We recently went to WV to attend more services for our friend Scott. The plan was to come back through NC to visit my brother Scott and he and I would go for a scooter trip up to VA mountains. However, ransomware pirates had another idea and shut down all the gas stations. Unless you lived in NC you are not aware of how bad it was. There was almost no gas. I mean like one in ten stations had gas and long lines. People keep saying "a scooter does not need much gas" and that's true but that also means, with a 2 gallon tank, you have to search more often for gas and set in more lines. Not worth the reward, so Vicki and continued home.
Home again, the mind was still stuck in the "I need a ride" mode. So, I came up with a plan!
BACK TO MISSISSIPPI
Thinking of places to go, the Mississippi Delta called my name and I quickly answered. So, I am on my way back to the Delta. I don't know what it is that keeps calling me back there. Maybe because as you age you like to go to places familiar for comfort. That may be true but there are not many places close in the south that I have not been and I am saving the mountain ride with Scott until the hot part of the summer.
The "no name" is the ride of choice on this trip. Scoot is up for the deal, but with the smaller engine it would take a bit longer, Big Red is in the scooter hospital in Sanford, and Fred has been officially sold to my brother. The check is in the bank.
After the last ride "no name" was having problems and since my main mechanic is packing up and moving to Tennessee, I took "no name" to Clearwater Vespa. I had visited them a few times and was not been impressed. It does not have a fancy showroom and is also a used car rental company. But... they have been Vespa dealers for 13 years and that says something since Vespa dealers are rare and come and go. I am glad to report they did an excellent job. Covid has almost closed the pipe line for spares but, though it took weeks, they got the parts and but it back on the road. I have confidence that it will make a great trip.
So, come on kids lets go find some blues!!
(There will some fictitious tales in the blog at the request of a reader. In the end I will reveal how to tell truth from fiction,)
2 June day 1
Day one is the same as all the past day ones. Get up, clean the litter box, have some coffee, load my bag, kiss the wife goodbye while she's still in bed, fire up the scooter, and head north. 4th avenue, to the Howard Franklin, to the veterans expressway, to the Suncoast parkway, to spring Hill. Get off at spring Hill ride about 20 miles on a nice two lane road, at Crystal River get back on the four lane US 19 and ride North on four lanes with little traffic until it's time to stop. So that is what I did. For 287 miles to Quincy FL. Millhouse Inn was my home for the evening.
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| the Howard Franklin |
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| The two lanes |
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| US19 |
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| I saved a life |
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| 2015 |
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| Today. It has been on the market for some time now. |
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| Now this is strange. Eight Tesla official charging stations being installed at a gas station in Perry FL on US19. I cannot every recall seeing a Tesla on US19 and certainly not Trump land of Perry |
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| I stopped in this fairly new National Cemetery. |
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| Not to worry. This is lots and lots of land left to bury young men and women in for fighting useless wars for politicians |
J
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| This lady sat at the grave the whole time I was there. |
Happy Anniversary. Fifty years ago on June 1, 1971 we became civilians. It was the best of times. We met the enemy, and it was US. Young and stupid ruled the day. I wasted money on a damn car when gold was $35.00 an ounce. And all that other stupidity too. Amazing fools lived to tell about it. I’m going to be smarter next time, says El Stupido!
Carry on. EQ3
From there he and I loaded into our wayward VW bus and traveled Europe and North Africa. We both went to college together and then we both traveled the world separately in the aviation world. What a life. I and despite what he says we really enjoyed the Porsche that he bought. Oh, the tales we can tell.
June 3 day 2
After a good night's sleep I was up early as always. Though the Mill House comes with a very elaborate breakfast I declined and got a small discount on the price as I would be leaving early. But ,I did sit at the big dining table drinking coffee and typing and researching on the computer. Around 7:00 I started to pack and load the scooter to head West and cranked up about 7:30. Bek, who is the Australian owner, came out and wished me well. She and her husband had just bought the Mill House right before covid ,so needless to say, life has dealt them a rough hand.
