All posts by rick wojack
Natchez Trace – southern hospitality
Ahhhhhhhhh . . . to be retired . . . and flexible.
It was starting to get a little chilly in Madison towards late October so some of the boys thought it was time for a southern road trip. How about biking the Natchez Trace parkway? The trace is a 450 mile paved parkway, similar to the Blue Ridge Parkway, owned and operated by the US Park Service. 
We set the dates and were ready to load the van when Hurricane Patricia, the largest hurricane EVER recorded in the Pacific came ashore in Mexico . . .
The hurricane was expected to ‘fizzle’ relatively quickly when it slammed into the Mexican mountains. The heavy rain associated with the hurricane was expected to affect the area for several days . . . INCLUDING THE AREA WE WOULD BE BIKING THROUGH.
Two days later it was till raising havoc in the southern US so it’s a good thing we postponed our travel date by three days.
Yippee . . . we plan on driving down on Wednesday and start biking Thursday!
Just for insurance though . . . Traci Trek got a new set of “Clip On – Clip Off’ fenders!!
Day 1, MSN to Nashville
We started the day at o’dark thirty to rain and chilly weather. Getting an early start TommyG and BillyB were at my house at 6:15am. Of course Daisy was very curious and wanted to jump in the van to become part of the the adventure . . .
. . . but she would soon be having her own adventure as she was going to work today with emJay.
By the time we got to TommyH’s home, the sun was actually just coming up. Still raining though.
Once again, like on our Cuba trip, TommyH got the prize for the lightest packer. Not too much gear for the week . . .
. . . but he also got the prize for the largest pill container. . . the older you gets the more pills one seems to need . . . daily.
BillyB had what he needed, his crossword puzzle and coffee . . .
The G had what he needed, a phone charger and bottle opener . . . even though it was a little early but it is probably noon somewhere and we are on holiday.
We stopped in Moline for a quick cup of America’s finest and were surprised to find out the McDonald franchise had heard about the mbbt and our famous leader, AL. IN FACT THEY WERE READY FOR HIM WITH THIS WARNING!!
As we rolled through Illinois the sky was still heavy and near the center of the state we ran into a series of wind farms with hundreds of windmills . . . all happily churning away and generating electricity.
This was sort of interesting, a HUGE cross constructed as part of an Illinois memorial to the victims of the 911 tragedy. The organization recently held an anniversary, and were expecting about 1,000 people to attend. Over 3,000 actually showed up!!!
Soon we were ready to cross into Kentucky but not before stopping in Metropolis, the home and headquarters of Superman. Shops celebrating everything ‘Super’ were all over town. This block even still had a phone booth for the ‘Man of Steel’ to make a quick change before flying off to save the world.
Of course, the ‘Man of Steel’ was no match for these three behemoths, with their own six-pack abs, from Wisconsin.
From Kentucky it was onto Tennessee and blue sky as the clouds dropped away and we were greeted by a beautiful evening . . . and a little rush hour traffic.
Eleven hours after leaving MSN we were sitting down to a nice Mexican dinner, with half-price margarita’s. Some had the Bacon Wrapped Chicken Salad. (I was not one of them!!)