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The Return to Our Roots - Bike Week-End 6 |
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Volume 2, Number 1 May 2001 =============
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by Larry Fitch Another early morning and miles to go before I sleep. This is sort of the mantra of the LDR, and I kept repeating it to myself over and over as I made final preparations and pulled out of my garage. Next stop McComb, Mississippi. Actually it is the final stop. I have 800 miles to ride before I get there, so there will be a few gas stops along the way. I don't have anything glamorous planned for today. My whole trip to McComb will be on the super slab. Ride 200 or so miles, gas up, repeat. I am figuring it will take me around 11 hours to ride the distance, and at 4:15 AM I am accelerating up the on ramp and settle in for the ride. 14 hours later and I am rolling into Shane and Karen Smith's driveway. Construction delays and Friday afternoon cagers looking to get away for the weekend helped to slow my rate of progress. Still, I have arrived in one piece and none the worse for wear. Karen is there at the registration tent of course, and she has a big hug for the two folks on the Goldwing who pulled in just ahead of me. I give another lady there my name and she sets off to check me off her list. Karen comes and gives me a hug as well, even though with my helmet on she tells me that she does not really know who I am. This is so typical of just how over-the-top nice she and her husband Shane actually are. I am handed my packet, which contains this year's collectors item Boil T-shirt, and I start down the rutted dirt path that leads to their house. It is about 5:30 in the evening, but the front lawn of the Smith's house is already full of tents and camper trailers, not to mention motorcycles. I roll down the path and through the gate, looking left and right for a place to park.
In front of me I spot Steve and Terry, and Steve waves me over to a location next to their bikes. Finally! I shut off the engine and peel off the helmet, tired, but happy to be here. This 800 miles is the longest trip that I have taken solo, and I am very pleased with myself and my machine for having been able to complete the task. I find Terry and Steve and get the good news that I have not missed the chili. There are quite a few people here already, and it is not long at all before I spy Larry Buck and Gary Norton, two fellow COG (Concours Owner's Group) types and also two fellow Floridians. I have been bumping into them on regular occasions at these LDR events. Two great guys for sure.
Well, they are grinning ear to ear as they come to see me. Seems that their arrival here at the ranch also happened to be the completion of a Butt Burner Gold. For those of you who are amongst the uninitiated, that means 1500 miles in 24 hours or less! I, for one, was impressed. Now I might have to go and do one just so I don't let them show me up. Again. The time finally arrives when the chili is ready and we pass in line to get a good ladling of hot, home cooked chili. After the long day I had in the saddle, this was good cooking. While we ate we made some new friends and heard some new stories. I was starting to remember why I had so much fun last year. A few more stories and I started to wind down. I said my goodbyes and headed to the hotel for a shower and a few cold ones. Steve and Terry followed me back and we sat around for awhile, while I listened to the two of them tell me about their two day trip to get here. It sounds like they had a really good ride, except for a nightmare night in a hotel in Alabama. Steve informed Terry and I that he had made arrangements for us to meet up with someone in the morning who would show us the back roads to Natchez, and then on to the Natchez Trace. The Trace was a road I had wanted to ride last year, but bad weather had kind of ruled that out. We agreed to meet for breakfast and then head out to meet Steve's new friend, Skeet. Natchez and the Trace The next morning the weather was clear and cool, perfect for riding. After breakfast, we headed out of McComb and met up with Skeet, who was waiting for us on his excellent Sportster. We told him quickly what we wanted to do and he set off down the road with us in hot pursuit. Skeet took us through some excellent backcountry roads, with nice turns and good pavement. Before I knew it we arrived in downtown Natchez.
We parked the bikes and headed toward our current goal, the Mississippi River. As we walked along, we passed many historic buildings that were currently under repair and renovation. It looks as though Natchez is going through a bit of a rebirth, and the downtown is once again starting to flourish. We arrived at the bank, or should I say the bluff of the Mississippi River. At this point the river is fairly wide and this day the current was really moving along. We headed down to a place called Under The Hill.
