Tour de Dixie - Virginia

Tour de Dixie – Virginia

I studied my atlas hard for several days trying to find the perfect route to take for the conclusion, the ‘Grand Finale’, of this amazing ‘tour’ I’d been making throughout this winter season. More or less six months of on again off again rides here and there that ultimately would include all of the ‘southern’ states of the USA.

In the back of my mind I knew all of this planning and figuring was not really necessary, though, as no ‘plan’ is ever completely fulfilled or usually even followed more than a few days into a road trip… at least for this stalwart, committed trekker anyway… That’s just the way things are… the product of years of experimentation, happenstance, and evolution… not just of style and habit, but of attitude, too.

I found a route that included several roads I haven’t ridden, or at least ridden recently or in the same sequence I’d be riding them this time through. Even though one may have ridden a road before, going in the opposite direction, or riding only part of a route, or if much time has elapsed since the last ride, it is as good as riding that route for the first time… almost… but mighty close. Heck, this proposed route even got me all excited!

Alas, like just about every other ride I’ve ever taken in the last two decades, that carefully crafted script was of no use shortly after departing the end of the driveway of my humble home… Minor adjustments had already begun to occur ‘on the fly’ before I was barely thirty miles out! I didn’t know how or why, but deep within me I knew the entire route would eventually change, but no matter… Some of my favorite adventures have resulted from missed turns, wrong turns, and U-turns… or from out-right changes in plans and objectives all together…

The first day out, the actual ride did follow the ‘plan’ closely enough to truthfully say it was being essentially followed. Even the second day we didn’t deviate to the extent I was ready to concede that it had been abandoned… but by the third day, well… Nothing from that day onward would even remotely resemble the original ride that had motivated me to venture forth and seek adventure with my truest of all friends… ALI-girl…

Ah ha! That was it! It’s not about the route, plan, or anticipated events that are of any real consequence… it is the adventure sought, the lessons learned, and the thrill of discovery! More than riding to a certain place, I love most of all the wondrous unexpected things that always pop up along the way, the characters met, the previously ‘unknowns’ encountered, the quaint little places stumbled upon, the ‘history and nature of us’ being revealed in a different way from a ‘new’ perspective, and most of all the beauty of living a life free of constraints, strict rules, high expectations, time schedules… all that normal-life jazz…

Most of my life before retirement and later my union with ALI had been spent doing all the things required of us in communal participation. Work and all that requires, military service, marriage, parenthood, responsibility, obligation, commitment… places, activities, rules, all the things imposed upon us in order to survive, perhaps flourish, within the template of ‘regular life’ in society where ‘team-players only’ tend to make it, for the most part.

People who pretty much do as they are expected to do, never color outside the lines or run with scissors or jaywalk are the most highly ‘rewarded’, at least for us ordinary folks. We first must learn the parameters of the world around us, then we can find a place and course more suitable to us, then we must strictly adhere to the dictates that go along with and facilitate ‘success’ along our chosen (whether by us or for us) path.

Retirement had hugely lessened my role, even my place, in the ranks of those who must constantly ‘toe the line’. Matrimonial dissolution had further diminished my need to do what was expected of me, because there were by then precious few of those expectations remaining…

Riding around with ALI with no particular place to go, or tasks to perform, or obligations to keep at all beyond following the law of the land and the ‘rules’ of civil behavior, opened up a whole new world for me… and I haven’t been the same since! I wouldn’t change any of it either, even if I could…

I do confess, though, adjusting to all of this was bewildering at first. I knew none of what I think I know now… I had to figure it all out, as I blindly stumbled along. I also had to learn to think about things differently and in different ways. Patterns and habits are harder to break than we might imagine, and routines of thought are most certainly no exception.

Being ‘template bound’ all of our lives leaves us constrained and controlled in nearly every way possible for a person to be… no whips and chains, of course, but definitely bound and tethered by rules and expectations nonetheless. Now, I could live a different life and live differently than I’d ever imagined! Freer than I possibly could ever have dreamed!

Twenty years ago, I would have resisted the temptation to deviate much from my original ride plan… it was just too counter to my ‘mindset’ and perception of normalcy or correctness. Nowadays, I expect to deviate, and the greater the deviation the greater the reward the vast majority of the time! Once I cautiously avoided what now I eagerly anticipate and embrace!!!

I was off course by that second evening out. I’m not sure if it’s the signage on those roads, or just me and my mental state that produces it, but… I’ve often wondered if perhaps the euphoria and eagerness of departing on a road trip combine to be the cause, or how much it might at least contribute, but I always struggle with the backroad route(s) northward away from my house towards the mountains. I have far better luck when riding south returning from a trip. Oh well, it really doesn’t matter why, the heart of the issue is that I usually get off course once on the road… like this time.

