The Long Way Home

Sunday, July 12, 2015

TLWH - Day 19 - Different Formula

Sunday, July 12

Today we used our new track to get us from Searcy back onto our planned track. Arkansas is beautiful and doing much better economically than Mississippi - at least in the areas we travelled.

The farms were large and well maintained. Clearly, not all farmers are poor.

We met another TAT rider today. Doug has been riding from his home state of Kentucky and will likely end up in Utah. He's riding a 1999 Honda 230 that he has basically built himself. It's refreshing to see a capable mechanic/jury rigger riding a fairly worn out bike and keeping it going on the trail. We got a chance to ride with him occasionally today.

We lost track of him during the day so we were surprised to see him check into our hotel tonight (he has been camping up to this point). He told us that he was following us down one of the gravel roads, as he took a turn too fast and went wide. As he was trying to correct and get back on the road, there was a washed out area. He went over the bars and his bike went over the side. A passing truck and a rope, helped him get his bike back up the hill. He was mostly OK and his bike survived with a broken headlight and bent bars. He's committed to getting back on the trail tomorrow. Great job Doug!

Turtle crossing!

Hank taking his daily shower

We stopped and talked to this couple for a few minutes. They moved from San Diego 25 years ago!

As we have been traveling across the last three states; Tennessee, Mississippi, and now Arkansas, I have been noticing that they have a different formula for life:

More swimmin' holes. Fewer swimming pools

More Churches. Fewer gas stations

More gardens. Fewer grocery stores

More front porches. Fewer back porches.

More fishing. Less work!

I'm not ready to trade places yet but it does get you thinking about balance.

Tomorrow we continue through Arkansas and into Oklahoma. We will be traveling directly down the pan-handle of Oklahoma so it will take us over three days to get across but that will drop us off at the foot of the Rockies!

Thanks for following us!

Where are they now?

TLWY - Day 18 - Crossing the Mississippi River

Saturday, July 11th

We left Water Valley and briefly headed south to pass our furthest point south we would reach in the mid-west. Then we headed northwest across the Mississippi and on to Searcy. We changed our destination from Hazen to Searcy because we were in desperate need of tires. Our bald tires made the gravel roads very challenging but we both got into the fun of sliding through the turns!

Shortly after leaving Water Valley, we ran into these two men fishing. We stopped to see what they were catching. I really couldn't understand what kind of fish they were, but we talked for a bit. Truthfully, I could only understand about 10% of what they were saying. At one point, I mentioned. that they need a boat to get out to where the fish were and one of the guys said "that's what I've been telling you!". That made me laugh but only in my head.

All the fish in their cooler were these little bite size fish but they had a lot of them.

Nearest I can tell, this little guy welcomed us to the furthest point south that we would pass in the mid-west. We helped him accross the road and started towards the Mississippi River

Our gas stop was in Crenshaw, Mississippi. These people have it rough. 90% of the town is shut down and in disrepair. It appears that there is still a fairly large population based on the number of cars stopping in the gas station so they must go somewhere else to get the things they need.

One of the industries around this area is logging. It seems to be on a fairly small scale but one of the things we noticed that once an area was cut, these vines could move in and cover everything like a huge blanket. I can't imagine that's good but it was kind of beautiful.

We finally came to the Mississippi River. We were feeling pretty good about this accomplishment: We made it half way across the country! "Black Water" by the Doobie Brothers was the soundtrack for the bridge crossing!

Riding through the farmlands of Arkansas we came across something we had never seen before: A TAT (Trans America Trail) rest stop. It came at a good time when Hank and I had been riding for almost an hour so we pulled in for a stop. What a great couple of guys. They discovered that their place was on the TAT a few years back and decided to cater to it. I'm not sure what else they do there but basically, they hang out and meet riders on the TAT. One to several groups a week. It was neat looking through their sign-in book.

The car of the day is a '69 Dodge Charger! I'm pretty sure it's a '69 which some of you may recognize as the General Lee. Seemed kind of fitting because I would not have been surprised if the Dukes of Hazard came rolling through some of these back roads of Mississippi

Looks like a match down to the custom wheels!

We were on the gas today trying to make it to Searcy, Arkansas in time to buy some tires. We were getting close and it looked like we were going to make it but we had skipped lunch so this "Fried Pies" stand was a welcome site. This lady was so friendly and her pies were amazing. She didn't want her picture taken, so don't notice her. Fried pies are folded over pie crust with apple or peach filling - so good. We also bought a banana bread for later that never made it out of the parking lot.

We made it to Searcy and Sunrise Honda in time to get our tires. I've never had my bikes serviced at a shop, but it was 100 degrees in the parking lot so it seemed like a great idea to have them do it for us! They were really good to us and cut us a great deal for changing four tires and two oil changes. It's so nice having new tires!

This is Timmy Holland. He was so helpful and so were the techs who did the service... oh and so was the service manager. We highly recommend this shop.