This area of Natchez, said to be the oldest settlement on the Mississippi River, is still home to some of the original buildings. We stopped in at the Under The Hill Saloon for something cold to drink. The sun was pretty high in the sky at this point and the humidity was rising with the temperature. After our break we made our way back to the bikes and headed out of Natchez. Next stop, the Trace. Natchez Trace Parkway The Natchez Trace Parkway was established May 18, 1938 and originally follows an historic Indian trace, or trail, between Nashville, Tennessee and Natchez, Mississippi. Of the 444 miles of Parkway, 423 are completed. The Parkway preserves significant historical sites such as Emerald Mound, the second largest ceremonial mound in the United States, plantation sites, pioneer stands/inns, archeological sites/villages, pioneer and slave cemeteries and an historic housing site, part of the resettlement program of Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal.
Today the "Old Trace" is paralleled by the modern Natchez Trace
Parkway, which is what we would be riding today. Before we were ready, our exit approached and we had to reluctantly leave the Trace. Another time, and I will be back to ride it's entire length. But for now, we had to double time it back to McComb so we could get cleaned up before we ate with our hands and made pigs of ourselves. The ride back was a bit more commercial than the ride up, but still far superior to the highway. Skeet had managed to take us round trip without getting us lost. That's more than we can say for ourselves sometimes. Bring on Da Crawfish We arrived back at the Smith house with plenty of time before dinner. The crowd was already growing, and the number of motorcycles was increasing at a rapid rate. It was a regular who's who of LDR riders and more than one person asked about Bruce Barge.
We managed to find a spot on flat ground, and dropped our kickstands on the small wooden biscuits that Shane had scattered all over his yard. This guy thinks of everything. There was plenty of activity going on at the various cooking stations, and there was no doubt that some good cooking was coming our way. We bought our 50/50 tickets (which I won last year), and Steve and I set out on a shameless self promotion tour while Terry took some great photos around the ranch. Steve and I had made up some flyers about the eZine and we set off to harass the various campers and tell them about Rollin'. We were pleased to hear from a lot of folks that they already knew about us and some were even subscribers. Anyway, as Steve and I were involved in this PR, it came to our attention that the boys from the sacred channel, Speed Vision, had just arrived. None other than Dave Despain himself was in attendance. Apparently word of Shane and Karen's legendary hospitality had reached his ears and he was here with a camera crew to find out more about he LDR folks. I saw this as a golden opportunity to promote Rollin' by trying to get a chance to talk with him about it. I found Carol "Skert" Youroski, and asked her if she would introduce me, since she is an acquaintance of Dave's. "No Problem, come on," was Skert's reply as she took my hand and introduced me to Dave. "Dave, you need to talk to this guy. He has a really cool motorcycle magazine on the internet." With that, I shook Dave's hand and gave him a quick run down on Rollin'. I guess he liked what he heard because later that evening I would end up with an on camera interview with him. If I don't end up on the cutting room floor, Rollin' may make an appearance on an upcoming episode of Bike Week on Speedvision.
Finally the time arrived and the hungry masses lined up in two groups. Some went after the Seafood Gumbo and BBQ first, while others, myself included, lined up for a heaping plate of fried catfish and coleslaw. The catfish was a new item this year and Shane had arranged for them because of fears of another poor crawfish haul this year. The catfish were fantastic. They were thin and had an incredible cornmeal coating. I could have eaten nothing but them and been happy. But, I was here to sample food, so after polishing off a plate of fish, I got in line and loaded my plate with hot Gumbo and great BBQ. Once again I ate more than I should have. By the time the mudbugs finally arrived, hot and fresh, I had no room left. That did not stop Steve though, and he bellied up to the bar and polished off quite a few of those critters. As the crowds around the tables started to thin, Shane took to the microphone and thanked all the folks for showing up again this year. Then it was time for the 50/50 drawing, with celebrity number caller Dave Despain. Nope, I didn't win again this year. Oh, well. The crowd started to break up and I decided to head back to the hotel myself. Terry and Steve would be taking the next two days to get home, but I had a return 800 mile trip and that 4:00 AM wakeup call loomed in front of me.
But before I left, I made it a point to find an exhausted Shane and Karen, stealing away a quiet moment, and thanked them for their generosity. I meet a lot of people in my line of work, and still more through this eZine, but these two folks are special, and I am happy to know them and call them friends. If they decide to do this boil again next year, the line to sign up will form behind me. I will be elbowing up to the front to sign up. |
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