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| Riding the Natchez Trace Parkway |
This was a very slow starting day. Angela and Karen didn't arrive until almost 10:00pm and they were exhausted, so both are entitled to sleeping in and not rushing out the door. I didn't even wake up till 6:30. By the time I showered and got downstairs, it was after 7 and John, as usual, was sitting doing work on his laptop.
I thought I'd give Walmart one last try. There's a super Walmart just around the corner so I rode over and look for a tripod. They had the exact same selection of the other two Walmarts I've tried, so there's no point in ever trying again , until I do.
I got back to the hotel and got all my gear loaded down from the room and onto the bike. Then I spend a wild cleaning the windshield and other parts of the bike. When I pulled out my small spray bottle of Rain-X, I got my proof that yesterday was the hottest ride yet. The spray bottle had melted and deformed. So not only get my watch overheat and turn off, my phone overheat and go into night time mode and then into power saving mode, but it was actually melting plastic on my motorcycle.
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| Proof that my bike rides have been HOT |
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| Getting the bikes ready. The "foggy" appearance is the humidity in the air |
While we were loading, Ron said he had a small Styrofoam ice chest that he's been using on the ride. But now that Karen is here she will be on the back seat. I had him bring it down and we put it on my back seat for the next few days. I had 3D printed a bracket for my bike so that I can stretch a bungee strap across my back seat to hold things on. It holds this ice chest fine. But the ice chest is just a little too big and pushes my seat rest forward. When I push back against it it applies pressure to the ice chest and might break it. But the worst that can happen is cold water runs off the back seat and on to the ground.
All of us have Bluetooth intercom by Cardo. That means we can all talk together while riding down the road. But first you have to get them all paired. We spent a little while trying to get them all working and eventually managed to hear each other. But there's lots of other functions that will need to figure out along the way. For example if you leave your helmet open and the wind blast your microphone it hits all four of the other Riders very loud and annoying. Ask me how I know!
We were ready to go around 9:00. We went to gas up and load the ice chest with ice and drinks. Angela still needed to return the rental car so he sent them ahead to the airport then followed a few minutes later.
Once that was all done and we picked them up, we were finally ready to get started with our ride.
John led the way out of the airport, but I guess he hadn't driven to the exact spot the GPS wanted him to go, so it kept telling him to flip a u-turn and go back to the airport. But in the meantime he missed our turn off to get on the freeway. Ron did take the turn off and now is separated from the rest of us. Everybody had their own idea of how to fix the situation and with our intercoms we could all talk at the same time and tell each other our wonderful ideas. There's a specific term for what was happening and it starts with the word cluster but we won't go into that.
My GPS was working fine so I whipped around John and just tell them to follow me. We did get turned back around and when we started to eat on the freeway, there was wrong who had just pulled off to the side . Crisis averted. John also figured out that all he needed to do was hit a little X on his screen and it skipped the errant Waypoint and started working correctly so he took lead back.
We are going to spend 3 days riding the Natchez Trace Parkway . It's a road built over a famous Trail that was used for hundreds of years by farmers to deliver their goods to Market . The government bought all the land making up the trail and made a national park out of it . It's 400 miles long and about 800 ft wide .
But before we can ride the parkway, we have to get to it . It's about a hundred miles from Baton Rouge to Natchez. We took Interstate 10 about 2 miles over to US Highway 61. It's a beautiful divided four lane Highway. When we finally got out of city limits , the temperature dropped by about four degrees and felt really nice. It was mostly cloudy that was helping keep the temperatures down.
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| US 61 is no slouch when it comes to nice highways |
When we crossed the state line from Louisiana to Mississippi, we decided to stop and get a picture. John tried to setup his tripod to get a group shot, but it just wouldn't stand up on sloped terrain. So I pulled out the 360 camera. It does OK but it doesn't give the quality that a normal camera on a tripod can give.
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| Welcome to Mississippi |
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| Our bikes, us, and the sign all at once |
All morning we've seen some largish black flying bugs hanging around. While we were posing for the photo the bugs started to become a bit bothersome. Then they got a bit worse. Ron mentioned that they seemed to be "paired up" as it were, and sure enough they were all in pairs. We kind of laughed it off and headed for the bike. When we got there, we found the bikes, jackets, helmet and everything COVERED with the bugs. You'd slap them to get them off but they'd come right back. My windshield was absolutly full of them. At least they didn't bite.
We all quickly tried to gear up and get going. But I had to get a picture first, so I was behind everyone else by about 30 seconds. Looking at the picture seems allot fewer than it felt like at the time. Just looking at it, I find myself feeling them landing on my ears and arms. YEEEESH!
Once I was going, they did not want to let go. I was going almost 80 before they were blown away.
