The sun finally arrived.

So – finally made it to a campsite in the daylight. 

Sunday

We left at 7:00 AM and headed towards Atlanta. As usual there was a feeling of trepidation as you are heading into the unknown. How is this going to work out? Lots of miles to ride the first day and the rain was already coming down. Did I have everything I needed? Would the gear last one more trip? How would the 1986 Goldwing make it?  There was only one thing to do – ride.

The biggest problem with the weather on Sunday was not the rain, but the spray.  Cars and 18 wheelers throw a lot of spray up. It coats the windshield and makes seeing a challenge. Press on and hope that the sun comes out.

As we approached Atlanta you could tell the intensity of the traffic increase. We rode right through downtown and even on a Sunday you really got the sense that everyone was in a hurry to go someplace and they needed your lane to get there. Anyone who has driven downtown Atlanta knows you have to change lanes quickly as the highways splits and merge in rapid fashion. We made it and soon had Birmingham in our sites.

The spray kept coming.

Past Birmingham and Mississippi came into view on the GPS. We were going to camp just over the Mississippi line so we settled into “Iron Butt” mode and pressed on.  We turn of the highway, bought some beer and headed to the camp ground.

There is only one word that can describe the camp ground we stay at – Mud. With fully loaded Wings this made the sort ride to the camp site a challenge, and when we had to go down a hill we turn around and asked for another site.  Not the best site we have stayed at, but we were off the bikes and drinking a cold one. Normally you cannot drink until the tent is up, but after 566 miles in the rain we broke our rule. I do not think the first one touched the side of my throat. 

We were in our tents by 9:00 – asleep by 9:15.

Monday

Rain again!

We packed everything up (wet), got gas and headed onto the highway towards Jackson. After about 50 miles of spray we changed direction and rode the back roads – and were they good.  The traffic was much lighter and the surface was perfect. It is always interesting to me how a supposedly poor state has some of the best roads around. 

We arrived in Natchez on fumes. I normally stop for gas around 200 miles. 220 miles on the clock and not a gas station in sight. Eventually I put 5.2 gallons in which means I had about 0.8 of a gallon left. That translates into about 32 miles so I actually had more than I thought and also that the wing is getting very good mileage. 

Just because we could we rode over the Mississippi river in to Louisiana. Always fun to say ‘we crossed the Mississippi” and then turn around and rode back into Mississippi. A stop at the welcome center, market for food, and then pulled onto the Natchez State Parkway.  The day ended with another 249 miles on the bike.

Oh, and the sun came out as we saw the welcome to Natchez sign.

More tomorrow.