The Missing Piece

Time to get gittin'

We need to be in Erie on Friday night, so after putting AT&T Stadium in our mirrors early Tuesday afternoon, we hit I-20 for the first of about 1,300 miles of mostly interstate over 3 days.  Smooth sailing well before rush hour, under sunny skies and high 70s.  In a word, perfect. 

We had our first reservation on Saturday night in Memphis, and had charted our course there based on the path of the dying Hurricane Harvey, with fair results.  We didn't hit a lot of actual rain, but were cold and damp for 1,500 miles.  From then, except for a shower just outside New Orleans and some rain while on foot in town, it's been pretty much perfect ever since we got through Nashville.

Now, heading home, we're doing the exact same dance with Hurricane Irma.  We decided our best bet was to sweep across the comet's tail, take whatever lumps we got, and run a northward course with the storm remnants to our left.  Sure enough, literally 15 miles before we got out of Texas, we stopped for fuel under graying skies and a check of the radar confirmed that the good times were about to end.  We put on our sweatshirts and rain gear - it was already down to 70 degrees - and set sail for Louisana.

After a quick detour to the site of Bonnie and Clyde's demise outside Gibsland, we shacked up for the night in Monroe and had some good ol' Cracker Barrel for the first time since we left.

Next morning was 65 degrees and suited up.  Here we go again.

Right out of the hotel, we turned north to complete a puzzle.  By crossing the Arkansas state line an hour later, I have now been to all 48 contiguous states by motorcycle.  I hope to live long enough to get to Alaska, but only time will tell.

Reaching US 82, we again turned east and crossed into Mississippi at Greenville - precisely the spot where Donna had igniton problems on the way down.  We glanced over at the Walgreens where I had worked on the bike, and continued east along the same stretch of highway that we used to detour to one of the 4 Missisippi Harley dealers a week prior.

This time, we kept an eastward course and, upon reaching Alabama, completed the East Coast for Donna.  She missed the Pacific Northwest when we did our California trip a few years ago, shipping her bike home from San Fran while I took two more weeks to ride home.  Snoopy was kind enough to allow me to use 4 weeks of vacation time consecutively, so I got through Oregon and Washington and across to North Dakota and that's the difference.  The other states that I had already been in, she also picked up on this trip.

We made it through Tuscaloosa (Roll Tide Roll!) and up to Fort Payne before calling it a day.  We're over 3,000 miles by now, and the rest are going to go by at 80 per hour.