A long day

We found a good state park just after dark. Not as great as last night but pretty nice.

At dinner in natchez some older women, in her 60's called our bikes rice burners. How irritating. I tried to be civil and just point out that some people have budgets.

Brad may have already mentioned that I got a work related message at 8 am this morning. That has got to be a record. Absolutely hilarious. Thanks andrew.

We are having a serious summit about what direction to head tomorrow. North of course, but by which path we haven't decided.

Sent by Tim Ganun from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

THE Mississippi!

We are looking at the mississippi from the Louisiana side. It is amazing. I am tired, hungry and filthy. Need food.
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Deans stand

Sitting down and making a but of lunch about 72 miles from natchez, ms. Had to just drive through our first but of construction the whole trip. I blew by a tractor trailer that was kicking rocks back on me and he proceeded to try and drive me off the road. Tim had had that he ran his rig over both sides of the road trying to catch up with me. Must not like northerners.
Gear is all good but the bike is getting really bad has mileage. Not sure the reason but its crappy.
I have had plenty of time to think today and the thing that keeps entering my mind is how different my life is on this trip compared to our trip last year around this time. Life can be a riot.

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Dr. Doolittle

Sometime in the middle of the night a truck drove by capsite and woke me up. I didn't think much of it as it was probably the ranger. A few minutes went by and I turned over to face away from the lake and I had my eyes open to see a shadow of a four legged animal stand up and start to walk away next to me tent. I say up quickly to see the outline of what looked to be some sort of dog shaking, like it just came in from the rain. Now Tim can verify this noise because right before I hollered "Ganun" to get him up to see this thing he heard it, but it was too far away from our tents and we didn't have a good enough light to see it.
Well, besides that and a couple bad dreams my night was great!!!
And wouldn't you know it, we got a work email first thing this morning.
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M - I - crooked letter crooked letter....you know...

We flew through Alabama and are now a bit into Mississippi. Riding the natchez trace is at least 10 times better than expected. We are camping on a lake in tombugbee national Forrest. I think that is what it is called. Better than last year in Alabama there are no posted warnings about gators. There are some rowdy fishy jumping nearby though.

A few thoughts on why I take a trip like this: a palette of green, brown, black landscape. Millions of trees, fields, dandelions, hills and rock formations. The grey pavement for miles with no stops, no semi's, very sparce traffic bleeding into perfect blue skies with pure white puffy clouds. My ipod pumping my favorite restroom poets, al green, foo, white stripes, prince and so on....add in some adrenaline from driving 65 on just a few inches of rubber on 2 tires and 80 degree weather allowing the comfort of short sleeves. And of course the company of my best friend of the last 18 or so years. All in all, life surely is good.

Told you the speechless state would pass.



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Road of dreams

Sitting down for dinner and a cup of coffee at our campsite 10 feet away from a lake I get a few minutes of quiet to type up the nightly blog entry.

Today was a dream on the parkway. The roads were smooth as anything I have ever rode on & there appeard to be more motorcycles on the road than cars. The parkway doesn't allow commercial vehicles and the speed limit is 50 the whole way so its a nice ride. The road is so wonderful that I can't believe they don't charge to drive down it.

This morning we we're in Nashville picking up supplies and now we sit next to a lake at a national forest south of tupelo, ms. I got nice and tan today because the weather was beautiful & we got to ride in T-shirts all day.

As glen Phillips says "I don't seen anything that I don't have."

Night all & enjoy going to work tomorrow.

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Speechless

Those of you who know me, you know this won't last long, but for right now I am speechless. More when this foreign situation wears off.
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Slow and easy

No hurry today. We have to wait until noon central for REI to open so it is a good time to sample the local food and folks. Everyone is in their Sunday best coming from church so we really stick out. But as usual everyone is really nice. We are in a very affluent area. Million dollar homes and the biggest high school I have ever seen. Some homes have 'names'. How big does your house have to be to name it? Is there some other special requirement? I don't care, I am naming my next house. Actually we did name my parents house back in the day. "Casa de Swoot". We even had a sign. So that is taken. No graceland, neverland or monticello. I have to come up with something else.

80 degrees and sunny. A great day.

Sent by Tim Ganun from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Corrections & other stuff

Not that it doesn't say it at the end of our posts but I just wanted to remind everyone that Tim and I are doing this via our blackberry's and that things will be spelled wrong drom time to time. Like Tim's name gets spit out as yum sometimes. At least its funny.