Tomorrow we have designed a custom back roads track to get us from Searcy back onto our planned track. Then we continue our trek west in Arkansas, to Clarksville.

Thanks for following us!

Where are they now?

Saturday, July 11, 2015

The Long Way Home - Day 17 : M I SS I SS I PP I

The Long Way Home - Day 17 - Heading deeper south

Friday, July 10th

We leave Pickwick Landing, Tennesee today and head south into Mississippi. It's a 190-mile day with Water Valley as the destination.

HOT, HOT, HUMID! It was 95 degrees and what felt like 95% humidity. As long as we kept moving, it was bearable. Stopping could only happen for a minute or two or we would melt.

Even with the heat, Mississippi was fun.

We were tempted but did not partake.

The cool car of the day is not a car. It looks to me to be a steam powered tractor! Very cool - at least they were in the early 1900s.

Our hotel in Water Valley was the biggest challenge of the day. A little musty smelling, a little dirty, and a few little, uninvited "friends" when the lights come on in the morning. All that's true except the "little" part :)

Tomorrow we head a bit more south into Mississippi and then west to cross the Mississippi River!

Thanks for following us!

Where are they now?

The Long Way Home - Day 16 - Summer day in Tennesee
Thursday, July 9th
We continue our westward journey today in Tennessee.

All you people from the pacific north-west, please start the Raaaaiiiii... neeeerrr.... beeeeeer soundtrack in your head as you hit play.

I have to admit that I'm fascinated by those hay-rollups. I really want to see a cow eat one.

The day was filled with a string of easy back roads, dirt roads. small towns, forests, and farms.

We had some unexpectedly deep water crossings

Hank photo-bombed me as I was trying to get a reflecting pool photo of the lake. I think it surprised him how fast it got deep. His gear bags are almost completely under water. I have to admit, was disappointed to see him make it out OK

The beautiful farms and forests continued in central Tennessee:

We came upon this stream that was clearly a hot-day-in-July hangout. The kids we excited to line up on the sides of the road as we rode through and splashed them. Summer fun!

The roads were easy today, but we were able to find this power line access road to liven it up a bit

The cemeteries in Tenessee get a lot of respect. This is just a standard example of what we saw all over Tennessee. The grass is always cut, flags are up, flowers and decorations are out.

We arrived at our destination around 5pm. Pickwick Landing is a huge lake, complete with marinas, docks, sailboats. This is a photo from the top of the dam. That's an impeller from one of the generators on display (I know that only some of us find that interesting!). That's the lake in the background.

Tomorrow we leave Tennessee and travel south into Mississippi.

Thank you for following us!

Where are they now?

Thursday, July 9, 2015

TLWY - Day 15 - Leaving the Appalachians
Wednesday, June 8th

Today we left Deals Gap and took one more short loop through North Carolina before entering again into Tennessee. We've been traveling in the Appalachians since we started in Maine. Today we started the descent into the rolling hills of central Tennessee. Our goal for the night was Lynchburg, Tennessee.

One last photo of the Smoky Mountains:

Tennessee farms are beautiful and very green

One of many river crossings:

We passed this motorcycle "repair" shop, but I told them I'd be scared to leave my bike with them for fear it would never make it back out.

You may remember that we saw three sets of tracks on day 13. Two were from Greg and John who are riding for Easter Seals. The third we caught up with today. Ameen started the TAT in Virginia and he was later joined by Ramine. They are both camping off of their bikes so they are pretty loaded up. Ramine is a new rider and I think he has less than 500 miles experience. Way to go guys - I'm impressed by the camp off the bike mentality, but we have a schedule to keep!

We also met this group of four riders riding west to east. They started in Tennessee and are headed out to the North Carolina coast

I've mentioned this before, but it still amazes me that we have not run into another rider, on these dirt roads and trails, that is not riding the TAT.

The car of the day is near and dear to Hank. He was despondent thinking that another FJ40 was left for dead.

As it turns out, this FJ40 is not destined to be junk. We were happy to find out that this father and his two boys are going to get this one running again. They came out to greet us and discuss FJ40 restoration. What a great family, we hope they get that one running!

Tennessee is definitely in the middle of the bible belt. I'm not exaggerating when I say that there are at least 10 times as many churches as gas stations. This sign just caught my attention: There are three Baptist churches in a 1.6-mile stretch of this road and that's just the Baptist Churches!

We were glad that a lot of today was on pavement! Even with that advantage, we pulled into Lynchburg at 6 pm. Lynchburg is the home of Jack Daniels Whiskey. My wife and I were in Tennessee just about a year ago and we toured the Jack Daniels Distillery. I have to say that's it worth the extra few hours if you're planning a trip/ride through here.

Dinner was at the Barrell Room BBQ. They liked our story and let us put it on their wall (their walls were covered with customers comments/stories).

Day 16 is a 200 mile day all in Tennessee. We'll end up in Pickwick Landing, Tennessee.

Thanks for following us!

Where are they now?