I was quickly on a four-lane US 90 headed to Chipley Florida. At Chipley I turned right and started meandering the back roads of Alabama in route to Camden Alabama where I was thinking of an overnight. The morning started with some pretty heavy fog. The weather guesser said the rain would come between 2:00 and 3:00 in the afternoon. But, I guess they were like me, they forgot about the time change and the rain came about 10:45. They were widely scattered showers but some of them were scattered on the road that I was on so I had to put on the rain gear. It was only one short heavy downburst and it only lasted short period of time so nothing dangerous. Arrived in Camden about 11:45 and was looking forward to a taco salad at the Mexican restaurant at the Southerner Motel or had contemplated spending the night. However despite online reviews it was closed. And I began to search for another sit-down restaurant to contemplate what I was going to do as I had arrived much earlier than I had planned do to the time change. This was not easy to find. In fact, after visiting several restaurants that have gone out of business and only seeing fast food restaurants I ended up at Subway again for lunch. The interesting thing about this Subway is that all the help were wearing mask and 99% of the black customers, which was the majority, were wearing masks. Not a single white person was wearing a mask. The reason for coming to Camden was to catch the Gees Bend Ferry across the Alabama River. But after a little rest and a salad, my brain said we don't need to wait 2 hours for the next ferry to ride a boat for 20 minutes. So we reconfigured and headed for Demopolis Alabama. I was riding along thinking how nice it was since the rain had passed through the air seen Kristen it was sunny when big clouds came up on the horizon. I arrived undercover at the Best Western in Demopolis with the first first crack of thunder. After the thunder had passed I went and found me a taco salad and brought it back and ate my very large hotel room.
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| Bek at the gate made by her husband |
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| Millhouse Inn |
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| The fog |
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| The Daniels house |
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| Mr. Daniels built this house for his share cropper family. |
The family lived there until the children moved to town and the
share cropper was to old to plow the fields or live alone.
When he passed his wife moved to town to live with the children
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| The bowl weevil statue on Main St. in Enterprise AL |
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| The Hank Williams Jr fan club was having an event in |
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| Cylde came back from Vietnam a little different. He built this "RV" and lived in it most of the rest of his life. He never really went anywhere it and he had a campsite around it. |
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| The long highway |
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| I was a few minutes to early |
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| The Camden Subway |
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| At the hotel just in time |
June 4 day 3 Demopolis to Greenwood MS
This morning started as usual at 5:00 a.m. Up and had some coffee, did a little yoga, listened to a little radio and planned on the computer for today's change of route.
I'm staying at the Best Western in Demopolis Mississippi which is owned by Jay Shaw. Mr Shaw gives every customer his home phone number. His philosophy is "you can stay anywhere, you don't have to stay with him so he has to make you want to stay with him". He does that with clean rooms and great staff.
He has Uncle John, (he's Uncle of Willy the maintenance man and some time front desk clerk), has the morning shift and Cooks everything fresh. No prepackaged eggs, no precooked bacon, everything is freshly made. So I wandered in about 7:00 and John made me an omelette and threw a couple of slices of bacon on the side. I declined the gravy and the biscuit.
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| John at his desk |
Also having breakfast was a gentleman from Texas. Weighed about 350 lb and was installing the new machinery to make corn dogs at a plant in town. Not to be cruel but I think he ate too many of his own product. He's one of the few African Americans that I've met that buys off on the Trump propaganda so I did a lot of listing stated my position and said goodbye.
I met at Jay Show at the front desk which he was working. We had a great conversation and he told me all the philosophy that I found on above in the room. He had always wanted a motorcycle one and told himself he'd buy one when he turned 40. He did just that. Then he rode it over to his girlfriend's house. She told him no way and he sold it right away. She's now been his wife for many years.
