Daily Journal

Day Three: Sunday, Aug. 13, 2000

  We get our wake up call entirely too early, pack the bikes, eat some breakfast, gas up and hit the road. Today is going to be about a 300 mile ride up into northern Mississippi across to northern Alabama. We head up I-55 out of Jackson expecting to take the next section of the Natchez trace parkway. Unfortunately, we find out the hard way that this section of the trace is closed for unknown reasons. We get on the communicators and set Shane to looking for an alternate route to get us over to Philadelphia, Mississippi so we can resume the planned route.

  Luckily, just up the highway a few more miles is the town of Canton and we pick up Ms 16 and head east. This is the road that the trace would have eventually intersected on our planned route. Not so luckily, this road is another of those roads that motorcyclists hate to encounter, very long, very straight, and not a whole lot of interesting scenery. Bummer. This road runs all the way to Philly. From there we take Ms 21 and head northeast. This road is at least somewhat hilly. It is pretty straight for the first 10-15 miles and then gets a little more interesting. So far the temperature has been hovering in the mid to upper eighties, quite nice. Highway 21 gets us to the sprawling hamlet of Shuqualak. From there we take US 45 north to Macon, our planned gas stop, if we can find a station...

  Macon is a one light town, if you blink you miss it. We manage to find a Texaco and pull in for a rest. This place is hopping. I find out why as soon as I open the door and walk in... They are cranking out the fried chicken for the locals as fast as they can make it. It smells incredible! And I just finished telling everyone else that I wasn't really hungry or ready for lunch. Everyone else makes sandwiches in the parking lot and I just settle for a Snickers candy bar. Gassed, fed and ready to roll, we head east on Ms 14 for the Alabama border. Highway 14 is long, flat and boring with the occasional chicken farm along the way.

  Evidence of drought conditions in the area abound. There are massive expanses of dead corn crops, acres and acres as far as you can see in some places. It really makes you pause when you consider that some farmer is going to take a financial beating because of the lack of rain. The cotton crops are hanging on by a thread.

  Soon enough the border comes into sight and we cross over into Alabama and the road becomes Al 32, still flat and still boring, but fortunately short. We pick up Al 17 and head northeast for Carrollton. Highway 17 is a nice road with a good surface, long graceful sweepers, and interesting scenery. Carrollton comes up all to soon. The weather is still awesome, clear skies and cool temps. So far, even loaded to the hilt with the GIVI luggage, the VFR is handling great. All I have to do is lean forward just a tad over the tank and the bike tracks great through the twisties. But the front tire is still giving me a little wobble.

  Our plan is to head over to Gordo, Alabama on US 45 by cutting across on Al 86. Highway 86 is fine, nothing real exciting, but not too bad. Out of Gordo, I spied a road on the map program that looked like it might be interesting. What a jewel!! This road is Al 159 and it runs north to Fayette. Immediately the road begins climbing up into the mountains and winding in and around the valleys and peaks. There are several nice scenic overlooks, some of barren clear cut land and some of heavily forested areas. It is all I can do to remember that I have luggage on the back of the bike and that people are following me. This road is about 30 miles of pure heaven. I think are a total of two decreasing radius turns the entire way, and those are pretty mild. Before I realize it, we are already in Fayette and I am surprised when I come cruising around the corner and there it is! We stop for a stretch, drinks and some chatting. I compliment Shane on his ability to refrain from unloading his bike and riding this road! The urge to turn around and do it all over again is unbelievably strong but we have a schedule to keep so we press on.

  Jasper is our next gas stop. We head up US 43 to Al 102 and begin the eastward run through the country side. Highway 102 is fun enough, but again, nothing special, especially after just coming off of 159, sigh! We gas up in Jasper and move on. I had selected two routes to get us to Cullman, our planned stop for the night, one scenic and one just up a boring highway. After confirming with some locals that the alternate route is actually paved the whole way, we decide to risk it. Once we finally manage to find the road heading out of town, no small feat, we get stuck behind tons of weekend traffic because of the nearby lakes.

  We take Al 257 north out of town. I am looking for the next road, country road 41. I never find a turn off but eventually figure out that 257 ends somewhere along the line and just becomes CR 41. So we pass some traffic and start looking for CR 77, our next turn off. I guess living in Texas has spoiled me to very effectively marked roads and intersections, something severely lacking in Alabama. As we cruise past an unmarked intersection, I happen to glance up the side road and catch a glimpse of a sign that I think shows CR 77. We turn around and sure enough, it is. We finally get away from the traffic and start wandering through the middle of nowhere. CR 22 is the next road, again completely unmarked. After passing a very nondescript side road, I pull in at a gas station and ask some locals if they can point me to CR 22. This nets me some weird looks and creates apparent confusion for the locals. They send us back to the side road we just passed. NEVER do we see a single sign for the road even after we get on it. Fortunately, Beth spies a mailbox and sees CR 22 on it.

  I thought that CR 22 would just run across to I-65, I was wrong. It seems that 22 is another of those roads that just ends without any fanfare and simply becomes another road, go figure. At the first stop, none of the roads are marked, so we just guess and go left. We reach the next stop and the same thing happens, this time I choose right. We are now on 222 according to the mailboxes, real high tech navigation. Then almost with out warning we are plopped out onto Al 69 and then I-65. I guess I just read the map wrong. We head up the freeway and find Cullman with no problems, check into the hotel, clean up and go eat. Another long day in the saddle. Tomorrow we head to the famed Deals Gap in the Smokey Mountains of North Carolina.


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