porches or in the lawn, smiling and waving as they soon figure out why the big bike with small people is making multiple passages through their streets.  Sometimes kids on bicycles come out to challenge the big red motorcycle, and I exercise an extreme level of caution.  The youngest, Brenham, isn't quite ready to be a solo passenger, so we squeeze him onto the seat between Kitty and me.  This pushes my backrest forward into an uncomfortable position but it's fine for a short neighborhood ride.  Carter and Danica are able to ride as solo passengers.  They all wear Kitty's helmet, and are fascinated that we can communicate in a normal tone of voice.

"Can you listen to music?" asks Danica.

In response I push the Audio button and instantly our helmet headsets are flooded with high-quality digitally-transmitted music from the last Sirius XM channel I'd selected, which happens to be The Message (Channel 63).

"Cool!" says Danica.  "I didn't know a motorcycle could listen to music."

Tomorrow the two older kids will be off to school with Kevin early in the morning, and we plan to start our homeward journey sometime after that. Unlike our outbound trip focusing on two-lane and country roads, trip parameters require that the journey home will be by Interstate this time.  I'd thought of taking an alternate route but Kevin says that route is the most boring he's ever been on.

So, facing the risk of death by boredom, I suppose we'll navigate via the usual route, which is just another mostly-Interstate route but hopefully with a more favorable interest-per-mile ratio.

GPS Neighborhood Track