June 10, 2011
Petal, Mississippi to Cumberland Gap, Kentucky
Woke up early but got a late start, somewhere around 7:00am Friday morning. Today is the start of a 4000 mile round trip to Maine
for the wife and myself…I know the trip started out as a motorcycle trip but has now turned into a 10 day car trip with the wife
and myself.
Not a lot to report on the first day just a few photos from the road along the way.
I think we put in some where around 600 miles most being interstate…snore, snore.
passed through Alabama
Tennessee
Then we entered into Kentucky
A new state for both of us, we entered a cool tunnel
that went through a mountain, it put out Mobile Tunnel to shame.
Then we entered the Cumberland Gap National Park, beautiful place. Our plan was to camp out but it as somewhere around 95 degrees outside…
just too hot to camp. So to town we went, about 5 minutes away.
Well come to find out the genealogy convention was in town (old people everywhere)
so we got the last room available. The room was at the Holiday Inn Express,
it ended up being the executive suite, Welcome to our room!
My motorcycle riding buddy David would have approved. (Inside joke)
Well we were tired from the days drive so we headed across the street to eat at the King Buffet,
I give it a 2 out of 5. Then off to bed we went. Early start in the morning…lots more coming soon.
Big AL
Ok on with it trip, woke up around 4:30am threw some clothes in my bike luggage, quick shower and off I went to meet Dave. We were planning on meeting around 5:30am at a store about 30 miles from both of our houses but due to the morning rain we decided to meet up around 6:00am, so we would have some day light to see by. Both of us showed up on time gassed up and our adventure was on.
Slight mist of rain was in the air, not bad. Everything was going well until we hit Mobile, Alabama
about an hour and half from the house. Instead of taking our normal route through mobile, we decided to go through the old part of town and the old tunnel (short cut)
this would have been a great idea except it started to rain hard. We stopped at one of the downtown lights, I was fiddling with my goggles
as they had now fogged over and all I could see was the taillight on the back of his bike. Then I heard it, the roar
of what sounded like another motorcycle behind me, I guess my first thought was who in the heck would be out riding a motorcycle in the rain?
I looked in my rear view mirror through my fogged goggles and due to all the light on the vehicle behind me I thought it was a trike. Then it happened, I looked up and saw Dave heading to a busy intersection with a red light,
to my surprise Dave rolls right through it…well being blind from the fogged goggles I just closed my eyes and went through the light too…wow I just made it! Then I heard that roar again and the bike-trike behind me zigzaging
through the intersection too, it was at that time I realized we had picked up a stalker…it was at the next stop the bike-trike behind me reveiled itself, the guy pulled up beside David and asked “where we were going?” Dave said “Daytona” then the biker asked “Can I ride with you?” Dave’s answer you ask? “SURE” seemed like a good idea at the time. Well the next thing I knew we were back on the interstate cruising between 80 and 85 mph with our new friend following in the rear.
Then something strange happened, my bike started to sput and sputter and the engine cut off at 80 mph…
Well sorry for the cliff hanger,
but the wife just walked in with donuts, got to go for the day.
Tune in next time, Ill be back.
Big Al
PS: I’m really not sorry; I just like messing with my readers sometime…Ha-ha.
