Hot and humid day on the BMW from Mississippi to Alabama

When the temperature and humidity are both the same - 94 - wearing vented motorcycle gear feels like I'm sitting in a convection oven. I guess that's to be expected when we're riding the BMW in the South in August.

Our day started in Natchez, Mississippi riding east on U.S. 84 on a 4-lane divided highway lined with thick stands of trees.

These weren't the usual forests we expect from our time spent living in Vermont; these are forests exploding with a variety of vines and trees growing thickly all over each other, competing for space and covering every spare surface with leafy green.

It's a Sunday morning, and there is almost no traffic on the highway, making us wonder why it's 4 lanes.  The miles sped by, and when we crossed into Alabama the road narrowed to 2 lanes.

We turned south on County 1 in Perdue Hill, and suddenly all of the side roads were a sandy red dirt, again lined with thick forests.

We left Natchez at 7am, and by noon we were starting to wonder if we were going to find a place to eat lunch because our route didn't go through any towns. We finally spotted the Stagecoach Cafe in Stockton, at the intersection of AL 59 and AL 225, and enjoyed the best lunch, if not the best meal, of our trip.

The Stagecoach features a Sunday buffet with fried chicken, corn, cabbage, green beans, potato salad, lima beans, rice and gravy, roast beef, Caesar salad, macaroni and cheese, and corn bread. The food was delicious, the service friendly and fast, and a lovely woman played old-time favorite tunes on the piano.

The entire meal was Southern home cooking at it's best, and then there were the desserts:  chocolate buttermilk pie, banana cream pie with meringue, and warm peach cobbler. We took a portion of each dessert and shared so that we could sample everything.

The waitstaff wore t-shirts with 'Stagecoach Cafe:  where macaroni and cheese is a vegetable' emblazoned on the back. When we left, the woman at the cash register encouraged us to come back, and if we're ever in Stockton, Alabama again we definitely will eat lunch at the Stagecoach Cafe.

Back on the road we continued on AL 225 to U.S. 98, and then onto the scenic U.S. 98 that took us away from the standard fast-food restaurants and shopping meccas that line the 4-lane highway as we got closer to the coast, to winding our way through residential streets lined, and sometimes covered overhead, with shade trees.

As soon as we checked into our hotel in Gulf Shores and unloaded the bike we headed straight for the beach:  white sand that squeaks when we walked on it, big waves that knocked us over, and finally respite from the heat and humidity while riding the motorcycle.

Tomorrow we plan to ride into two new states:  first Florida, then we turn north into Georgia. Today is the only day of our entire trip that we'll be at the ocean, and we took full advantage of the sand and sea.  Here is today's route

Rest day in Hot Springs Arkansas and then on to Mississippi

After five days and 1700+ miles on the motorcycle, we stayed an extra day in Hot Springs, Arkansas to enjoy the area:  the National Park, thermal baths, and vibrant downtown.

After settling into the Best Western, a clean hotel with a beautiful pool, very friendly staff, and great breakfast we went into downtown Hot Springs to walk around and find a place to eat dinner. We settled on the Grateful Head for pizza, sitting in a gorgeous green setting out back that made us forget we were in a busy downtown area.

We then worked our way down Central Avenue, the main street, enjoying the cooler evening and local beer.

The next day we stopped by the National Park visitor center, housed in one of the refurbished bath houses built in the early 1900's so that tourists could take advantage of the thermal hot springs. We walked along the Grand Promenade, tasted some of the thermal spring water at 140° in a water fountain, and gingerly stuck our fingers into hot water bubbling up out of the ground. The area was preserved in 1832 before the concept of national parks existed and officially became a national park in 1921.

Our next stop was the Quapaw Baths and Spa, where we tried out the various thermal spring water baths with temperatures ranging from 95° to 104 °.

Relaxed and rejuvenated after the thermal spring water bath, we enjoyed lunch at the oldest bar in Arkansas, the Ohio Club, that opened in 1905 and hosted celebrities including gangsters, Hollywood stars, and baseball players in town for Spring training. The food is great as well!

Ready to get back on the bike and continue our trip east, we left Hot Springs at 7:30 am hoping to beat the worst of the heat and humidity plus potential thunderstorms. Once again we used our Butler Motorcycle Map to help us choose a route, heading south on AR 128 to take advantage of the winding, curving 2-lane paved road shaded on both sides by trees.

We then let the Garmin choose the route to our hotel in Natchez, Mississippi on a variety of 2-lane, 4-lane, and divided 4-lane highways. We crossed into Louisiana, our 5th new state, at the aptly named Junction City, which straddles the state border and has two city governments, one for each state.

Today's trip took us along curving roads through forests and then into more open farmland. The elevation dropped to under 100' above sea level while the humidity continued to rise.

We turned east and crossed the Mississippi River from Vidalia, Louisiana into Natchez, Mississippi and checked off our 6th new state. 

We spent 7 hours traveling today and were lucky that the temperature never rose much above 90° and that the clouds never transitioned into thunderstorms. At the Roux 61 seafood and grill restaurant just up the road from our hotel in Natchez, we skipped the fried alligator appetizer and shrimp and alligator cheesecake. Mike enjoyed a blackened hamburger, I had the special fried catfish with crawfish étouffée, and both were absolutely amazing. 

Tomorrow we continue southeast to the Gulf coast in Alabama, and plan to walk on the white sand beaches, wade in the Gulf, and enjoy seafood before we continue our trip north.  Here is our route from Durant OK to Hot Springs

From flat prairies to the Ozarks

The past few days on our cross-country motorcycle trip we've been traveling through the flat plains, where we can see all the way to the horizon. Today we started from Durant, OK, continuing to head east on U.S. 70. Immediately everything was more green and saw trees instead of flat fields of crops or grassland. Soon the road started gently rolling uphill and downhill, gently swerving in big sweeps instead of heading laser straight in front of us.

