Today was a day of transition. When I got this morning, the mountains were
smoking! The moisture from the rain
later in the day yesterday and overnight was still hanging in the air as the
sun was coming up. It looked pretty
neat.
I left the Ozarks in my rear view
mirror early in the day and then made my way to southern Missouri
and into Tennessee where I picked up the
Natchez Trace outside of Nashville
by about 70 miles. The Trace is 440
miles long and runs from Natchez Mississippi, across the entire state of Mississippi, through a corner of Alabama, and up to Nashville Tennessee . The Trace (or trail) started when people
would take their boats and goods down the rivers to be sold. They would sell not only their goods but also
their boats as there was no way to get the boat back upstream. The only way to get home was to walk.
Because the Trace is now a parkway,
there are no commercial vehicles allowed on it and the speed limit is usually
50 mph. The parkway is well taken care
of and usually is tree lined on one or both sides. This makes for a very relaxed ride.
Tomorrow I will continue down the
Trace and then head towards New
Orleans .
I have now completed over 4,500
miles on this trip and I have averaged 640 miles per day. Many of you may ask “How (and maybe even why)
do you do this?” I believe the answer
lies in 3 words: 1) desire, 2) preparation, and 3) equipment.
Desire: My desire is not to just
put on miles. If that was the case, I
could do it much quicker by getting on freeways and interstates and just drive
and watch the miles count up. No, my
desire is to see and feel the areas in which I ride. I use all of my senses to absorb the feeling
of the areas in which I am driving and experiencing. As you know, part of the desire of this trip
is to complete riding in 49 states on a motorcycle. I have now added 6 new ones to the list (New Mexico , Texas , Oklahoma , Arkansas , Alabama , and Mississippi ). Two new states still remain: Louisiana and Florida . However, in addition to just the state count,
there are many wonderful areas left to explore!
Preparation: This is critical to help maintain the miles
per day. I spend time in advance of the
trip scouting out the roads I wish to ride (twisty, curvy, mountain, river,
etc.) and have them mapped into my GPS.
This allows me to keep moving during the day and not spend a lot of time
looking at maps and determining where to go to next. However, I still have the option to vary my
route from those pre-planned in the GPS.
To me this provides the best of both worlds. I also bring along state highway maps for all the
places I plan to go because there are still many advantages of looking at a
large piece of paper when trying to see how the whole route fits together.
Equipment: One must have the proper equipment to put on
long miles day after day. For me, one
upgrade I did this year was a new custom seat for the bike. When I placed the order, I was told the
production date would not be in time for this trip. I was disappointed but there was nothing else
I could do then. Disappointment turned
to joy when I found out they had made my seat early and it would arrive about 1
week before I left. I love my new
Russell Day Long Saddle (a little plug for the seat!). I also purchased LDComfort (Long Distance
Comfort) undergarments to wear. They
have a moisture wicking layer to keep moisture away from the body and also have
the seams done differently. Again, love
them! Proper boots, gloves, jacket,
helmet, and others allow a person to ride comfortably for a long time and
adjust to various weather conditions.
That is all for tonight. I am spending the night at the Trace State Park
outside of Tupelo Mississippi Sunrise
(if not raining – 50% chance according to the forecast) should be beautiful!
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