Day 4

Tuesday Oct. 5th, 2004 Holly Springs, Miss to Clarenton, Arkansas

As Kevin would say---"my bike is a work in progress". Kevin was constantly diddling with this and that on his bike--he has made so many personal modifications to his bike---it is a long list. Most things were fabricated by himself.

The helmet cam monitor mount was definitely a work in progress----as Kevin didn't have his shop, welder, and fabrications tools with him. This stuff came from K-Mart, Wal-Mart, Toys are Us, Big Lots and the local hardware store during the ride. I see bungie cords, wire tires, tape, and more tape. I'm sure since he got home he has perfected a carbon fiber mount that is a work of art. Me and him both ran Garmin 276C GPS's.
A ride thru the backroads of Northern Mississippi will take you thru field after field of cotton. We came upon a cotton plant that bailed the cotton up for shipping. These were the biggest bails I had ever seen.

John Simmons---now here's one tough rider--look at the dust on his jacket.

John is so much fun to have around--he has one tale after another of his travels to Mexico and Germany.

"Hey Mark"---know what the German word for a woman's brazeer is ?? " I took German in High School but couldn't remember.

Answer: DasHolzumFrumFloppin
We stopped in a very small town for gas and these 3 nice guys were really eyeballing us. I'm sure they never seen a bunch of hoodlums like us come thru their little town. I love talking to the locals and went over for a chat. We yammered back and forth for quite a while having a good time, smiling, pointing and waving---but I must confess it was kind of like when I was in Mexico this year---I couldn't understand a word they said !!!!
Now this is adventure traveling-----I've always dreamed of building a bridge to get thru---it wasn't our style to turn around and we never did. After about 10 minutes of work building ramps on a off of this old washed out bridge we were down the trail--no big deal. The roads in this area and a lot of Mississippi would be impassable for us had it been wet---so I told them to quit whinin' about the dust :)
The cotton was ready for pickin' it looked like to me. These fields of cotton were a beautiful sight.

Well -----can you see "The Tic"

He has a habit of popping up in the most unexpected places in our travels.

Kudzu

Topping this hill and viewing the green Kudzu was the most beautiful sight for me on the whole trip. I guess people hate this stuff as it grows wild everywhere and just overwhelms all other living plants--and has become a real problem.

Kudzu Valley

I stopped at this point and just stared at this beautiful sight for at least 10 minutes. The guys had to come back looking for me as they wondered what happened to me.

If I just awoke here and was asked where I was, I don't have any idea where I would of said I was.

More Kudzu

Kevin came back and enjoyed the view with me.

Levee riding near Askew, Mississippi

I love riding the levees as the view is always so beautiful. There is usually no one on them and the fields are a magnificent sight.

Rodney is crankin' up the "Biggest Dog"

Guthrie Store

I wish I could remember where this old store was.

This store was open for business by a very old lady who didn't want her picture taken. This store was in it's entire original as built and furnished condition. I could have spent an hour just pokin' around inside and outside the store. There were a couple of other even older buildings across the street which looked like they were abandoned 30 or 40 years ago. I asked for some Gatorade--she said she never heard of it :)

Population----One

 

We ended up in Clarenton Arkansas for the night after riding 215 miles of backroads. We were all wishing we left those sleeping bags and tents at home again !!!

Day 5 A tire replacement and what seemed to be "the end of the trail for us".

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