Just got back from a week ride 3042 flower sniffing miles. ( well except for day 8 LOL)
Day 1 home to clarksdale MS. 465 miles
Day 2 clarksdale MS. to Alexandria LA. 400 miles.
Day 3 visited with son who is stationed at ft Polk 0 miles
Day 4 Alexandria LA. to clute TX. 327 miles
Day 5 Clute TX. to pleasanton TX. 253 miles
Day 6 PLeasanton TX. back to Pleasanton TX. (hill country 3 twisted sisters ride) 416 miles.
Day 7 Pleasanton TX. to Ennis TX. 369 miles.
Day 8 Ennis TX. to home 812 miles.
I am not much of A writer as my grammar and punctuation suffers from not paying attention in class.
Here goes
Day 1 rode to Clarksdale Ms. famous for the blues. Home of pine top Perkins and the legendary CROSSROADS hwy 61 and 49 mentioned in many blues songs. We stared out the trip with a stop at the local dealer after my wife's headset cord took a fall under the bike 20 miles and already A PROBLEM! after convincing the parts guy to sell me a cord out of a headset kit and ordering one to replace it with later we were on our way. A few miles later we started seeing dead cattle beside the interstate WTF! Later we found the overturned Bull rack (TRUCKER SLANG FOR CATTLE TRUCK) Man those steers can travel when scared,they were as far as 10 miles away from the truck.
upon arrival at Clarksdale MS.
We ate at ground zero blues club owned by Morgan freeman.
The catfish my wife had was probably the best I have ever had and she said the same. OK back up a little when we arrived she looked at me and said....we rode 500 miles for this!!!! IT,S A DUMP!! After we ate she felt better even thought she never did feel safe about being in THE neighborhood! The BBQ was excellent also and I have to say I have never liked coleslaw but this was the best I have ever tasted.
DAY 2
Clarksdale to Alexandria VIA the river road, rt 1 and hwy 61 not much on rt 1 to see really and if I was to go again I would skip this rt. We rode a little of the Natchez trace (very pretty but slow LOL) From Natchez we rode hwy 84 and 28 into Alexandria LA. Nice roads!! I was challenged by a truck load (cab and bed) of coon asses in a jacked up beat up muddy-ed up Chevy short bed. Even with the bunk house behind me they were no challenge LOL. Relatives???? Dennis????.LOL
DAY 3 was spent visiting THE HERO as my wife calls him. We ate some great Cajun food . I tried jambalaya fettuccine
Fantastic! also had craw fish (fried) sea food bisk
(swamp daddy's in Alexandria) I didn't know crawdads grew as big as lobsters WOW!
Day 4
Alexandria LA. TO Clute TX.
We rode hwy 28 to leesville (ft Polk) down hwy 171 to hwy 12 into TX. Then took hwy 87 down the east coast of TX. We went thru port Arthur the road was closed south of port Arthur do to hurricane Ike. After come back tracking we continued to port bolivar. Then crossed to Galveston via the ferry (very cool). We continued down the coast. I couldn't believe the destruction! I have heard stories but words can not describe the mass destruction! There are still semi loads of debris leaving one right after another unbelievable! Somewhere after the toll bridge across the bay at Jamaica bay the road went to he** with detours to the beach and back to the hard road! This wasent to bad in small doses BUT.... it then came to the point of having to ride the beach for miles! There were signs all along the way that said road closed to thru traffic travel at your own risk. I took this as keep going. My wife took it as turn around stupid! Well I wasent riding Bit*h I was the one in control so on we went. Then the above mentioned beach ride that turned bad after about a 1/4 mile. AT FIRST IT WAS PACKED AND NOT TO BAD ! Then came the drifts that were two feet high. Don't forget I am still pulling the bunkhouse camper (500 lbs.)
The request from my wife to let her off became a necessity at the point of bogging down and having to throw sand roaster tails to keep moving!
After turning around and heading back I was able to get back to the hard road (still dont know how I did it with out dropping my bike. Then while waiting for my crying wife to reach the hard road..... Along came a pickup and I turned on my lights so he wouldnt run over me, he thought I was a police officer and pulled up very slow! After talking to him I learned that everyone had been driving on the wet part of the beach for a couple of weeks because a storm had blown big drifts onto outlined sand road. DUH! He informed me that I could stay on the hard road and just go around the road blocks and make it to Freeport. I said to my crying wife see I told you I could have stayed on the hard road. To this she said something like I told you you should have turned around way back there!!I cant spell or repeat some of the words she added to that statement. We made it to freeport on the hard road. At this point my wife wasn't speaking so I didn't know that she really didn't want to continue on this trek from he**! LOL. At clute we checked into a motel and headed to the Mexican restaurant next door. As we entered the hostess said they were closed. My wife is Hispanic so after some Spanish discussion she said we could order and took us in.I still wonder what was said because they looked at me like I had beat her or something. (OK MAYBE i DREAMED THAT)The waitress asked us what we wanted to drink and I said a.... Margaretta. my wife said after what I have been through me too. The waitress said we dont have a liquor license but would you like a complementary one? I said sure even better! she gave us two free and one in a Styrofoam 24 oz cup to go
(she got a big tip!!!)
Day 5
Clute TX. to Pleasanton TX. (south of San Antonio)
Visited my wife's family and ate REAL Mexican food!
DAY 6
Pleasaton Tx. to Hill country
What a great ride you would never know you were in Texas! It reminds me of Arizona except diff. colored rocks. We did the thee sisters ride or sometimes called the twisted sister ride. Texas farm roads 336 337 335. Also road 16 127 187 39 41 89 90 173.
We got hit in the helmet with rocks that would have knocked us out if not wearing them! Also got flogged by a vulture that was protecting his roadkill deer. I could have grabbed him he was so close. I just thought hold on dont swerve and is he going to knock me off this bike! WOW they are big! WE stopped at Rio Frio motorcycle stop also home of the bent rim grill out side Leakey TX. very neat place with good food and great people!
Day 7
Pleasaton TX to Ennis TX.
Traveled 97 to 87 to 123 to 80 into lulling TX. for some of the best BBQ I have ever had at a place called city market. Then on across 90 to 77 up to 21 and into Bryan TX. to visit my wife's sister for a hour (just not enough time in a week for everything). from there over to interstate 45 up to Ennis TX. Ate at Bubba's BBQ. (great rib eyes.)
DAY 8
Ennis TX. to home
Rt 34 to interstate 30 then 40 ,55, and 57 home.
At Matthews Mo after running 75-85 mph up interstate 55 I stopped for gas and a guy in a Lexus SUV pulled in. He had been following me after I passed him. He comes over and says what have you done to that motor I have 2 Harley's and no way they could pull that camper like that! After some talk about motors cams and tuning he said I got to do some work on mine. 15 hours and 812 miles we were home.
It was in the 30's when we left and also when we returned.
I rode the last day hard to avoid the storm that was reported coming in. we stayed behind and ahead of them all week
I know all I posted was about roads and food!!! But what else is there! That is what we do.... see the sights and eat good LOL
I will post some pics after I get them downloaded if anyone is interested.
The Dayton twin scan tuned map got me 26-31 mpg with the bunkhouse and 43 mpg two up without it. I made a few changes along the way to my map. I ended up turning the cruising area to closed looped with the clb tables maxed out. The areas were tuned to 13.4 AFR so this should have made them 14.4 AFR In closed loop.
The 107 kit and Big Boyz heads or 106 as S&S calls it was waiting for me when I got home. So I will start all over again on the tune after I install it !
Linear Mode
