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Published: December 12th 2006
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MS Cotton Field
Raised in a farming community, riding through these fields is comforting, even if its cotton not corn. This is the third part of a series that is about the ride I took on my 2005 883 Low Harley Sportster ‘Effie’ from Kansas City to Novia Scotia and back. This was part of my vacation from 4 to 20 AUG 2006
SUN 6 AUG 06
The morning started at 7:30 AM as the earlier wake up call never came. It was as usual a great morning, cool with a few cars on the highway. Most of the time going across MS will be the small highways. The first stop is for Quitman County, I need this to match up with my Quitman AR city that I got last weekend for my ABCs. This will now make 108 points on the ABCs of Touring, last year I only got 100 points for the year. The second stop is Toccopola MS (IBE #21), the route for this stop leads for miles through little highways that were tree covered and thus shady… I could travel all day on roads like this, they are a great ride, but pretty bad on time. There were lots of cotton fields, last year was the first time I had actually seen cotton growing in
IBE #21 Toccopola MS
The ride here was a really pleasent one. No traffic, shady lanes and lots of farm land. the fields. KS is corn and soy bean country not cotton. Toccopola was actually large enough that it had its own post office, sometimes you don't know about these little towns that Map Source locates. Some of these towns will not actually exist anymore at all you are just chasing ghosts. Earlier in the year when I found Yuma, KS the only thing left of the town was a Historic Marker locating the original town site. The town had died in the 1930's according to the sign.
For a couple hours in the afternoon it was miserable hot. I pulled over a couple times to soak my shirt in water. I bought a $1 squirt bottle and put it in my cup holder to use to mist me trying to keep cooler. Then the weather started to cool off. I was thinking how nice it was riding - then I got to Atlanta. The reason it was so cool was because of the rain that was coming. So I paid for the nice cool ride with a total drench. It came down in buckets! I could see that it was coming and had decided to ride through it without
Yuma, KS
Yep this is all there is. I found this 'town' earlier in the year using my Map Source software, but its not a Garmin problem, it shows up on several maps. I rode by it a few times before I realized I was actually there. LOL rain gear on. After all I had been soaking my clothes the last few days anyway. I was not prepared for the buckets that just poured. Traffic went from 70 to 20 in no time. Like a fool I pulled over to a gas station. I should have kept going as I found later it was a very narrow band of rain, but it tied me up at the gas station for 30 minutes as I waited for it to calm down. I put on my new rain suit to wear it for the first time, filled my tank with gas and hunkered down for a nice ride on wet sloshy roads.
I really wanted to make it close to ‘The Tail' before I quit for the day. So this meant I was now driving through the Blue Ridge Mountains in the dark. By the end of the day I was wearing 2 coats because it was so cool riding. Feast or Famine seems like. The good news is I saw the sunset as I was driving along. It was the most beautiful purple sunset, I stopped for a picture. When I downloaded the pic on the laptop, it
NC Sunset
As the day came to an end the sun managed this beautiful sunset to bid me ado for the day. had the same color to it. Good luck to those that view it later, I hope your monitor shows the right colors.
I stayed the night in Bryson City, NC at the Scenic View Motel. $45 for the night. No phone, no clock radio, bare bones, but very clean and tidy. It was run by a nice couple. The guy offered me the use of a motorcycle cover for my bike, how many motels provide that kind of care and attention to their customers? The office was their living room. But it wasn’t like you were in their living quarters, more like in a very confortable lobby. Really neat set up. There were 10 rooms at the motel.
The First Journal in this Series is:
06 Far East Ride - Day 1 - MO The Route Map for the trip is located in the last Journal:
06 Far East Ride - Day 17 - HOME
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