Preface
It always seems touch to figure out where to start the story. But this trip to me stared when I returned from Sturgis. It was a dark and stormy night............. as I came home. It was raining so hard at times I could only muster about 25 mph as it was dark in the rain! My fork bearing started going out about three thousand miles ago and now my tail light had gone out. Two cars went by and rolled down their windows to tell me they just about run over me, so I turned on my emergency four way flashers. The flashers seemed to direct the right right towards me and I was pretty drowned. About the time I figured it couldn't get any worse I entered the road construction zone going into Saint Francisville. Now there weren't any lines on the road or any cars to follow and I was down to 20 mph at times. At last I pulled off 61 and made it to our subdivision. I parked the bike and it was about 2 weeks before I even took the back pack off or emptied the saddle bags.
I happen to mention to Connie that my fork bearing was going out and I'm pretty sure my wife doesn't know the difference between a hockey puck and a fork bearing but she started hounding me to get it fixed. BBB was over a month away so I had plenty of time, but she stayed on me. And then I woke up one morning and there was only one more weekend left until it was time to go. Ronnie and Alan had plane tickets and Cari had the time off, it was time to get my butt in gear. I cleaned up the bike and got it to the dealership for an oil change and fork bearing replacement.
While I was there I noticed hot pink Harley T-shirts. Wow, I really liked them. I owed a lot to those girls up north and this was the ticket. carolyn, Donna, and Debbie have these tough restrictions on gifts. They don't want anything that needs to be dusted or may go to the attic. I've always considered T-shirts a coward's way out, but I really liked these. Thus I decided to pick them up when I came to get the bike.
When I came to pick up the bike I actually remembered to go get the shirts, except there were no shirts. The girl explained they had sold out in about 2 days, well rats. They did have one line green shirt and it was a small but a quick call to debby confirmed it wouldn't fit her mother. Then I noticed the bright orange. Hey, I liked them. Also I had paid a ton for a pre faded one, thus the more they wore and washed these the more valuable they become. Hey, a better deal!
However then I got to thinking. Debby was heading up this even and probably an event shirt for her would be more appropriate. Also I could get her two friends one and that should really make it fun for Debby, all three friends wearing alike T-shirts. Then I realized I didn't have a clue as to what size her friends wore. Then I thought Monroe would be at the Harley Dealership when i picked up the rental bike and he could help me pick them out. If they didn't fit, I could blame it on him. This was a bullet proof plan and it's not often I come up with a plan as bullet proof as this. Also It had a hint of evil in it, yep I liked this plan. Of course you have to understand that Monroe is one of those that could be blindfolded and dropped off at a Shell gas station, he would find his way to the Harley Dealership and the first 3 shirts he touched would be exactly what the girls wanted.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Next thing I knew it was the morning of the day to leave and I was up late last night frantically tring to get things together. I looked at the clock, it was 4 am and I was wide awake. I got up and got ready for work and started loading the bike. Dang, I couldn't believe it that I was up this early, but no matter I would be in bed by 10 or 11 tonight and we would sleep in till 6:30, or so I thought, bad assumption.
I got to work early. A little later got word that Alan had caught his 6 am flight out of Portland, Oregon. Things were going well and everything was on schedule for the 6 am departure from Saint Francisville. Holy cow next thing I got was Alan's plane had landed 10 minutes EARLY. Wow this was going to be a great start. Connie had picked him up and they were headed to the Baton Rouge HD Dealership to get his bike. I left work early and headed home and got the bike ready. Cari was there and we were loaded. Alan showed up and we almost made the 5 pm ferry. We decided to wait for the 6 pm ferry as it was just a little too tight to make the 5 pm. However we left 10 minutes early headed to catch the 6 pm. Wow things were just going right for a change.
The rest of the night from here things just went wrong. We got to the ferry but a tug with a bunch of barges caused the ferry to be about a half an hour late. However I thought this could be made up. I decided we could go Highway 10 to 149 and once we hit the Interstate we could make time.
Finally we got across the Mississippi and headed out on state Highway 10 to New Roads, LA. All and all we were about 45 minutes behind schedule, but ol' Harley was running strong and I was sure glad I got that fork bearing fixed. With Cari on the back it would have been tough on some of those road ruts.
