Serk Jr. has been wanting to go to Inzane (Actually all 3 of the triplets have, but he's the one that's shown the most interest in motorcycles in general, so....) and when Rams announced the Mississippi Sanity ride in, I presented this ride to the spousal unit as an excellent opportunity to see if Serk Jr. is up for Billings by starting slow (200 mile day), next day a little more (300 mile day) then wrapping the test up with a 500 mile jaunt straight home.
After presenting the ride as such, SHE suggested to me that it would be a good idea to attend the Mississippi ride in with Serk Jr, and me being the ever caring husband that I am, agreed to do so.
We both packed Wednesday night, with a planned departure after school and work Thursday afternoon for the initial 180ish mile jaunt to Shreveport, Louisiana.
Thursdays ride was pretty uneventful, I learned the Goldwing can make the 180 mile from my house to Shreveport Louisiana without stopping for fuel, even at near or above triple digit speeds...
Also had an amusing (Amusing because I had means of self defense) run in with a very agitated gentleman trying to kick the door in at McDonalds because they messed his order up and didn't correct the mistake to his satisfaction once we arrived at Shreveport and just wanted to get some quick food to take to the room and eat...
186 miles Thursday
Friday morning we were up and at 'em...
I had to re-learn the Lyle Lovett adage that one should never eat Mexican food east of the Mississippi river or north of Dallas. They were nice and it was edible, if incredibly bland...
I do believe they put a mozzarella cheese stick in a tortilla, microwaved it and tossed some pizza sauce on it and called it an enchilada though...
Once at the ground zero hotel Serk Jr. managed to get (With MotoMama's assistance) a basketball from the hotel, and proceeded to challenge anyone who would hear him to sportsball games with him, which many took up his challenge good naturedly (And I thank every one of them!)
Serk Jr., when told about the lying contest on the ride in said "Oh, i'll win that easily, I'll just walk up and tell everyone I'm dead. That's the biggest lie you could tell, right?" I had to explain that the contest was far more nuanced than that. He tried it out, but I do believe he met his match VERY quickly and decided to leave this contest to the professionals...
After dinner and back to the room, and Serk Jr. was OUT.
301 miles ridden Friday.
Saturday we got up, had breakfast and as usual (Not a fan of group rides) Serk Jr. and I decided to head out on our own. We decided to run down to Gulf Port so we could dip our toes in the ocean (I know, Gulf, close enough). We found a nice park with beaches called Jones Park that was easy enough to get to.
We both touched the water to say we'd done did that. Serk Jr. made it his mission in life to run up and down the beach right at the surf zone encouraging the birds to move on.
While he was occupied with his avian adventures, I started contemplating our next move.
The tinkerer started tinkering, which can be dangerous, and I realized we were reasonably close to Alabama, and I'd not yet added Alabama to my "States Ridden In" map, so one thing led to another and...
We just went to the first rest area, got pics, then exited the next exit and had lunch at Ruby Tuesdays (We don't have those here, Serk Jr's review was "It's like Applebee's thinks it a lot more than Applebee's but is really no better than Applebee's, with a salad bar.") then headed back.
Once back in Alabama we had to stop for gas, and I needed to file a report with the Texas Rangers to report a Buc-ee-napping! I know, they've expanded, but there should not be Buc-ee's outside of Texas dangit!
Or, as a friend of mine pointed out, I should just think of the non-Texas Buc-Ee's as Texas embassies placed in lesser states.
Made it back to the hotel and the usual kicking of tires, rekindling old friendships, making new ones, telling lies, etc was commencing in the parking lot. This was MAYBE 1/3 of the bikes present, a very respectable turnout!
Saw this low mileage Valk in the parking lot, whoever owns it really should get on it and ride more!
344 miles Saturday
Sunday was get up and go day, had breakfast, said our good byes and on the road... Pretty boring just droned away on the freeway most of it, made really good time mostly...
Did have one culinary assault I wasn't expecting in Louisiana, west of Shreveport, within 10 miles of the Texas border, I was craving Chicken Fried Steak, and saw a Cracker Barrel, so I exited.
Now, Cracker Barrel ain't the greatest, but it's pretty reliable, you know what you're gonna get, you're gonna get what you're expecting.
I've been berated before for generally avoiding small hole in the wall places in favor of the big national chains, I saw a "Sam's Southern Eatery" on my side of the freeway with a full parking lot, so figured sure, I'll take a gamble.
And I lost.
I ordered the chicken fried steak, and they served me with this abomination.
Almost in sight of the Texas border I mistakenly thought I was safe from desecration of a CFS of this magnitude, but here it was, sitting before me. I managed to choke most of it down, but lesson learned.
Other than that, Sunday was just gas and go and keep our butts in the saddle. Made it home, no major incidents (Other than the culinary crimes documented above).
485 miles Sunday
Serk Jr. has won my and the spousal unit's approval to ride to Billings, so this will be fun!
My thanks to all who interacted with him, especially those that played sportsball with him. He can be a bit much to handle at times, and I apologize for that but he's pretty fun too...
Great time was had by all, hard being back at work as of 7AM this morning but.... You retired folks have all the fun!
