My alarm went off around 6:30 AM. I really didn't want to get up. It seems that this trip was already making me weary, just one and a half days into it. This day, however, was going to be the most interesting of the whole trip, so that gave me motivation to finally get moving.
I got dressed and padded down to the lobby for the continental breakfast. Pickings were pretty slim at this hotel. I wound up eating a bagel and stale Danish, and drank a few glasses of juice.
I went back to the room and finished packing, then loaded the bike for the day's journey. I had seen and heard some seedy looking people outside my room the previous night, so I had a minor concern for the safety of my bike. Thankfully everything was unmolested.
I rode to the lobby and checked out of my room, then rode across the street and topped off the tank with gas. The morning was cool, right on the edge where I thought I might want to put on a jacket. However the sun was shining and I knew that if I put on a jacket, within an hour I would be stopping to take it off. I decided to gamble and go without.
I did lather myself up real good with sunscreen. My sunscreen efforts on this trip were greatly improved over previous years as I hardly got burned at all.
I hit the interstate and rode around the south side of Paducah. Being early on a Sunday morning, things were pretty quiet. A few miles east of town I turned south on the road that goes through the Land Between The Lakes.
My family had stayed a night in this area during the summer of 1982. I was maybe hoping that as I rode through the area something might have triggered a memory. The only thing I can remember about my first trip to the Land Between the Lakes was that we stayed in a hotel that had a "Space Invaders II" machine, and that after supper my dad took my brother and me to ride go-carts at a nearby track. It was the first time I'd ever been on a motorized go-cart. I drove my own, but my brother was young enough that he had to ride along with my dad.
If you haven't guessed by now, I'm a pretty nostalgic and sentimental guy. I love playing through old memories in my head, and visiting places that dredge up those old memories. Unfortunately, on this day I didn't see anything that triggered a memory.
The Land Between the Lakes was scenic. I rode through the area and snapped some pictures.
Toward the southern part of the area, I crossed into Tennessee. Add a new state to my motorcycle travel list.
The LBTL area really wasn't that large, and inside of an hour later I was leaving the south side of the park.
My map had me picking up highway 49 around the town of Dover. I rode 49 until it intersected with highway 13 at the town of Erin. The roads did a lot of twisting and turning, so I had to stop several times to make sure I was on the right track.
As I headed south, I reached a milestone. My motorcycle hit 50,000 miles. I stopped and snapped a picture of the odometer to commemorate the event.
As the morning went on I needed gas and a stretch break, so I stopped on Loberville, TN for both. I was getting very hungry as the continental breakfast didn't carry me very far. However this close to lunch I didn't want to eat anything too heavy. I grabbed a light snack and got back on the road fairly quickly.
After what seemed like an eternity, I reached highway 64 which was to take me west a few miles towards Savannah. I was really starting to feel kind of rotten, like I could have easily called it a day already. Every year I've taken a trip my left shoulder starts to feel worse and worse. My head was aching pretty good as well, presumably from not getting enough sleep. I had my goals in mind, so I pressed on.
After what seemed like an eternity, but in reality was probably about a half hour, I reached Savannah. It was time to stop for lunch, so I started scanning what was available. My eye caught Taco Bell, which is less than an exotic dining establishment, but it sounded good so I pulled in.
The restaurant was busy, being a Sunday at noon. I ordered and sat down at one of the few tables available. A family next to me eyed me suspiciously as I ate my lunch. I'm sure I looked rather vagrant-esque.
I studied my map as I ate to ensure I was on the right track. My route had me going a few more miles west and then taking highway 22 south into Mississippi.
Reluctantly I decided to get back on the bike and continue on my mission. Before I left I slathered on another layer of sunscreen. The day was getting reasonably warm, but not unusual for the location and time of the year.
West of Savannah the scenery was noticeably duller than the east side. Thankfully I didn't keep heading west for long, and took highway 22 south.
Not far down the road, I passed the Shiloh National Battlefield, a Civil War battle site. I stopped and read the historical marker and snapped a picture. There were other informational markers throughout the area, but I would have had to get off the bike to read them. I just wanted the day to be over, so I opted to keep riding.
A few miles further south I hit the state line. That's two of the three new states I would cross into on this day.
I rode through the northeast corner of the state. It was a pretty area, and not as remote as I had envisioned it in my mind. South of Luka I caught highway 72 and headed east into Alabama. I had spent less than an hour in Mississippi.
I took this road all the way to Muscle Shoals. This would be my "official" turn around point for the trip. Being somewhat of my destination for the whole journey, I thought maybe I should do something special rather than just ride through.
The Alabama Music Hall of Fame was located here. Unfortunately, when I rode by I discovered it was closed on Sundays, so that option was out.
I then went looking for the legendary Fame Recording studios. This is the place where so many legends had recorded over the years. People such as Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding, Aretha Franklin, Paul Anka, Duane Allman and many others. In addition, Fame was home to one of the greatest group of house musicians known as the "Swampers," who backed up many stars who recorded there. In fact, Lynyrd Skynyrd mentions them by name in their song "Sweet Home Alabama" when they sing "Muscle Shoals has the Swampers..."