We breezed through New Roads and was on our way to Melville, LA. It wasn't far over to Melville and then through some back roads and we would be to the Interstate before dark. THen suddenly we came upon a Highway 10 sign that pointed down a gravel road. I was so stunned I overran the turn. We turned around and looked at the situation. This was so surprising, a gravel State Highway? Was this right? I knew it was only about 6 or 7 miles over to Melville and the gravel road was heading North which was the right direction and the paved road headed South.
I decided on taking the gravel road. I couldn't make goo time on the gravel and I knew we were falling even further behind schedule. It just couldn't get any worse, but I was wrong again.
The gravel State Highway 10 meandered through farmers fields and had a couple of tricky turns. Then we saw a sign that said Melville straight ahead. MY hopes climbed a bit. Then we finally rounded a corner. There was a bayou right across the road but there was a ferry on the other side. The sign said the ferry was closing on October 9th but this was September 29th. Also the ferry ran on demand until 9pm. It was barely 7 pm. We could hear the ferry engine and there were fresh tire tracks on this side, it appeared it was working but why wasn't it coming to get us? I sure as hell did not want to go back over that dirt road so I decided to wait and hope a car came. I was going to wait until 9:00 if I had to. Riding a gravel road such as that is tricky business.
As we waited the sun went down and the mosquitoes came out. We had to move around to keep from getting our blood sucked dry. We honked, flashed our lights and yelled but the ferry didn't come.
There was train bridge there. In Alaska Alan and I had gone through a train tunnel but there were employees at each end making sure things were ok. Alan started thinking maybe we could get across the train bridge. After about an hour he wanted to go look and Cari was starting to support the idea. It looked like a pretty long bridge and if we were in the middle and a train came it might be a close race to get off in time. Then a train actually came and it was moving fast!!
Just before closing time a pickup FINALLY showed up and that ferry came right over and got us. They were ever so apologetic. They have had a ton of trouble with dirt bikes and four wheelers coming up and when they went to get them they would take off and so they just didn't go over for bikes and they didn't realize we were full sized highway bikes. I just wasn't too happy but there just wasn't much we could do about it, the schedule was suffering immeasurably. In a minute we were on the other side.
It was dark now and I had planned to try to find my way through the back roads to the Interstate in the daylight. The ferry guys did give me good directions to Bunkie, LA. I could get to the Interstate from there. Again the wind was in my face and we were rolling. I figured it took just over 2 hours to cover that first 21 miles. Near Bunkie I saw a sign to Interstate 49. In a flash we were there. Out on the interstate I normally like to let a car pass once in a while but I just let the ol' Harley run. We started eating up the miles.
Out on the open road I started assessing the damage to the schedule. We had to be at t he HD Dealership by 5 pm in Fayettefille, AR, tomorrow to pick up the rental bike. Like James says, behind us was just another story to tell but up ahead another one was unfolding. I put the past behind me and turned my atttention to the future. Just then my engine started sputtering and I reached down and switched the fuel to reserve. Just up the road I pulled off the Interstate into a gas station.
After we filled up we held a road meeting. Alan was still good as he was still on Oregon time and had caught a nap or two flying in today. On the other hand I had been up since 4 am. We talked to some truck drivers and they told me there was a loop around Shreveport, LA, to Highway 71 North wich I intended to take. I was sure there would be a hotel at a major intersection like that and we would spend the night there. We would have to get up early to make up for lost time. By then I would have been up for 20 hours. We left the gas station with a revised schedule and all was well again.
Back out on the road I let the Harley go again, Alan usually complains aboutme dragging along with the 1340cc and he has to hold back that big ol' 1600cc. We really ate up the miles and I found the loop the trackers told me about and followed it around to North 71. But there was no hotel! I just kept on going North on 71 looking for the next hotel. Finally we found one in Texarkana.
It was about 0230 am when I hit the bed. I had been up 22 hours and was shot. I told Cari to get me up at 0630 and we would leave by 0700 am. That way we would be 2 hours ahead of schedule in case there were any stories to tell about tomorrow.
