DAY 6 Saturday, May 7, 2011

Chuck and I are roomies again last night. My alarm sounded at 6:30 AM and I turned it off. I was going to just lay in bed for a couple of minutes and get up. Big mistake! I woke up just before 7 AM. As I was dressing, Chuck woke up. We dressed, packed and then walked down to our Motors. Chuck had to get something from his and I took the cover off of mine. We then walked towards the breakfast area. There were two gentlemen packing up their Motorcycles next to the lobby door. They had BMW sport bikes. Chuck talked to them. I went into the breakfast area and Ken and Bruce were there already. Chuck came in, as did Jan and C.E. We were all having breakfast and when we finished, we broke out the maps. We were trying to decide what route we would take today. Do we follow the River or head towards Tennessee and finish the River Ride later? We decided that Tennessee would be the choice. Ken looked at the map to make sure where he was going to lead, since he was still in the lead position. We went to our rooms and got our bags and loaded our Motors. We left at 8:55 AM.

Ken led us back to the area where we had gotten off of Highway 61. We crossed Highway 61, eastbound, and stayed on Highway 6. We rode for 22 miles and at 9:17 AM, we stopped at a Chevron gas station in Marks, MS. We gassed up and made a pit stop. We bought water and sat on the sidewalk on the side of the gas station. We were talking and looking at the traffic on the highway. Ken got on his cell phone and made a call to the Credit Union because there seems to be a problem with it. The company who is monitoring it had some questions about some of the charges on the card. They wanted to make sure that the charges were valid. Ken wanted to make sure to tell them that they were valid and not to suspend the card. Ken believed that he answered the questions satisfactorily. We were ready to leave and we did at 9:33 AM.

I was up to lead now. We continued on Highway 6. We were headed towards the Natchez Trace Parkway to go north to Tennessee. We rode for 76 miles and at 10:44 AM we stopped in Pontotoc, MS for a pit stop. It was very nice riding weather at 73 degrees and cloudy skies. Ken was saying that the weather reports rain headed our way. Chuck confirmed that report with his Droid. Chuck said that he has been following the storm on his Droid and that it is a good possibility that we would get wet today. We left at 11:20 AM.

We continued east on Highway 6. We finally reached the Natchez Trace Parkway. We got on and headed north. I had heard that this Parkway was full of beauty. Those who told me sure knew what they were talking about! What a beautiful ride. When riding the parkway, we could smell the magnolias. What an awesome ride! We had been on for about an hour and I knew that the guys were in need of a pit stop and were also hungry. A sign came up for a small town and I took the off ramp. After riding for 69 miles, we stopped in Tishomingo, MS at 12:40 PM. Yes, you read that name right. We rode through the town from end to end looking for a place to stop and eat. It appeared that the entire town was having a rummage sale! Almost every lot had "stuff" for sale. We made a u-turn at the end of the town and went back to almost the start where we had seen a small restaurant called The Family Drive In. We went in and ordered lunch. When we looked at the prices, I felt like we were stealing the food! Prices for hamburgers we about $3. The lady, probably the owner, took our orders and was very nice. I believe that the cook was her husband. He brought the orders out to our tables. We had a good meal. We had decided that we would do laundry today. Chuck got on his Droid and got the address to a laundromat in Florence, ALA, which was the closest. I set the address on the navigation system and away we went. We left at 1:55 PM.

As we were leaving The Family Drive In, it started to sprinkle. It sprinkled on us for about 3 to 4 minutes. I was thinking that we were going to get wet! We got back on the Natchez Trace Parkway. The speed limit, as I stated earlier, was 50 mph. I wanted to try to outrun the rain so I sped up to about 65 to 70 mph. After a few minutes, it stopped sprinkling so I slowed the speed back to 60 mph. We got off the Parkway at the exit for Highway 20. While at the stop sign, Chuck came up and told me that if I saw the Holiday Inn Express, to stop there and check in and then we would ride to the laundromat. We headed east on Highway 20 for Florence, ALA. We rode for 56 miles and at 2:53 PM, we arrived in Florence, ALA. Chuck needed gas so I stopped at a Kangaroo Express Gas Station. Chuck gave the address to the Holiday Inn Express and Bruce went in to the Mini-mart and asked the clerk for directions. We left at 3:19 PM.

Bruce led us to the Holiday Inn Express. The clerk had given Bruce very good directions and we got there without a problem. We arrived at 3:33 PM after riding for 6 miles. We checked in and took our bags to our rooms. The plan was to drive to a laundromat and do...laundry. Duh! Bruce spoke with the clerk and she offered the large industrial clothes dryer to us. Chuck, Jan, C.E. and Ken opted to go to the laundromat. Bruce and I stayed and ran our clothes through the wash. I retyped yesterday's blog and posted it. The guys finally returned from doing laundry and we decided to walk to dinner at a Logan's Steakhouse just outside of the hotel property. We tucked our Motors in for the night and went to dinner.

We should be real close to the Tail of the Dragon by tomorrow. I'm not sure where exactly we will be. I guess you guys will know tomorrow night after we get into a hotel and I do my blog. Today we rode 229 miles. We'll see how many for tomorrow. So, until tomorrow...