I’ll never get a chance to thank everybody in Demopolis that helped out. I know there’s good and bad in every town, but somehow I only met good people there. In the morning, a mechanic dropped by, tested a few wires and it fired up. I test drove it to town, where even the station attendants at the gas station had seen the sidecar and gave me their email addresses. I wish I could stay but the folks I met understood I was on a budget and had to leave without saying goodbye to everyone.
So here is a picture of the tow truck, sidecar, and electric bike in Demopolis this morning. I hope, of course, that such photos are rare, but I could not have broken down in a more hospitable place. Later, in Mississippi, the same electric problem occurred and I learned there are two wires that need to be pinched together—but I would not even have known where to look without the help I got in Demopolis.Again, it was the scenic route (I-80) but the road peters out at the Mississippi border. The scenery is still forest and rolling hills, my favorite type of travel. I’m still learning the sidecar and I have some more information for non-riders. A seven hour drive with breaks that take total time to nine hours is a good day’s run, keep it at 55. The operation is more demanding but also far more gratifying than the same time in a car. But on the sidecar, this limits daily travel to less than 400 miles, so I’ll be late getting to Colorado.
Mississippi is okay, but like Montgomery, I never saw Jackson because there were no signs to say where interesting sites were located. From the freeway, there is no visible downtown and taking exits randomly to find anything is too time-consuming. Here is another situation where GPS would be handy, but not that helpful, unless you want directions to the most expensive places. GPS has that. Today, I took the free tour of the battlefield at Vicksburg, see below.
Lots of signs were on the freeway at Vicksburg, so please don’t say it can’t be done. I turned off and drove the 16 mile tour. Lots of people do it, but not in a sidecar. Two pretty gals waved at me, but one had a kid, the other was smoking a cigarette. Hey, I’m just looking, not looking for trouble. I’ll be taking side roads again once I get to Texarkana, because I know all about country side roads after that point. It turns out the afternoons and into dusk are better travel than the early mornings, I’m tending to start more like ten in the mornings, after rush hour.
My [overnight] stop today was in a Louisiana town I never heard of until I saw the road sign, “Monroe”. People who say the frog population is declining have not driven a motorcycle through northern Louisiana in the twilight. At first I thought my brakes were squealing. I’ve hit the most boring part of the trip so far, the wooded prairie land of Louisiana. It flattens right out after you cross the big river.
As with most times I travel, too much happens in a day to report, so you get only the highlights. Here’s a road sign on I-80 that had to be included. “Birthplace of America’s Music”. I suspect a great deal of it might have passed away there, too. I took I-20 soon after to make up for lost time. I was passed by no less than 77 trucks, a reminder of why I don’t like the Interstates. There were open stretches where I was the only vehicle on the road, so traffic bunches up around these truck convoys. I barely passed the halfway mark [to Colorado] late this afternoon. And I have yet to hit the long open stretches of the prairies. Although I drove across it at night in 2003 on the toothpick trip to California, this is the first time I’ve stayed in Louisiana in slightly over 29 years. That’s back when RofR was in law school and I went to work.
Such great plans we had, but RofR had one incredible advantage he never knew. He met adults who gave him good advice, mostly via his job with the electric company, which paid him enough to act on that advice. (On the other hand, my father would come up with gems like, “Barbers make good money.” Oh, was Bill Gates a barber?) Stay tuned, as I’m approaching memory lane in this particular journey, and I’m still learning the ropes of sidecar travel. This trip is, for me, forty years delayed.
ADDENDUM
Here’s some comments on solo travel. Things have changed, mostly not for the better. Even compared to ten years ago, most economical roadside conveniences have disappeared. Even the byroads are not brimming with mom & pop cafés that feed you full, now it is chains and donut shops. Make mine a double franchise-burger with fries, to go.
I tend not to stop unless it is free. This does not mean free only, as I went to St. Augustine knowing it would cost. But that’s not the same as just stopping to see. Here are some cannons on display at Vicksburg battlefield mentioned already. One funny thing, you see miles of cairns to Ohio, Illinois (especially Illinois), and Michigan soldiers from thousands of miles away, but very few Confederate commemoratives. I know it was a big battle, but where were all the good guys?I understand the money pressure, but travel in America has always been expensive. It’s what you get that is worse for the change. I understand the smallest motel rooms are still far too big for the needs of the single traveler, but the lowest prices are still based on double occupancy. (Double occupancy has always been a scam as far as I’m concerned. Singles cruise packages are priced that say, duh.)
It’s the service that has deteriorated where it need not. I can understand Motel 6 only putting enough towels for one person, but the room I got in Monroe had no microwave and no little fridge. But it had a TV with a remote control. I’m dismayed. It means the average traveler would rather watch soap opera than make a cup of tea. And you know, when majority rules, every meal is pizza. And the cheap bahstahds want $2.99 per night extra to use their Internet.
Now, when there is no fridge, could we have ice? No. Both ice machines in the lobby were out of order. They should lower the room rates when they pull that stunt. Still, I chose Motel 6 ($43.00) because they have quiet locations when you are using the freeway. I’ve said already that motorcycle driving is more strenuous, and now I’ll have to spend longer hours and an extra day on the road. This makes for little aches and pains because I’m not used to it yet. Think of it as shallow muscle exercise, which even weight lifters tend to leave out. I took aspirin, when I do that, I’m sore all over.
As ever, huge stretches of the Interstates are under constant repair. I was lucky, I broke down on a side road. But there are no decent routes through either Mississippi or Louisiana at this latitude. Check it yourself, it’s I-20 or not much. Even the roadmap I’m now consulting has shows no “red” lines (secondary roads), which is an accurate assessment from what I could see looking over the fences. After my test run to Okeechobee, I refuse to take the Honda on a dirt road without a reason.
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