Thursday, September 30th, 2010:
I had just got comfortable in bed and hadn't even rolled over the first time when Cari was pulling on my foot. Hey, what the hell's going on? "It's 6:30 am," she said. WHAT! I couldn't believe it. She was ready to go but it was a good 30 minutes later before I could drag my rear out of bed. It took me almost another hour and I was outside where Alan was already loaded. It was just after 8 am when we rolled back out on 71 North out of Texarkana. Well at least we were an hour ahead of schedule.
It was a nice little ride that morning. It wasn't too cold and we just rolle dright along. We made excellent time and soon we were in Fort Smith. We noticed the HD Dealership and Alan motioned "think about stopping". We were ahead of schedule and it was about time to stop so I pulled off the Interstate. Alan and I like stopping at various dealerships to look at the different bikes and just take a break sometimes. They sometimes have special deals and today they had free root beer floats.
As I got my float and stepped away I noticed hot pink T-shirts. Holy cow what a break. I liked them. I picked up 3 of them but then remembered I didn't have a clue as to what size the girls might wear, that is what Monore was supposed to help me with. Debby was easy, her mother wore a medium so she must wear a medium. The other women were actually pretty easy too, Debby told us medium helmets thus they must wear medium T-shirts,, hey this was easy. I can tell you shopping for my wife is not this easy.
I got to the counter to pay for them. The girl was refolding them when I realized the designs on the back were not the same. I decided the design with the hog on the back was the best since I knew Debby to be a hog fan, but they only had two mediums left, welll rats. Then I decided I would get one with the hog and two with the green lace on the back as Debby should have a different one, but they only had one left with the green lace in medium, well rats again.
Then I noticed there were a few with long sleeves and they were medium. Then I thought this would work, Debby would have a distinctly different one and the other two would have hogs on the back. Ok, I headed to the counter again. At the counter the girl was going through the folding routine again. She asked if I realized that the T-shirts were men's sizes and the long sleeve was a female cut medium which would translate to a small in the T-shirts. I didn't think Debby wore a small helmet so I decided on the large female cut shirt. The girl was so nice she volunteered to go get one for me as I guess I appeared pretty confused. Then she started folding thema gain and I realized I had only one hog shirt and one with green lace. She said it would be not a problem and she could go exchange it for me. But I said no I would take what was there. Maybe with the different designs I could remember which name went with which person, as I get names mixed up easy.
Alan was over looking at the new Heritage Softail Classics. He found out you could get a tach speedo to replace just the speedo on the older ones. These were cool as they had different colored lights and it was nice to have the tach.
We finished our root beer floats and headed back to the bikes. We went up the road a bit and got gas. Then we got back on I540 and headed North to Fayetteville and the schedule looked great.
Wow, it just wasn't long until we were at Debby's house and Monroe was there. We unloaded some stuff and Monroe led us over to the HD Dealership to pick up my rental.
I had asked for a Roadking but when we went out to the bike it was a Heritage Softail, persimmon red/orange with WIDE whitewalls. This was the ugliest bike I had seen. I sure gave the guy a hard time. Another guy said he would take it, but it was all they had so I was doomed. Alan and Monroe thought it was pretty funny. Monroe had noticed my name attached to it before I came out (or did he switch name on those rentals). The man gave me the key but when I tried to start it the battery was dead. Damn, broke down and didn't even get it out of the parking lot. Now what?
The rental man went to check with the mechanics to see how long until they could get to it. He also checked for another bike. During all this commotion a black Roadking came up and the guy said he was checking it in. I siad I would take it, they didn't even have to wash it. We started changing the paperwork and after awhile we were on our way. We headed on back to Monroe's house. We got to the house and started rearranging things and getting setup for bed because when we got back it would be late.
Since I snore loudly I take the farthest sleeping place, which in this case was the back bedroom. Cari got the front bedroom and Alan got the living room floor, and Ronnie would also sleep on the floor. Cari's bed actually had Harley sheets and I got the bed with the heart pillow. At least my bed didn't have Honda sheets and even then as tired as I am when I usuallly get to a bed I wouldn't care. And at least the heart wasn't with valentine red and white sheets like I got when James and I spent the night at my sister's house. But it didn't matter there either, I was tired.