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| Jay |
I loaded up and rode downtown Demopolis. That's population of just under $8,000, and it has a hospital. And the newspaper. Front page story on the newspaper this week was it the hospital had performed its first mastectomy in many many years indicating that the hospital was rising up again. It was a three-page article. Downtown is like most dying towns few open shops lot of clothes shops but it was very clean. The big tourist attraction is the Gibson mansion. It wasn't open but appeared through the fence to see what I can see.
Then I started making my way on the back roads to greenwood and the Tallahatchie flats. I must say since I was in Louisiana years ago these are the worst roads I've been on. They don't have holes or asphalt falling apart, but they do have mile after mile after mile of small washboards. Might not even notice them in a car but on a scooter they were hell. A lot of highways have washboards but you can usually find a track on the road somewhere that's smooth. Not these I rode both lanes White lines yellow lines everything and all of the road just bounced you along. When you would come into a county that's has some money and repave the roads, it really was like heaven. Unbelievably how much it lifted my spirits when I got to ride on a smooth road. Lunch was in Louisville Mississippi. It is one of the most active small towns that I have seen on this whole ride. I had a turkey avocado melt with some of the best onion rings I've ever tasted. Full ,I continued my trek West.
I was almost to the flats when I saw a Poe out cutting the grass at WABG a 1000 watt radio station just down the road. I pulled in and we talked for a long time and he put me on the radio for a few minutes to talk about my adventures. Mainly he told me about all the good things that it happened around the area the small little concerts that they have that are successful and how hard it is to keep the blues alive in America. He goes to Japan every year for an extended vacation where the blues is very much alive and it makes him very happy to see it being preserved.
I checked into Tallahatchie Flats with a little bit of embarrassment. I went to Nellie's my usual and requested shack and it was locked and there was no note. The check-in procedure is you pay in advance and they put a note on the door and tell you to make yourself at home. I guess after the long ride I was unable to read the note that said Kenneth Wilson on the Tosh Hog shack. But, actually that was my good fortune because I called Billy Worthington the owner, he came down and showed me the big note on the Tosh Hog shack and then bought me a beer for being so stupid.
I unloaded the gear took and off for town to buy dinner and some wine. At the grocery store I asked a gentleman ,who wound up being the manager, if they had wine, He said "we do, but it's only the type of wine that women would buy". We are in Mississippi you know. But he was right. They had a small selection of sweet wines but he directed me to Jack's liquor store down behind the Kentucky Fried Chicken which made it easy for me to find. Got a big cheap bottle of wine, resisted to Kentucky Fried Chicken and scooted back out in the country to the flats to pop the top and sat down and had me a little happy hour listening to WABG. And that's all for today.
Back at the shack I set up my little happy hour. Some of you have read or heard the story of my first trip here when the spirits visited me. So, I found it serendipitous the in the parlor there was and upright piano. As you know my great friend Scott was a classical piano concert player. In the bedroom the bed was fitted with Paris themed bedspread and pillow covers. Considering my past encounters I hope there is a chance Scott will stop by and play the piano.
June 5 day 4 Tallahatchie Flats
Woke up had my coffee. Nobody came to visit me last night. So I walked about a mile and a half down the river and up to the Zion Baptist Church graveyard to talk to Robert Johnson. Standing over his grave I didn't feel as he was at home and that's probably why he didn't come to visit me last night. Walk back down the highway and came a punched a fresh skunk kill. I thought it's strange there was no smell so maybe it was fresh because later on in the day a quarter mile away at the shack I could smell Mr skunk.
Also stopped in at the gravesite of Billy Joe McAllister. I'm sure you remember him from the Bobby Gentry song of him jumping off the Tallahatchie bridge which is just down the road from the flats.. Well, some local dignitaries lawyers judges ranging from federal to magistrates drudge the river found Billy's body and had a regular burial on the grounds of the Tallahatchie flats on June 3rdth the day that he jumped off the bridge. It was a full blown affair with a pope in attendance someone swinging the incense pendulum and reportedly a big time was had by all. It was covered by the Greenwood Mississippi newspaper, my friend Poe from radio WABG, You can read about here. It even made the Washington Post.