We stopped at the next gas station to clean up and go potty. Once I stopped, bug flew out of every crevice and nook on the bike. They'd gotten everywhere. I spent a while getting them out of things, then washed the windshield about 4 times to clean the mess from all the bugs we'd hit. John asked the lady in the store about them and she said they're called "Love Bugs", and sure enough it was they're spawning season.
Once we got ourselves de-bugged, we got back on the road. Our route had us just going through the outskirts of natchez, but it was lunch time so we deviated and followed a sign that pointed us to downtown Natchez. I'm not sure what the sign meant by downtown, but we were just riding through neighborhoods with no signs of any businesses or restaurants.
I was at the back of the group as we drove past a school. Suddenly I heard John yell "LOOK OUT" over the intercom. Ron slammed on his brakes in front of me and stopped. I had no idea what was happening. Then I noticed that Ron seemed to be tangled in a wire as something fly off to his right.
There seemed to be a wire coming from above and to the left of Ron, it was snagged on his bike then went to the upper right. It took me a few seconds to realize it was coming from the power poles on either side of the street. Ron shoved the wire forward, then lifted it up and over his head and let it go. Now it shot back toward me behind him. It thumped the front of my bike but not very hard.
Then Angela yelled over the intercom "THE POLE IS GOING TO FALL". I quickly glanced to the left and the power/telephone pole was wobbling back and forth. It was obviously very loose in its hole. It didn't seem to be cracked or broken, just loose.
I finally looked at the wire and recognized that it was low voltage wire. It was thin and covered in a plastic insulator. If it was thick and heavy, or worse, uninsulated, then it would have been extremely dangerous. But since Ron had touched it with no ill effects, I did the same thing. Unhook it from my bike, lift it up over my head and let it flip behind me. Then because of the whole wobbly pole thing, I pulled 30 yards down the street past Ron and parked on the side of the street.
I had noticed a car coming the opposite direction, and about this time I realized it was a police car. But whoever was in it, stayed inside and didn't come out. Ron started talking about his hand being cut and his right side mirror being ripped off. Then Karen said she'd nearly been strangled when the wire hit.
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| The off duty officer and an on duty officer helping Ron |
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| Ron's Bike missing his side mirror |
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| The loose pole and the wire hanging from it to the ground |
Within a minute, another police car showed up and started checking on things. A man walked over from a work van parked at the school and said we should clear the wire but he didn't have anything to cut it with. I handed him my leatherman and he used it to cut what was remaining of the wire then we kicked it up onto the sidewalks.
More police showed up and talked with Ron. I guess they called paramedics to check out his cuts. The officer in the first car finally got out and came over to explain that she was off duty and wasn't allowed to help until she'd called in and been given permission.
The man who's house we were in front of came out to talk as well. He said the wire had been sagging all day. He'd called the utility company 2 hours ago about the pole and the wire.
Then the most surreal thing happened. As everything was calming down and the police were clearing the traffic that had backed up. A car pulled past, the window rolled down, and the Mayor of the town waved at us and wished us a good day. I have no idea if he came because of the accident or just happen to be passing.
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| The mayor wishing us a good day |
Eventually the police had us all move down the street to a gas station to park and get statements. We told him we'd move if he'd tell us where to get good food. He told us to go to "The Camp" restaurant.
Ron's big concern was and is, who's going to repair his bike? It ripped the mirror off and scraped several panels. The police gave him incident numbers and the info about the utility company. We'll see if he ever gets a dime out of anyone.
We followed the officer's advice and had the GPS take us to The Camp. It led us down more small neighborhood streets, and all of us commented about just how many wires were strewn across the streets as we drove.
The road led us right toward the Mississippi river then turned left and onto a one way street that descended right to the water's edge. That's where The Camp was. We parked then went to take pictures of the nearby bridge and the river.
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| Parking at The Camp |
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| The Camp on the left and the Mississippi and a bridge |
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| Having Lunch |
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| The Camp |
The food was pretty good. Just standard american fare, with sandwiches, salads and such. I had a brisket sandwich and really good fries.
Once we left, we headed toward the beginning of the Natchez Trace Parkway. It was just outside of town. The entrance felt like were were going onto a freeway which is almost what it is. The government designed it to be "light on the landscape". There are no stop signs or traffic lights. Most intersections are freeway like, but a few are 90 degree turn off/on roads. There are no homes, driveway, stores, or other businesses. It's 400 miles of slow speed scenic byway.
If was well past noon by now, and if it were like the last 6 days, I'd already be sweating. But it is cloudy and the temperatures are barely into the 90s. It feels very nice. We were all talking about how unusual the road is. It's not a 4 lane super highway. Just 2 lanes, but the grass to either side is well maintained and this trees run the whole length. Sometimes the trees are close to the road and sometimes a 100 feet or more away. But you can never see off into the distance, there are always trees blocking the view. Someone joked that there were subdivisions, factories, cities, and freeways just the other side of the trees. Turns out, that's exactly how it works.
