Day
13, Monday, April 27, 2015
Let me start by telling you about last night. I was working on the blog in the hotel
lobby. It was about 8:30 PM when most
everyone went to their room because they were tired. J.B. stayed in the lobby until 9:00. He went to his room and I told him that I
would soon follow. WOW! It was only 8:30 or 9:00 and they went to
their rooms. Lightweights! I finished and went to my room and my room
was dark and my roomy was already in bed.
I was still wide awake. I tried
to be quiet while getting ready for bed so as not to disturb Ken.
OK, now the morning.
Both, my alarm and Ken’s alarm sounded at 6:30 AM. We got up, got dressed and packed. We went outside our door to our Motorcycles
and saw the fog. It was also 45
degrees. We took our covers off of our
Motorcycles and packed our bags. We then
went to breakfast and saw that J.B. was already there eating breakfast. We joined him. The others started coming in slowly. Yes, you guessed it; Chuck was the last to
come in. We were all ready early, but we
wanted to wait a little until it warmed up.
We were all set to go and C.E. rode off across the street to gas up his
Motorcycle. Ken was leading and we all
rode to the front of the hotel and waited for C.E. C.E. joined us and we left at 9:21 AM.
Ken led us onto Highway 231 North. We rode for a while and got into an area
where there were twisties and hills. Ken
was leading, I was next and Jan was third.
The rest followed. The road was
good and smooth. The three of us were having
a good time with the twisties and hills.
We noticed that we had left the rest behind. Ken slowed and the others eventually caught
up. We continued and we did it
again. We left them behind. We were really enjoying the ride and getting
as much as we could out of it. We haven’t
had very many roads like this on this ride.
We rode through Shelbyville and then to Alternate Highway 41. We followed 41A until we reached Highway
840.West. Ken didn’t have any
instructions as to which road to take after 41A. We
rode for 68 miles and at 10:38 AM we stopped in Rudderville, TN. We stopped at a gas station and
mini-mart. They didn’t have a restroom
inside that we could use, but they had a j-jon outside. We had drinks and snacks and we talked about
the fun we just had. Ken checked with Chuck with the map to see where we would
be going next. We were done with our break
and left at 11:14 AM.
Chuck told Ken to continue on 840 West and we would
eventually come to the Natchez Trace.
Ken followed 840 West and we saw a sign that said, ‘Natchez Trace one
mile.” Ken saw the sign and exited one
mile later. At the intersection, there
was a sign that read, “Natchez Trace Right Turn Highway 46 North.” Not wanting to go north, Ken turned left. We all would have done the same thing. We rode Highway 46 and enjoyed the scenery on
the road. It was a good road with many
twisties. Again, Ken, Jan and I had fun
and pulled away from the group. We got
to the end of Highway 46 and were at the junction of Highway 96. We didn’t know where to go. We started to think that we had finished the
Natchez Trace. Ken turned left and
pulled into a gas station to gas up. We
had ridden 42 miles and we stopped in Burns, TN at 11:57 AM. Chuck came to us and told us that Ken had
turned the wrong way. That was NOT the
Natchez Trace. Ken needed to turn right,
where the sign displayed the information about Highway 46 North. It lead us to Natchez Trace going SOUTH. We didn’t know. It was one of those things that our leader
didn’t explain. No big deal! There are other ways to get to the “Trace.” We left at 12:24 PM.
I was in the lead now.
The plan was to ride west and stop, soon, and have lunch. I led the group west on Highway 96. We entered the city of Dickson, TN where we
found a Subway and had lunch. We rode
for 6 miles and stopped at 12:34 PM. We
were there for quite some time. J.B.
rode to a nearby Wal-Mart for some personal items. Chuck was on the phone for quite some
time. We were just milling around. Finally everyone was done doing what they
were doing and we left at 1:38 PM.
We were on Highway 70 through Dickson and turned onto
Highway 46 South. We rode for a while
and it turned into Highway 7. We rode
for a while and there was the sign for the Natchez Trace. We rode on the Natchez Trace. It was a great road with beautiful
scenery. We rode for 56 miles and at
2:38 PM stopped at the Meriwether Lewis Memorial. We parked next to the memorial and took
pictures. The woods to the north of us
looked like they needed to be watered, so, we watered them! We packed up and left at 2:58 PM.
We got back on the “Trace” and headed south. We rode until we came to the junction of
Highway 64 West. We exited the “Trace”
and followed Highway 64. As we were
westbound, Jan spoke to me on the CB and told me that we needed to stop and
discuss our plans for the rest of the day.
It was getting late and we had hoped to get to Memphis. After riding 59 miles, we stopped at a gas
station mini-mart in Savannah, TN. It
was getting a little warm and some of the guys took their jackets off. We discussed our plans and it was decided
that we would go to Jackson, TN and find a Best Western Hotel. We left at 4:27 PM.
I led the Group west on Highway 64 to Selmer. We didn’t want to go through the city. There was a by-pass to go around the
city. We were on Highway 64 and then
onto Highway 45. We were now northbound
and didn’t go through the city of Selmer.
We continued north and then rode into Jackson, TN. We needed to go to Chester and turn left. That is all of the instructions that I was
given about where the Hotel was located.
We got to Chester, but didn’t turn.
The next street was a one way in the opposite direction. We went up one more street, turned left,
turned left at the next street and then turned right at the second street. We were on Chester again. We took this street, which turned into
Highway 45 by-pass. We went about a mile
or two. We stopped at a red light and
Chuck came riding next to Jan and me and told us that the Best Western was
about three miles north. We rode about
three miles and there it was on the right.
We pulled into the Best Western at 5:45 PM after riding 68 miles.
Bruce and J.B. entered the hotel to “make the deal.” The rest of us waited outside. Jan went inside and I followed. I checked and saw that Bruce and J.B. were
getting their rooms. The rest of the
guys got their rooms. We got our bags
and took them to our rooms. The guys sat
around the lobby talking and drinking coffee. I checked with the clerk about laundry on the
premise and Laundromats nearby. She told
me about two Laundromats and the property didn’t have laundry rooms for the
guests. Ken rode to one Laundromat to
check the hours and came back with a report that it was a dry cleaner. I was anxious to find out because I needed to
do laundry today. I had nothing for
tomorrow. I rode in the other direction
to check the Laundromat. I found it
about a mile away. When I got back to
the hotel, C.E. and Ken were riding their Motorcycles to O’Charley’s Restaurant
in the strip mall behind the hotel. I
rode up to the restaurant and J.B. had also ridden. The others walked. We had dinner and finished a little after
8:30 PM. I went straight to the Laundromat
alone. While I was there, I typed my
blog. I got most of it done when the
laundry was done. I packed my stuff in
my Motorcycle and returned to the hotel.
All of the Motorcycles were tucked in for the night. I parked my Motorcycle and also tucked it in. I went into the lobby and finished my
blog.
Today we rode 299 miles and rode some of the Natchez
Trace. We went on some good roads and
had some fun. So far this ride, we have
gone 3,774 miles. Well, at least I
have. When we started this morning, we
thought that we were going to get wet.
We were monitoring a storm coming from Texas. We were lucky in that we didn’t get wet when
we were riding nor did it rain while we were awake. Maybe tomorrow it will rain.
Tomorrow, some of the guys will go to the Laundromat in
the morning. I won’t have to. I was told that we may go to Memphis
tomorrow. We shall see. So, until tomorrow…
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