Somehow we got hungry. Debby suggested a few alternatives of which one was a barbeque house called Penguins. Not sure how penguins were associated with barbequie. Anyhow a barbeque place sounded great to me and no one objected. Also this was the place where one of the female riders worked that was going to ride with us tomorrow. I gave debby the T-shirts to let her give them out to the girls.
At Penguins Debby pointed out one of the girls that was going to ride with us tomorrow. She was only 22 and so was the other one. I was thinking they were Debby's age and were sisters. Holy cow was I off, Then I worried about the shirts being too big. If they were they didn't complain that I know of. Debby was wearing her shirt and I swear even if the tailor was standing right there they could not have got that shirt to fit any better. All of us got asked where Debby got that shirt and if there were any more. Actually Debby has pictures of all three of the girls in the shirts on her Facebook page. I think they look pretty good and you can judge for yourself as you can go to her page and look under pictures. Every once in a while things just work out.
After we ate we headed downtown. I had looked forward to seeing the band we saw last year but they were cancelled. However, Debby's selection of bands this year was great. AND the band from Louisiana was called out for an encore. After going downtown and listening to the bands, we were supposed to pick up Ronnie at the airport, but due to flight problems with weather he wouldn't be in til noon tomorrow. So we just meandered around, watched another good band, rode the train and did whatever.
By the time we got back to Debby's I was definitely shot. I got to the bed as soon as I could. I didn't bother going to sleep I just laid down and passed out. I can't remember what time it was but it was late.
Friday, October 1st, 2010:
The next morning I woke up and it was already daylight. I struggled to get going but just rolled over the first attempt. However eventually I got going. Actually it seemed all of us were dragging a bit. We had to pick Ronnie up at noot so if we were going to get in a morning ride we needed to get moving.
Monroe took us for a great little morning ride out through the countryside. we did a lot of sightseeing and just moseyed along. I lost track of our relative bearings and as we approached the time we needed to go to the airport to get Ronnie I started wondering if we should start that way.
Pretty soon Monroe stopped at a convenience store. That Monroe is so clever, we were only 5 minutes from the airport. We headed that direction and sure enough there was a jet coming in to land. We waited out front. Pretty soon Ronnie came out. He got on with Alan and rode "bitch" to Debby's house. Once there we dropped off his stuff and he got the ol' 97 out and was ready to ride. I had rode the '97 up from Louisiana and rented the Roadking in Fayetteville so the boys all had bikes. Then we headed to the bean palace for lunch.
It took a while out there for lunch (was a long line), but it was enjoyable and everyone was talking. After lunch we headed for the pigtrail.
It was a nice ride. I managed a 30pmh curve with no hands. I do that every once in a while just to reassure myself I still have the balance and co-ordination for riding. Then I did a 20 mph curve and decided I was still ok. Also it checks your fork bearings as it extremely tricky to do with bad fork bearings. However Debby and some others have their own opinion of this activity, but I've seen Alan try. (Cari's note: That was definitely interesting as I was on the back.)
Soon we came up to a wreck. A truck got pinched trying to take one of those very tight corners and his trailer's starboard duels went off the road over the edge a bit and he was pinned in the corner. Then about four of those cages with people in them crashed into each other in a stopping contest when they came up on him stopped in the corner, quite a mess. The cage in front won the stopping contest, but I think he was thinking about that.
After awhile we got by. Monroe had been looking for a turn before I40 off highway 23 but we didn't find it and we wound up on I40 heading West. I jumped to the lead and put on the cruse control at 70 and we headed back towards Fayetteville, AR. It had been a nice afternoon with lunch at the bean palace and the ride down the Pigtrail. Monroe and Debby are tops at running MC trips.
When we got to Fayetteville it was stop and go traffic. Things were going bad, time for Monroe to take over. He would take us to Carolyn's house for dinner. Carolyn is my first cousin and Debby is her daughter. Carolyn and I are in the same generation and Debby, Cari, and Ronnie are the next generation down, so basically Alan and I are running around with the kids.
We got to Carolyn's and she was wearing the orange T-shirt. Dang those thing were pretty bright. Gonna take a lot of washing to get that thing faded out to look cool. Then I decided I really liked the orange and black, these are Harley colors. Then I was trying to figure out how I got sidetracked onto those hot pink shirts. With the compliments Debby has with her shirt it would probably be pretty hard to convince her how much better orange looked.