+ Week Rocket Science and other Riding Tales

[Madmx]

Then I rode to the visitor center and got my pass. It was a pretty good deal as it was FREE and will get me into any National Park as well as as free parking at National Forest sites.

There were some walking trails around the visitor center so I checked one of them out but I'll have to come back sometime to walk them all.

Cypress!

 

[klaviator]

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that 65 degrees and sunny = go for a ride. I headed over to the Wheeler Wildlife refuge where many closed gates recently reopened allowing me to ride some trails that had closed in mid October.

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We've had some rain recently. This is normally dry.

More seasonal swampland.

 

[klaviator]

I rode another trail that just re-opened.

The sun was getting low and I like the reflection on the flooded field.

 

[klaviator]

With sunset approaching I headed for the trail along the Tennessee River.

I took this next pic with my phone, the rest with my camera.

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[Soggy Biscuit]

The man with the great pics! Which perspective do you like most: the way the earth looks from thousands of feet above or seeing it while scootering around?

 

[klaviator]

It will be a different from my usual rides today.

 

[klaviator]

I have a much easier time motivating myself to go for a ride if I have a plan. Today I didn't even have to have much of a plan as someone else took care of that. There was a brunch ride posted on the Eclectic Riders FB page so all I had to do was make it to the starting point before KSU. In this case it was the Circle K in Harvest at 8:30. I normally ride right past this on my way to Taft or Ardmore so I didn't even have to do any planning to get there.

I was the first one there but others kept rolling in until we had 10 bikes total. I took a pic but you can't see all the bikes.

I was riding my ADV 150. the next smallest displacement bike was a Can Am Ryker 600. Everything else was well over 1000cc. I figured this wouldn't be a problem as these guys mostly stick to back roads.

We took off and it was nice to be following for a change. It made it much easier to take pics although with everything brown from the winter and the overcast skies I knew it wouldn't be a great day to take pics. I took some anyway.

There were 6 bikes ahead of me and 3 behind. The ones behind me weren't following close enough for good over the shoulder shots.

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[klaviator]

Our brunch stop was in Pulaski at a place I had never even heard of before.

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Good food and great company.

One of the guys there was getting ready to retire and planned on doing a long ride this summer. His plan is to ride route 66 to the west coast then up Highway one and then take a ferry to Alaska and ride to Prudhoe Bay on his Harley Ultra Classic.

 

[klaviator]

After lunch I rode with the group for a while.

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Yes these where a bunch of old guys on geezer bikes but they like to ride the same kind of back roads that I do. They run a slower pace than I normally would but fast enough that I wasn't bored. As a side benefit at the slower pace I was getting 93 MPG!

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[klaviator]

Mo pics on the go.

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[klaviator]

Eventually I peeled off to find a tag and set a new one. This particular tag often has hard to find tags. I had to use google earth to find the current tag which was somewhere on the Elk River between Fayetteville and Taft, Tn. As I took a very wandering route to the tag I stopped and took pics of potential new tags.

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[klaviator]

I finally found the tag.

It's an old abandoned building at the end of a non marked dirt road. I would never have found this if not for it being a tag. I took a few more pics of the area.

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[klaviator]

After grabbing the tag I wandered around some more looking for potential new tags.

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I've been down this road before but don't remember seeing this lake.

I picked a spot just down the road for the new tag.

And i took a couple more pics.

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After that I headed for home and ended up riding around 175 miles total.

 

[klaviator]

The man with the great pics! Which perspective do you like most: the way the earth looks from thousands of feet above or seeing it while scootering around?

No comparison. Riding beats flying by a wide margin. Flying was an interesting way to make a living but riding is and was my passion. As for the scenery, there is some nice scenery to be seen from the air but it's better from behind handlebars.

 

[klaviator]

I can't relax when I'm responsible for others, and I wouldn't want to be in that state of mind with so much on the line. Maybe that's part of why riding is more enjoyable for you. Only looking after yourself and your machine, without all the overhead required of a military pilot seems more enjoyable to me.

I have been interested in riding since I was young and wanted one of those lawnmower engine powered minibikes. Since buying my first bike over 40 years ago riding has been more than just a hobby or pastime. Riding is part of who I am and I can't imagine not riding. Flying on the other hand was something i stumbled into almost by accident. It was certainly a cool way to make a living and being a military pilot was great overall. I got to travel to over 30 countries and see a lot of cool stuff. There were times when I thought "I can't believe they are paying me to do this"! However, flying was never a passion like riding was. As for military flying, I enjoyed that more than the commercial flying I did. that was relatively boring except when the weather sucked. Then the flying was exciting but not in a good way.

As for scenery, I did enjoy the view looking down at the lights when flying at night. This was Memphis at night:

A typical view, lined up for a landing at Huntsville intl Airport.

The view I saw the most of.

 

[klaviator]

Plus it’s a little easier to pull over and smell the roses for a few minutes when riding.

Or go use the restroom

Of all the aircraft I flew only the C-130 had that facility.

 

[klaviator]

It was a little gloomy today and even sprinkled a little but it was over 60 degrees so it was hard to resist going for a ride. It wasn't time for sunset but I always like riding along the water so I headed to Wheeler. The timing was just right to catch this barge going by.

They graded these roads so they aren't any rougher than some of the paved roads around here.

This looked like a nice spot for a Pic.

Or maybe more than one pic.

 

[klaviator]

I have no idea what they are moving but the Tennessee River goes all the way to the Ohio River which dumps into the Mississippi, so that stuff could be going almost anywhere.

 

[klaviator]

I needed to go to Decatur today to pick up a part form Allsport powersports. Well, I didn't really need to go but it was a nice day so I used that as an excuse to ride. I figured that while I was at it I could grab a couple of tags.

First I grabbed the ADVr scooter tag.

Then I headed towards where I knew I could get the Southeast theme tag. On the way there i saw this and stopped to take a pic.

Then another good photo spot.

I'm pretty sure that's the same blue and white tug I took a pic of yesterday down the river.

I've take this pic before with other bikes but I just like the tree by itself by the water so....

Then it was just a short ride to grab the Southeast theme tag.

 

[klaviator]

Next up was an epic water crossing!

I survived the water crossing and went and got my part. Then I wandered around some looking for potential new tags. I used this as the new scooter tag.

Now for the southeast theme tag. Maybe a pink house?

or this?

How about a church steeple.....or two!