Sunny start, BBQ by the side of the road, bird dogs, crossroads and a thunderstorm

Our experience is that there is no such thing as a bad bike trip.  What’s not to like about days on the road with your buddies, eating bad food, seeing new places and riding wonderful roads?  Good stuff.  That said, some bike trips start out better than others.

There is something very special about loading up our bikes, hopping on the saddle, firing up the engine and riding out of town with the Nashville skyline growing smaller in the rear view mirror.  Compare that to loading up our bikes, watching them leave Nashville in the back of tractor-trailer truck and then enduring mindless airport security and indifferent airline personnel in hopes that our bikes are there and in good order when we arrive.

Biking Bad 2014 had a perfect start.  We met at Bill’s house this morning at 10:00, our bikes clean and loaded down with gear.  The weather was clear and sunny.

Jim and Bill readying for departure

We headed out in usual fashion - the directionally-challenged Bill in the lead, Bo riding in the middle position and Jim dawdling somewhere in the back.  I can belittle them because I am writing this and they are not.

The destination for Day 1 was Clarksdale, Mississippi, home of the Blues.  Our original plan was to ride I-40 to Memphis and then take Highway 61 into Clarksdale.

We stopped near Jackson, Tennessee, for a short pit stop.  A trucker walked up to admire Jim's bike and said the BBQ shack across the street was some of the best he had had.  He said he also used to ride but that his ex-wife sold his Harley while he was out of town working.  A truly sad story.

We crossed the street and found some truly excellent barbeque.

Exit 87 BBQ is some good stuff

Once off the mind-numbing interstate for a few minutes we decided we did not want to get back on it.  So we remapped our route and headed down the back roads toward Mississippi.

Outside of Bolivar, Tennessee, we found ourselves on the National Bird Dog Highway.  We probably should have stopped at the National Bird Dog Museum we passed on the way.

Jim, always working, even on the road.

We crossed into Mississippi, rode around Holly Springs and through Oxford.  Oxford was a surprisingly vibrant place.  The town square was hopping. 

As we approached Clarksdale, the delta skies grew darker and darker and lightning flashed ahead of us.  Once in Clarksdale we crossed the Crossroads and ducked into the first motel we found, just seconds ahead of a major rain storm.

It rained hard for a very long time.  Safe in our rooms and tired from a 300 plus mile first day ride, we decided not to tackle the storm and stayed in for the evening.  The blues clubs would have to be blue without us.  A local cabbie picked up dinner for us and delivered it to our rooms.  Life is good on the road.

Day 2 takes us to the Vicksburg National Military Park and then to Natchez.