Showers were popping up everywhere, but I left in very,very light rain and headed to some new and some old tourist sights. I headed for BB King's birthplace, I believe. It was several miles down a gravel road. After the first mile of weaving and recovering due to the fresh new deep layer of rocks I decided it might be a better idea that I abort this mission. Came to an intersection and the road that would take me back to the highway was dirt and gravel but it had not had a new layer. I chose to follow it.
In Leland it went the Muppet museum. Evidently Jim Henson's parents were living here when he was born at the hospital in Greenville. He grew up here and I am sure there is a story to it. I made up my own and he created the muppets because he needed someone to play with.
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| The Muppet museum |
A couple of more back roads and headed for Indianola home of BB King. However, enroute the rain increased. I stopped and put on my rain gear and headed back for the Flats.
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| This is Keith. He was so excited that I had come from Florida that he asked if he could but me on his facebook page. |
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| Most of the stop lights in Greenwood are of the old variety. |
That evening the rain let up and I went to the Crystal Cafe for dinner. The Crystal Cafe location has been serving food for over 100 years, but became the Crystal in the 40's when a Greek came to town and bought. I had few oysters to make this a oyster tour and a cup of combo.
And that was it for the day.
June 6 day 5 the Flats
About 11:00 it was a break in the sky. Though the sun was not visible, you could see some blue sky and it warmed up and stopped raining and I decided to go for a ride. Poe was working at the station today so I stopped in and visited with him we had a long and great conversation about social problems in Mississippi that really haven't changed over the centuries. I noted it seem to be true because in Greenwood all the streets in the affluent neighborhoods were either recently paved or being paved. Meanwhile, downtown and in the poor neighborhoods the roads were popping up and unrepaired.
Went out to the local airport because I had noticed on Google it had large airplanes parked there and seemed to be stored. In fact,I think they might have been old Air Canada and someone else's airplanes that were going to be dismantled. Then I wrote over to Itta Bena. A little poor town that I visited yesterday. I returned trying to figure out why this lady....
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was spending so much money to be mayor of this little town.......
Something doesn't figure to me.
Meandered back home. Did a little laundry, caught up on some paperwork, made my reservation for the Shack Up Inn tomorrow night. Finishing the day off sitting back on the front porch and relaxing a glass of wine a little before happy hour.
xxx
June 7 day 6 Tallahatchie Flats to the Shack Up Inn
A straight ride to my next overnight, the Shack Up Inn in Clarksdale, is only 55 miles, I daillied this morning around the shack. Cleaning up, packing up, catching up on stuff. The weather here it's been totally unpredictable except that it's going to rain sometime during the day. There was some severe weather developing between me and Clarksdale, another day reason to take my time. Maybe it would pass. About 9:45, Billy came by bringing a new mattress for one of the shacks. I told him goodbye and headed down the road. I saw Poe out trimming the grass in front of the station. I stopped to tell him goodbye also. Later, someone who liked my video said I should have made one of the radio station and Poe. That was a good suggestion but useless to me now as I'm down the road.
First stop was the Mississippi Delta Heritage museum, right there in Greenwood. All the trips here I'd never visited it and I wasn't going to visit it today. Cause, contrary to what Google told me ,it was closed. I know this cause the lady came to the front door when I rattled the handle and told me so. So off I went. I passed a sign on US82 several times it said Locus Benedictus. I took a right turn to see what it was. I assume it's what the picture shows below. Mary and the baby and a Christmas tree, all in June.
Back out on 82 just a few hundred yards I turn right on the Emmett Till highway. If you don't know who Emmett till is Google it and get educated. The Old South still exists.
I was in search of the Chinese Heritage Museum which on the map is located at a little general store but in reality is located on the campus of Delta State University. Small but interesting. After the Confederate war the plantation owners began having meetings and how they were going to get more workers. So they settled on Chinese.