Oh, we got an hour at some point so that will throw is off a little. Also, I seem to have lost a part of my windshield on the trip down. Not sure if anyone remembers but I lost a piece of my windshield last year in Alabama. Bad luck.

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Riding through the hills of Tennessee

After parking the car we set off to the campsite which may or may not have been open. Following yum through the twisty hills of northern Tennessee and chasing a freight train I had some time to reflect on the recent comings and goings in my life.

I have had it pretty good lately
becaue of old and new friends in my life always happy to be thre for me and always willing to lend me a hand I times of need. I have really been blessed to be surounded with such wonderful people.

The drive was long and the ride tonight was short but we have set up camp for the night and are heating up some water for got chocolate. Tim is bugging me to eat a fruit cup but I am still full from the to-go crackle barrel we got a few hours ago. The weather is nice and we shouldn't have a day under 80 this week.

I have all the things I could ever want and need in life & more.

I will sleep well tonight & I am looking forward to the morning ride.

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The hard part is over.

We safely have arrived in Nashville. We got here much later than expected. Luckily the parking location was perfect and state parks let you roll in late and pay the ranger in the morning. I told brad that I think trailering the bikes feels more dangerous than actually riding them. So dumping the car is a relief. Tomorrow we will have to grab some supplies, attempt a minor repair and have a perfect start to the day.

Having some tea for me, hot chocolate for brad and cigars all around to celebrate the successful first day.

Not only is geeky technology allowing me to post this from a picnic table in a state park outside of Nashville, it also quickly provided a picture of Ben and Nicholes new baby boy! What great news! Congrats to the new parents.

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When does something really start?

Sometimes things seem to move so fast. That I forget where and when it started. Pulling out of my driveway this morning at 10:45 I wondered if this trip is going to be exactly what I had planned. Maybe nothing ever really is. Luckily the one thing that remains constant is the knowledge that life is beautiful. Today my precious daughter cooked french toast for Lucas, Brad and I. Simple things and big smiles.

We are off. We have some trailer repair to do before we hit Ohio. The adventure begins.
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Last before the trip

Heading out tomorrow & want to make sure the mobile blogger works.

Look for nightly updates from us. Sorry, no pictures until we get back.
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Keep in mind

It looks short but these are all rural roads. The time Tim and I took US12 (Michigan Ave.) back from Chicago it took a looooooong time.

New Tank & New Bags

gone and not forgotten

Drove up to the auto parts store in Adrian this morning and picked up a hose that I needed for my bike. I might have spent more in gas to get there and back then the part costs. I got back to the house and got on with it. I let the bike run for a few after installing this hose and it was idling really high. It appears that part of the carb is sticking right above the idle screw. This should not happen after all the work I had done but I pressed on.
I had stopped by my moms on the way back and grabbed my leather jacket and I threw it, my new boots and my cold weather gloves on and set off on a short bike ride. It's been a long time since I have ridden but it was a great feeling. I stopped by and gassed it up and set off down Mathews Hwy which is nice and straight but slightly hilly. One thing I needed to check was the issue I was having last year was that it cutting out at high speed and the only way to check this was to travel at a high rate of speed. This was achieved on Mathews Hwy and it wasn't really safe but it needed to happen. What a way to test your craftsmanship.
The bike needs to go in the shop before the trip but it's going to be hard to get it there.

Missing part

Can't find something on that picture. Don't people usually have parts left over when they put things back together again? What a mess... Can anyone tell what that all is?

It's Alive

Put the bike back together last night, filled it with gas and it fired almost right up. I think it's running a little rough but it might be the weather. I didn't let it warm up too much. To say that I was happy is a bit of an understatement. I took some pictures but forgot my camera. Will post a couple soon.

BOOTS

They were waiting for me after my long ass day at work yesterday. They are nice and a lot lighter than I would have ever thought. Very happy. Can't wait to ride.

Trip change

Have the week of April 23rd off work and will be taking the bike trip down the Natchez.

Spent the night working on the bike and got a little bit done. I was running into a bit of trouble with a bolt and I was feeling kind of sleep deprived to I decided to wash up and hit the sack. Have to sort it out Wednesday after work because I won't be home til later tonight.

I'll have to take some pictures.