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| The Natchez Trace Parkway |
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| Beautiful ride on the parkway. If I took every beautiful view I'd have thousands |
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| Riding 40mph means I can stand up to stretch cramped legs and get more air |
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| Ron and Karen. Can you see the Bat Symbol on his hood? |
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| John and Angela. No bat symbol, just Cool Factor |
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| This is about as intrusive as it gets on the parkway. A 90 degree on/off ramp |
We had gone about 20 miles when someone need a bio break so we pulled off to a small building we could see. There were restrooms, and an information center staffed by a volunteer. There was also a group of old homes just off into the woods. Karen and Angela went off to see the buildings while Ron went to chat with the volunteer. The best thing about the volunteer was that he had an air conditioned room with lots of maps on the walls. We cared a little about the maps, but we cared A LOT about the AC.
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| Stopped for a bio break and a 20 minute lecture on the parkway from an enthusiast |
It wasn't super hot, but the humidity with no air movement was stifling. In fact, when we were ready to leave, Ron had to work on something for 10 minutes, so John and I just drove around and around the oblong parking lot just to have air movement.
Once we were back on the road, we went about 10 miles when the pavement changed from dry to pretty wet. It looked like we had just missed some very heavy rain. The rain really cooled the air off and once again it felt wonderful to be riding. The speed limit along the whole parkway is 50 mph but we were only going about 40 so that we can enjoy the ride better.
It was about this time when I wanted to take a picture with my waterproof camera. Not for any particular reason, just because the area was beautiful. I hit the cruise control, then with my right hand I reached down and grabbed the camera. I got my index finger positioned over the power button and turned it on. Then lifted the camera up to take the picture. As I got it up over the windshield, the lanyard just disconnected. I have no idea why, but suddenly I had hundreds of dollars worth of camera in my hand, held only by a few fingers and no ALL-SAVING lanyard attached. I very carefully reached forward and tucked it into the big pouch on my dash board, then for safety, I zipped it shut. That's gonna need to get figured out and probably replaced.
After another 20 miles or so, John pulled over and parked. This was supposed to be a waterfall and one of the sights not to be missed. We all got our gear off and John walked over to what he thought was the start of a trail. It turned out to be the actual viewing point for the waterfall. He got there then exclaimed "WHAT THE HECK!" and started laughing. Angela walked over, took one look, and started laughing as well.
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| Stopped to see the amazing waterfall |
When we all got there we could see that the scenic waterfall was pretty pathetic. Maybe it was the drought they've been having, but it looked like someone had their hose turned on about one-quarter turn. It was just a pathetic little trickle of water coming down. And even with all of that it was only about a 2-foot drop.
We started walking back to the bikes when, off in the distance, we heard some thunder rumbling. We could see that the clouds ahead of us were pretty dark. We had had a couple of tiny little sprinkles as we rode but no real evidence of serious rain. I tried to check the weather but we happened to be in a cellular dead zone.
As we sat there we heard more and more thunder off in the distance. Someone asked if we should put on our rain gear but nobody seemed very excited about that. Rain gear blocks all of the wind and can be a very uncomfortable way to ride in hot weather. We were just about to start getting back on the bikes when the first big drops of rain fell.
It quickly turned from scattered drops of rain to constant drops of rain to pretty dang heavy rain in about a minute. We all rushed to the bikes and grabbed our rain gear then ran back to the picnic table that happened to be under a big tree. We were putting our rain gear on with the intention of getting on the bikes when the rain really cut loose.
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| Trying to put on rain get during a downpour |
Sheets of water pouring down on us and then a massive flash of light in the sky followed by an incredible boom of thunder. We decided to try and wait it out for a little while. I walked over to my bike and grabbed my poor little malformed spray bottle with Rain-X in it. I sprayed my glasses and rubbed it in with my fingers, then shook it off and put the glasses back on. Just like that I could see again.
I can't believe I didn't take more pictures during all of this, but my waterproof was tucked away, my 360 was in the trunk for safety, and my phone is getting a bit old and I'm worried about it's waterproof-ness. I should have gotten out the waterproof but it just didn't occur to me.
More thunder and lightning, more heavy rain, and we just sat there getting wetter and wetter. The storm didn't seem to be moving past us. After about 20 minutes we started talking about going ahead and trying to ride out of the rain. Many times in the past I've sat there waiting for a storm to move on and it just will be stuck over me. But when I finally get on the bike and start going, within minutes I've ridden out of it. John and Ron have both had similar experiences so we decided to give it a try.