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| I liked this one of the mechanic with the Flying Tigers |
It's now lunch time so I'm looking for something to eat. Checked some menus online and decided on A La Carte and it turned out to be an excellent choice. It's a small deli in downtown Cleveland. The sandwich was excellent but the service by Aubrey was even more excellent. She had a great smile and a bouncing step that just made me feel young again. The sandwich came with fried okra which I ate all of but couldn't consume the whole sandwich and Aubrey packed it up for me to take on the trip with me. From there I walk to the Martin and Sue King Train Museum is closed on Monday. The next choice in town is a big modern Grammy Museum. Why it's in Cleveland I had no idea but I wasn't going to have time to see it today as the rain was moving in. Cleveland is a very clean and active town. More than any other town if have been to in awhile no matter which state
Headed off north towards Clarksdale I had a back road plotted out through the town was Mound Bayou. It is an all black community founded in 1887 by former slaves.
When my planned road turned into mud and gravel I decided it was not something I wanted to take on today. I made a u-turn and found my way back to the main road to Clarksdale. Checked into the Shack Up Inn and though I had reserved a different shack they put me in Pine Top Perkins shack after I told them the story of Pine Top coming to visit last time I was there. Then I rode into town to get some groceries and a bottle of wine. The liquor store had put all their inventory behind glass for covid and discovered the inventory did not sneak out the door as much. Good move going shopping as by the time I got back the rain had started. That was it for today. I knew the rain was going to keep me in for the rest of the day, so I poured a glass of wine. Looked for the remote control for the non-existent TV, I opened the computer and put on a George Gently to watch.
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| Two classical rides! |
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| Time to turn around |
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| The "real" road back was not much better |
June 8 day 7 The Tour
I mistakenly deleted this whole post. Hopefully I can recreate it from my feeble water soaked mind.
Was up visiting Patsy at the front desk and Bill the owner this morning when a preacher Man came in to check out. He is also a guitar player. Patsy said as a preacher he should be able to stop the rain. The preacher said "I'm not management, I'm just a salesman". We all got to laugh out of that. Bill and I talked about Guy who used to be an owner but got bad neuropathy and had to retire. Guy really is nice guy and I am sorry for his pain. I took three pieces of laundry over to the laundry room and the maids gladly washed it for me.
Since today was going to be a whole flood day I booked the tour with Chilly Billy's Bohemian tours for 3 hours in the afternoon. He showed up promptly at the back door of the Pinetop Perkins shack and his red Jeep with four wheel drive. Which was good because we were going to need the four wheel drive. We discussed the two or three hour tour and I said what the heck it's raining let's do 3 hours. I got nothing else to do.
Started by him telling me all about the shack up in how it got there, were a lot of the houses came from, the ongoing feud with the guy next door. Most of this I knew but it's great to get it from a different perspective. We pull off the property and turn left down the Old highway 49 on the other side of the tracks. On that side of the track there was a whole new city of shacks. Almost all of them built in place using old materials. They were jointly own with Bill and the Shack Up or independently owned but they were all managed by the Shack Up Inn
We rolled into Clarksdale with Billy telling me local things of color about how US49 and US61 crossroads which is very famous in the blues world actually crosse three times between the old roads and the new roads. We drove by his 83 year old mother's two story home built 1904.Its believed to be one of the first Sears houses floated down the river. From there we passed the old hospital and Jewish synagogue both now closed. He told the history of both. There was a large Jewish population here for a long time but, like the Chines,e they all made sure their children were educated and went on somewhere else to accomplish more than the parents did. We drove out of town past Ramones long famous restaurant here and we'll talk about that later. We travel down Stovall road. Stovall's have been in this county from way back when and on a huge plantation. This October they're planning a big music festival on their property. Looks like they got a lot of work to do. Also, Muddy Waters shack originally was on this property. Now there's a historical monument and the shack is in the blues museum in Clarksdale. From there we moved on to the levees around the mighty Mississippi. Billy explaining how the levee board works and how they make their money. As we drove along the levee there was a herd of cows with a donkey and he said the donkey is to keep the coyotes away. He said if you whistled the donkey would come up to the car. This donkey was probably 900 yards away or more but I whistled. And slowly but surely his ears came up and he started walking in our direction and pretty soon he was trotting right up to my side of the car. When he saw Billy on the other side he hurried around to see him. I asked Bill if he bribed this donkey with food but he said it would never take anything he offered for him to eat, it was just a friendship.
