2026 Natchez Trace ride - Day 22 - Home

Some previously unused selfie because I didn't have anything for today

I woke up at 4:30, packed up and loaded the bike.  After gassing up, I was on the road by 5:14.

I rode for 90 minutes before stopping to gas up.  I was hoping for a McDonalds or something at the gas station, but they only had a cafe.  I didn't want to take that long so I looked through their breakfast sandwich offerings.  The biscuits, burritos, and english muffins all felt pretty hard and dry, so I went for a croissant sandwich with sausage and pepperjack cheese.  I ate about half of it before deciding that was enough for now.

As I left the gas station to get back on the freeway, I noticed that the sun was just coming up.  I decided to try and get a sunrise photo.  Just the other side of the freeway was a field, so I pulled off the road and setup my tripod.  There wasn't much color in the sunrise, probably the air is just too clean.  After 15 minutes of playing I got back on the freeway.

The Spyder has 34,000 miles on it now

Not the best sunrise photo but it's better than the McDonalds one

Another 90 minutes brought me to the Colorado border.  There was a big paved area by the Colorado sign so I pulled over to take another picture.  This one came out allot better.

Back in Colorado

I stopped just 15 minutes later at a gas station with a Carl's Jr.  I gassed up then bought a bacon and egg burrito for breakfast.  It was very good or I was just very hungry.

Another hour of riding brought me to Limon where I leave the freeway.  I didn't gas up, but I did buy a slice of banana bread to justify my use of the bathrooms.

My last hour of riding down highway 24 is something I've done about 30 times so it went by fast.  I pulled into my garage and parked the bike.  I looked down at the trip counter and found five thousand three hundred and seventy seven miles since I reset the meter before leaving.

Gave the Spyder another wash

Daily Miles: 345

Total Miles: 5377

Total drive time: 119h11m

MY FAVORITE EXPERIENCES

Day 2 when my son and family came to the hotel to swim.  The kids were so much fun to watch and play with.  Then we ordered pizza and sat in my room eating and talking about school, friends, and toys.

I got a hotel just so we could swim

Day 3 and 4 with my grandson Pen.  We rode to Hannibal Missouri, the home of Mark Twain.  My favorite part was exploring the cave that inspired the story of Tom & Becky getting lost.  We also rode a steamboat and went to some beautiful overlooks, but the cave was the best.

Pen loved using my camera to photograph everything

I toured 3 battlefields, Shiloh, Vicksburg, and Chickamauga.  My favorite, by far, was Vicksburg.  The other battles were mobile battles and the fields have changed.  But Vicksburg was a static engagement and the entrenchments are still in place so it's easier to visualize the battlefield.  And my favorite of all the things I saw in Vicksburg was the Ironclad ship I could walk around in.

I geeked out over the ironside ship

Once I met up with the other riders and we started riding together there were way too many fantastic times but here's my top of the top.

The serenity of the Natchez Trace

Nan rode more and for longer than ever before

First time in Great Smoky Mountain National Park

Our rental house was easily a 4 star resort quality place

I don't have a picture for it, but the Cardo Packtalk headsets were one of the best parts of the whole trip.  The ability to chat throughout the rides really raised the enjoyment level.  You could hear multiple people simultaneously chatting or at one point, singing, was great.  The constant joking and laughter was wonderful.

My last civil war visit was to Lookout Mountain above Chattanooga.  The story of the union assault on that steep slope is inspiring.  To be able to stand at the top and look down at all of the city made the story come to life for me.

One of the places where canons were firing down at the attackers

On my second to last day, I found myself near a presidential library with enough time to visit.  I'd been here before, and while I liked it, it didn't blow me away.  This visit was a complete surprise to see how well it's been renovated and modernized.

Wonderful displays in the Eisenhower Museum

LESSONS LEARNED AND WHAT I'D DO DIFFERENT

There isn't much you can do about the weather, but we probably should have started about 2 weeks later to avoid the summer heat across the mid-west.  We were also too early to see much in the way of fall colors.  A few trees here or there were starting to change but not much.

I should have purchased an ice chest to keep filled with cold water.  I should have stopped about every 45 minutes to re-west my evaporative vest on the hottest days.  I did drink plenty of water thanks to my hydration system so that wasn't an issue.  I never sunburned thanks to a readily available bottle of sunscreen.  I need to figure a way to bring air around the hood and wind screen to cool better.

I had a lot of trouble with google voice assistant and my bluetooth headsets.  I've spent 3 hours trying to figure out what was wrong.  I needed to turn on personal data on the lock screen.  I also needed my headset to be a trusted device to keep the phone unlocked.  Last I need to remember to keep the microphone right by my mouth or the auto noise suppression clips my words badly.

I need to avoid big cities during rush hour, and DO NOT TRUST GOOGLE MAPS ESTIMATES ABOUT HOW LONG A TRAFFIC DELAY WILL ADD.

I still need to find a better voice to text mechanism for writing my blog.   I've used GBoard, Swiftkey, and Wispr Flow.  All of them struggle.  Maybe I need a dedicated AI app to do it.