We all put on our soaking wet helmets, got on the bikes, and pulled out onto the Natchez Trace Parkway. I was fairly slow getting out and by the time I got on the road, they were gone. I actually wasn't even wearing my glasses because they couldn't shed the water fast enough. So I was only riding about 30 mph. I'd catch occasional snippets of conversation on the intercom but I couldn't talk to them.
After only 5 minutes, the rain started to let up and I could speed up. I quickly got up to 50mph, then a bit more and finally started to hear their conversations. I finally caught them after another 5 minutes. John asked what the problem was and I said "It was pouring and I wasn't wearing glasses, the road was more a suggestion, and I wasn't going to speed in those conditions". That's when he realized he was going 55. He just naturally gone back to his normal "blash through it" mode of riding.
The rain never fully stopped but it never reached flood proportions again. We had to ride for almost another hour before it was time to leave the Natchez. Once we turned off it was like **POOF** you were in the wilderness and now you're in civilization. We had no idea we were that close to a city. They've really done a great job with the isolation of the parkway.
We only had to ride a couple of miles to reach our Hampton Inn. We peeled off the rain gear and helmets, then went in to get our rooms.
Once I was in my room, I took off my soaking wet shirt and got a towel to dry myself off. I pulled out all my clothes. Everything I have is dirty, so I piked what I thought was my cleanest shirt and put it on. Then I got out the laptop and started the blog. If I don't start it immediately, I probably won't do it. I also started pulling photos off my cameras and uploading them.
We were all hungry so we'd agreed to meet at 6:15 in the lobby. I didn't get much done before it was time to meet. When I got there, John was missing. Angela said he was on the phone with a client and might just sell a house. I've been on many trips where John winds up selling a house in the middle of the trip, so this was just normal stuff.
We started looking for somewhere to eat and decided to try out Lou's. Angela said she'd wait for John, so Ron, Karen, and I headed off for the 6 minute ride. When we got there it turned out to be a bit fancy for us. We were very underdressed. Plus it was a 90 minute wait. So we said we'd go somewhere else.
Just next door was a place called the "Eatery". It was a fast casual place with pizza, salads, soups, and sandwiches. Ron and Karen split a chicken sandwich and a bowl of soup. I got a french dip sandwich and a cup of lobster bisque. They loved their, and I loved mine. Very warming.
In the middle of eating, Angela texted and asked us to bring them something. I texted the restaurant info. They got salads. Karen and Ron finished their meal and Karen was freezing, so I told them to go and take the food with them. I texted with Nan and other friends and enjoyed the rest of my meal then headed home as well.
When I got to the hotel, I was surprised to find people spilling out the doors and all over the parking lot. It must have been a reunion or some other party going on. There were people everywhere, including kids having foot races up and down the main hallway.
I walked over to check out the laundry facilities. You needed quarters to run the washer & dryer so I went to the front desk. They let me get quarters for $5.00. Then I went up to the room and changed into my swimming suit with my "clean-enough" shirt on. I put all my clothes in my duffel and went downstairs to do my laundry. No one blinked an eye at me. There were many people less dressed than I was.
It took $2.50 to run the washer. I threw everything into one long and started it. THEN I REMEMBERED I NEEDED TO PUT IN SOAP. Luckily I remembered in time before the door locked. I pulled out a tide pot and tossed it in.
I pulled out my laptop to try and work on the blog, but the laptop ran for only 5 minutes before shutting down due to low battery. The laptop keeps doing this to me. I fully charge it, do a full shutdown, put it in the bag for the day while I ride, and when I pull it out again, the battery is near 0. Why is it using battery while it's OFF?
So I switched to my cell phone. The voice to text app is pretty bad. It constantly miss-hears what I say and it has no context intelligence so it chooses the wrong spelling of a word all the time, but it gets a good starting point. Sometimes I ask AI to correct my blog, but way too many times AI will completely change the tone of what I've written by rewriting whole sections. So I don't do that very often. If anything I ask AI to point out problem areas and I fix it myself. But with a blog like this where I have to write a whole blog every day, there's just no time for all that. So you get my raw blog, warts and all.
The wash took 30 minutes and a sign on the wall said drying was 30 minutes as well. I knew 30 minutes would never dry jeans, but I figured I'd at least start it before I went hunting more quarters. But when I put in the $2.00 to start the dryer it gave me a full hour. The dryer also allowed for a hot cycle and I took that.
After 30 minutes I pulled the lighter stuff out and it was all dry. Then another 10 and I pulled my shirts out. I figured it would take the full hour to dry jeans, but they were done at 45 minutes. I stuffed it all back into the duffel and headed to the room
It's now 11:15. I'm nearly done with the blog, but I still have to process the 360 photos. Hopefully I'll be done with the blog by midnight.