From there we drove on into Friars Point which used to be a big port on the Mississippi and where the ferry ran across to the other side to Arkansas. Conway Twitty grew up in Friars Point and his dad was a fairy captain carrying blues musicians across the river to the radio station in Arkansas KFFA radio to play on the king Biscuit hour. It's the longest running radio broadcast in the history.
One of the good things about Billy is he grew up here and he knows all the people and all about there not so hidden secrets. There is way too much for me to repeat from memory in this blog. Three hours covers a lot of interesting people places, from Tennessee Williams, Sam Cook, Howlin Wolf, John Lee Hooker, Son House, Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson, Ike Turner and more. Morgan Freeman is from here and has invested in the resurrection of Clarksdale.
I highly encourage you if you ever get to Clarksdale to take the tour with Billy. He's a trained theologian, school teacher, had several businesses in Clarksdale, ran a famous b&b where he entertained everybody from Eric Clapton to Renee Zellweger. He owned his own b&b but covid put an end that and now he's starting out again. This is one of the best things I've done in a long time even if it was pissing down rain all day. One of things that made so interesting for me is I knew of or have met many of the locals he told about.
Back to the Shack. There was no food, so I'm only choice was to order from Domino's Pizza as they are the only people to deliver. Shortly before delivery time the rain let up enough for me to go outside and walk around some on the grounds waiting for the Domino's boy. The door to the big warehouse was open with lights on, so I walked in there and had the great fortune to meet Haydin Hall. Haydin is a French trained chef who worked in many places including New Orleans. When Clarksdale started rebuilding and Morgan Freeman came to town pouring money into it, Hayden and his wife decided to come back and open the Oxbow restaurant. I had to pleasure of dining in it one time but sadly now it is closed. With no formal painting experience other than being the son of a pretty famous portrait painter he started painting landscapes. He was quite surprised that people would pay thousands of dollars for his paintings. This brings us back to Ramon"s. He was working on a painting of Ramon's, commissioned by a writer from Oxford Mississippi. When he asked the gentleman how big he would like this painting he said "10 ft long" and it is. Hayden told the man not only will be expensive it'll be a while before you get it because he is now back temporarily helping the owner of the Yazoo Pass restaurant get reopened. I really like the Yazoo Pass and I've eaten there many times.
While he was magically creating trees and other items on the big canvas we discussed politics, backwards city councils, the divide between the gots and ain't got nothing in Mississippi. Also, how the big plantation owners who have all the money, really didn't care if the town survived. They've got everything they want or need shipped in. Including the latest trend of shipping in South African farm managers. They're white boys and it works into the whole social stigma of Mississippi. His wife texted that dinner was ready so our conversation ended, I took my pizza and went back to Pinetop,s and had a lovely evening with cheap wine and cheap pizza. Interesting that the large pizza was $8 cheaper than the medium and thanked the lady on the phone for telling me.