We turned onto U.S. 271, and the distant hills that started off as dark blue smudges started coming into closer focus.

We planned our route today using the Butler motorcycle map for the Ozarks, looking for the roads highlighted in yellow, indicating they're the best motorcycle roads with lots of scenery, twists, turns, and very little traffic. We hit the jackpot today and we both did a little happy dance when we saw the sign warning about 13% grades and twisting turns. Our type of roads!

We rode OK 1/AR 88 on the Talimena Scenic Byway a 54 mile winding road that climbs and then descends on a ridge through old-growth forests in the Winding Stair Mountains, with distant views at pull-outs spaced out along both sides of the road.

We didn't see a car, pick-up truck, motorhome, or motorcycle for the first half of the drive. Mike enjoyed twisting his way around the curves at his own pace while I twisted in my seat looking at the mountains, black-eyed Susans growing along the road, and scouting out the next photo opportunity.

The road winds near the top of Rich Mountain, the second tallest peak in Arkansas at 2,681'. We live at a higher elevation, but since our day started at around 500' elevation, we thoroughly enjoyed the 2,000' climb.

We caught our breath with lunch in Mena, Arkansas, a town of around 5000 people where we had to wait for a few minutes for the inevitable train to cross the road, and then finished our day by riding east on AR 88 and then U.S. 270 east to Hot Springs.

Before we reached Hot Springs, the odometer turned over to 4,000 miles. We hit 3,000 miles in New Mexico, and so far this trip we've ridden 1700+ miles. Guess where we'll be when we reach 5,000 miles on the BMW!

We're taking a break tomorrow, planning on sleeping late, visiting one of the hot springs mineral baths, and exploring Hot Springs. We'll be back on the BMW Saturday, heading toward Natchez, Mississippi.  Here is the route from Durant-Hot Springs-Natchez

Buffalo, longhorn cattle and prairie dogs!

Except for our ride through the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge and some excitement watching jets land and take off at Altus Air Force Base, today's 304 mile ride from Childress, TX to Durant, OK was all about straight roads through prairie, ranches, and agricultural areas.

We headed north from Childress, quickly crossing into Oklahoma. We quickly saw several large jets in the sky, and soon discovered that they were taking off and landing right over our heads as we rode through the town of Altus, home to the 97th Air Mobility Wing.

Not far east of Altus we turned onto a narrow 2-lane paved road that led to the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge. The 59,000 acre wildlife refuge was established in 1901 to protect numerous species, including buffalo, Texas longhorn cattle, and prairie dogs. This area was never farmed, and the native mixed grass prairie frames the mountains.

The final part of our trip today took us on U.S. 70 east, which crosses over Lake Texoma, a 93,000 acre lake formed in 1944 by a dam on the Red River that marks the border between Oklahoma and Texas.

Living in the desert in Arizona, we're always excited to see rivers and lakes, and it was fun to ride across the Roosevelt Memorial Bridge and watch the boats on the lake.

We're spending the night in Durant, seat of the Choctaw Nation and founded by Dixon Durant, a Choctaw who lived in this area when the railroad came through in the 1870's. The past two nights we've stayed in towns also created by the railroad, and each night we've been close enough to the train tracks to hear the trains roar through during the night. Tomorrow we continue east into our 4th new state:  Arkansas.  Here is today's route

Riding through the prairie

We started the 3rd day of our cross-country motorcycle trip in Clayton NM, in the northeastern corner of the state. We started on U.S. 56 east, riding through the Kiowa and Rita Blanca National Grasslands that straddle the New Mexico and Oklahoma state line.

As we were looking out over the sea of grass to the far-off horizon, an Oklahoma state trooper pulled us over for riding 7 mph over the speed limit. The friendly and professional trooper gave Mike a warning, and he and his partner told us about the area and how their families have ranched and farmed here for generations.

I took advantage of the time to take photos of the BMW and the buffalo grass growing along the side of the narrow highway.

Oklahoma was the first of the 19 states we plan to ride into so that we've been on the BMW in all of the lower 48 states, and soon after Oklahoma we rode into Elkhart, Kansas, knocking off our second new state. We then headed south on OK 95 through the panhandle, crossing into Texas at Texhoma and our third state.

We were mesmerized by hundreds of windmills that spread across the horizon. Texas has more windfarms than any other state, which fits with the saying that 'everything is bigger in Texas'.

Continuing with the 'everything is bigger in Texas' theme, as we were riding south on TX 136 we passed by a huge cattle feed yard, and then what seemed like hundreds more windmills.

As we rode south on TX 270 we left the flat prairie grasslands behind and wound our way down a 10% grade into Palo Duro Canyon.

Palo Duro is the second largest canyon in the United States, behind only the Grand Canyon. It's 120 miles long and 6 miles wide on average, with the widest section topping out at 20 miles. In the 1890's William Hamblen created a rough road through the canyon using old Native American Indian trails. The road was finally finished in 1928 and paved in 1954.

We stopped at the top of the canyon to get a better view, and took advantage of the picnic area to take some additional photos.

Energized, we got back on the BMW to finish up today's 366 mile trip through more flat prairies to our destination for today, Childress, TX. Like so many towns in this part of the country, it was established because of the railroad and it continues to be a busy commercial hub.

The majority of the time today we rode on straight 2-lane paved roads with grasslands, ranches, and huge agriculture fields on both sides of the road. Infrequently we rode through small towns of less than 500 people where the main streets were lined with mostly closed brick buildings. Days like this demonstrate the vastness of the United States, and the resilience of the people who live in these quiet open spaces.

Tomorrow we continue to ride east through West Texas and into Oklahoma, looking for more adventures.  Here is today's route