I found the studio building. This was quite anti-climactic as while it was cool to stand in the same parking lot where many legends had over the years, there wasn't a whole lot more I could see. So I stood there and snapped a few pictures, then after a minute or two I fired up the bike and went on my way.
I needed fuel so I gassed up while I was in town. I bought an RC Cola and downed some ibuprofen in an attempt to keep the pain at bay. I also called Trevor and told him I was on track to reach his house around 5:30. I actually felt I might arrive sooner, which was fine with me, but I figured I could update him again if I was going to show up on his doorstep drastically early. I tried to rest for a few minutes, but I knew I couldn't relax until I was in Nashville so I didn't linger that long.
Back on the road for the last stretch of the day I headed up through town highway 2, which turned into highway 43, which turned into highway 6. At one point the intersection wasn't marked very clear and I missed a turn I was supposed to make. About a mile down the road I was in an extremely residential area when I started to second guess that this was the right route. I doubled back and got to the intersection where I thought I was supposed to turn. There were no markings from this direction either, so I finally just gambled and hoped I was going the right direction. Thankfully, I was.
I rode through Muscle Shoals and kept waiting to reach the edge of town, but it didn't seem to come. Traffic was heavy and I was in a 35-40 mph zone for what seemed like forever. As it turned out, there were a whole bunch of towns stuck together one after another. This was the case pretty much all the way to Nashville. There might be some spots where there were two or three miles between towns, but there were no long stretches where I could get the motorcycle up to speed for any length of time.
This brings up an observation. I think Tennessee's state motto must be "reduced speed ahead" because I saw that sign more times than I could count while riding through the state. Towns, no matter how small, would have these buffer zones on either side about a mile long where the speed was reduced to 45 mph. So I would slow down for a mile, slow down even further for the 1/4 mile it took to get through the town, speed back up to 45 mph for a mile and then finally get back to highway speeds. The problem was towns in the area where I rode through were three or four miles apart, which means I was constantly speeding up and slowing down.
So this is what I did all the way to Nashville. It wouldn't have been so bad had I known it was going to happen and could account for it. However it was a surprise and coupled with the fact that whenever I got up to highway speeds I didn't know if I was going to ride 40 miles without slowing down or 1 mile. Whenever I'd see that "reduced speed ahead" sign I would get more and more frustrated.
In looking at the map when doing my planning I saw the Natchez Trace Parkway which ran from Muscle Shoals all the way up to the Nashville Area. This was a limited access highway I considered taking, but decided against it because it was advertised as having a 50 mph speed limit that was strictly enforced. In hindsight, I should have ridden the parkway as while 50 mph is slow going, it was faster than I maintained for most of this stretch on the regular highway.
By the time I got to Spring Hill I was in a tizzy. Traffic was getting thicker and moving slower the closer I got to Nashville. My plan had been to ride the highway all the way into the city, but I reached the end of my rope.
Without consulting a map, I made a right turn on a limited access freeway (route 840). I figured this would take me over to interstate 65 which I would then take the rest of the way.
My gamble paid off. The freeway wasn't as busy and about 3 miles down the road I ran into the interstate.
Whereas the highway was moving too slow for my taste, the interstate was the polar opposite. I would be riding 75-80 (the posted limit was 65) and people would fly by. Traffic increased the closer we got to the city, but the traffic didn't slow. It was a little nerve wracking, adding to my already fragile state.
Finally I hit the interstate 440 loop. From there I followed the directions Trevor had given me to his house. It was in the Woodbine area which actually wasn't that far from interstate 40. Maybe three miles, which is good because I don't think I had another 20 miles in me.
I pulled up in front of Trevor's house a physical wreck. He and Lauren greeted me at the door. I don't think they realized how wiped out I was. I put on a good game face I guess.
We sat and talked for a while, all the time I was hoping I could find a break in the conversation where I could quick change my clothes and freshen up. Finally I got the chance, and felt much more human with some different shoes and washing up.
We spent a little more time talking and they showed me their back yard. Trevor also showed me his music room where his band Showbaby rehearses.
We decided to go to a nearby rib place called Martin's for supper. We piled into Lauren's car and drove five or six miles south.
The food was good. On Trevor's recommendation, I had what was called a "Redneck Taco" which was a cornbread pancake topped with pulled pork, coleslaw and BBQ sauce. My first bite wasn't what I was expecting, but after a few bites I kind of figured out what flavors they were going for and it became quite delicious. I'd definitely order it again.
Also Trevor insisted I have a slice of pecan pie. No really, he insisted.
After our meal we went back to the house where we sat and talked for quite a while longer. Lauren had to get up in the morning for work, and I wanted to be rolling at an early hour so we had planned to head to bed early. Well, the conversation kept going and going until soon it was much later than we had anticipated. Finally we had no choice but to call it a night.
I grabbed a quick shower and crawled into bed. It felt awesome and I slept pretty well.
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This page last updated on 06/28/2018