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| Reds Juke joint with Billy's poster on the wall |
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| of. |
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| Did I mention its been raining? |
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| The location of Muddy Waters Shack |
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| Did I mention it was raining? |
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| The closed synagoge |
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| Mr. Chilly Billy |
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| One of the 4 buckets in my shack |
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| Did I mention it has been raining? |
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| I was amazed that as we talked he created great art. |
June 9 day 8 Clarksdale to Tupelo MS
I studied the weather last night and the forecast of continual rain and flooding. So I decided that's was enough and I had to escape. I looked at the radar and if I went south were it was clear I could turn the left and head over to Tuscaloosa and probably be okay. I left the Shack turned right on US42 South and roll down the highway. The rain stopped after about 10 miles and the road actually got dry after about 20. The plan was to get to Mississippi 8 and turn left if the weather was good. If not, continue south till Greenwood and turn left on US 82. Got to 8, pulled over to check the radar and it looked like that could I get across Mississippi dry so I took the left. Rode along for a couple hours looking at it all the flooded rivers almost up to the bridge and having a great time. It was overcast and I started telling myself I might even take my rain gear off at the next stop. As usual, that was a kiss of death as I came over the next big hill and it started to rain and then it started to pour and I pressed on. I rode out of it and the skies lightened up. I felt comfortable enough that I stopped in Columbus, MS for a double espresso and a bite to eat. That was a mistake. The rain caught up and I made a mad dash out of town but it poured with lightning and thunder all around. Really heavy rain. The kind I said I would never ride yet I pressed on. I rolled into Tuscaloosa wet as a rat and checked into the AC hotel a new Marriott. I chose this hotel, not knowing it was Marriot properity, because it had a bar. After drying out and taking a shower I came down to the bar to get a martini. The martini's mad me cheerful again. Until I deleted two days of the blog. That just called for another drink. The AC Hotel has only been open 2 days and the staff is falling over themselves to please. Demira, the bartender, and Elise server, added to my cheerfulness in recovering from all the rain and stress of riding in it. I ordered a pasta dinner for $15. It was excellent but the whole meal was about enough pasta to fit in one hand. No side, no bread, no salad. It was just the right size for dinner.
June 10 day 9 Tuscaloosa to Richland
It was raining. I was going to walk to a coffeeshop but ended up in the hotel breakfast buffet. The AC hotel is actually a European chain created by Antonio Catalán and bought by Marriott. The breakfast very European. Cheeses, prosciutto, other meats, fresh fruit, cereals. The claimed to have fresh croissants from France. They were not. They were cooked in France, frozen, and shipped over. I rejected them and the chef came out to apologize as he also that is was false advertising saying the croissants were fresh from France. Again, everyone in this hotel were brand new and eager to please.
So, let's see how the day goes. The radar indicated that the rain should let up by 11 and could once again head south. It actually got light about 9 and took off. Little was I to know that the day would be the worst rain I have ever ridden in. Life was good until I got to Montgomery where I had intended to stop and visit a museum. But with threatening skies I pressed on.
Outside Montgomery when I turned down highway 110 the bottom fell out. I thought I was going to drown. The was almost no traffic and fell in behind a pickup truck doing about 35. When he would hit water and spray it in the air I would slow down and creep through the water and then catch back up with him. I did this until Midway and I pulled off for gas and a break. I waited around for about 20 minutes and headed out again. The rain was lighter now and by the time I got to the Georgia border the sun was out. I had been told by my niece, who was in Orlando, taking a yoga instructors class, that there was no food in the house. I stopped at the Quick Mart and got some wings. Sadly Jaeger was not home. Brenden had taken him to his house to play with the other dogs.
I ate wings, drank some wine, and caught up on the Billionaire series that I do not get at home.
June 11 & 12
Since there was no one home in Richland I headed south. I had a pleasant 5.5 hour ride to Newberry and Camp David. I stopped at the Publix and got a salad. Going to eat healty. Until I smelt the fried chicken. Got a piece of that. Then I spied the fried shrimp in a bag easy to grab. So I got some of that and a bottle of wine and had a pleasant evening alone in the country.
The next day I was on the road by seven and home before 10:30 At great end to a mixed trip. I really wished I had been able to do more. In the end if I would have set out another day in Clarksdale I could have carried on. However, the weather guessers had predicated something else. You never know and make the best call with information you have.
The good news is I can do it all over again.
Thanks for riding along.
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| Leaving Camp David |