So there I was in a motel room in Tennessee, when I’d planned on being in a motel in North Carolina a hundred or so miles east of where I was. Oh well… no biggie. I’d hooked up my laptop to check e-mail and other sites I frequent… My new laptop is always with me, and it is an important tool I feel lost without.

I’d started carrying one many years ago, well before but also throughout my time living at large following my marital status change a dozen years ago… except for a brief time… It was probably a mild cranial cramp and not a full-blown brain fart that caused that miscalculation, but it did occur.

The laptop I had been using for several years had gone kah-floowie, so I decided to just buy a new one rather than chase the illusion of repairing and maintaining, and constantly having to update the ‘old’ one. Although an expensive choice, a good call for the most part… but there was this one small detail.

I’d opted for a larger unit, because I correctly figured I’d like the bigger screen. I did. However, the new unit would not fit in ALI’s saddle bag! Dang! Throughout the life of that unit until it too went kah-floowie, on each road trip I endured the lack of a computer at my beck ‘n call.

I wearied of having to use ‘guest units’ at motels and public libraries around the country. So, long before I had to, I had made up my mind my next unit would definitely be small enough to take along! That time came a few months before this latest adventure series began.

Well, what do you know…? There was a post on our VRCC message board addressed to none other than yours truly! Charliemac had heard about my trek in that direction, and he was attempting to contact me.

A really great guy who has been around for many years. An excellent rider who always contributes to any activity in which he is a part. We’ve shared many conversations over the years, and I always enjoy our interactions. I do consider him a good friend.

Charlie wanted to invite me to drop by for a visit if I should happen to find myself in the neighborhood. Well, I was actually a lot closer to his place than I was to the baseline route of my original plan… so I did just that. And, nothing save the stop at Scooter Dog’s remained of my original trip plan from then on… I just love it like that!

Charlie is very intelligent, and he is more than a little bit perceptive, too. I had only to drop the slightest, subtlest of hints about needing a BBQ fix, and he was all over that. Yep, in no time at all, we were seated at, according to him and his bride, the second best BBQ place in the Johnson City, TN, area.

The best place is usually crowded, and this being another race week at the nearby Bristol Motor Speedway, the line there would probably be out the door and around the building… Nope, second best was plenty good enough for our needs!

It was good too!!! For now, at least, it is the best BBQ in that area that I’ve ever had… That ranking may change someday if I happen to be in that area during a less chaotic non-race week, but for now… where we had gone would do nicely!

That place wasn’t perfect, however… Nope, they had no provision for helping one celebrate a birthday on that special day, let alone several months in advance. So even though I made the attempt and asked for such, nothing resulted. Shoot, that place didn’t have any coconut pie either. Now that I think on it some, it’ll probably never be better than second place, even if I don’t ever make it to the better one! Dang…

I stayed the night at their house, and the three of us visited and had a great time. The next morning Charlie and I went to the ‘Sit ‘n Bull Café’ for breakfast. Dang, I do like that catchy name! The folks all knew my host, and his ‘special order’ bacon was prepared just the way he liked it. My breakfast was likewise good, and this place will remain in my data bank of eateries suitable for a re-visit… Like the cafe I’d visited on the way to Charlie’s the day before…

Daisy Dukes Café is a truck stop mostly. Other patrons drop by, I’m sure, but this day it was just this rider and several gear-jammers who dined on their quite good breakfast fare. The name implies, and the female staff delivers, exactly what one might expect with a name like that… short shorts, exposed mid-drift tops, and buxom, sultry waitresses, that would surely rate at least a disapproving scowl if indeed not an angry picket line from the membership of ‘NOW’.

Nice view for sure, and it certainly contributes to the ambience! The biscuits ‘n gravy and bacon are downright good, too… Coffee hot and strong… conversation plentiful, lively and funny… what’s not to like?

The morning of the second day, Diane fed us at home, then Charlie and I made the run up into Virginia to Scooter Dogs. Don and Tracy were both there when we arrived, and so were a couple of other folks we knew from the Valker community… Bocephus chief among them.

Well, with a cast of characters present like this bunch, you can bet the farm a good time was had by all… Yep, lots of storytelling, yarn swapping, perhaps just a wee bit of exaggeration about feats of daring do… and tons of laughter! We do seem to do what we do in spite of ourselves…

Don and I had a chance to chat again, and like other times before, I discovered how much like an onion he truly is, in that each time a layer is peeled back a whole new discovery is made! What an interesting character he is. We talked for a time, and I decided I really needed to return sometime and give this guy a proper and thorough interview. There is an amazing story there yet untold, and I’d sure like to hear it!

Charlie sure knows all the back roads in that area, and the rides he took me on were fabulous! He was born in that area, as was I, but he remained for most of his life, while my family had moved away when I was only two years old. Alas, he and I had been born a few months and thirty miles or so apart, but we’d spent most of our lives in completely different places… only to be riding together in that same area nearly seventy years later…

Another night at Charlie’s, then he, Diane (his wife), and I rode off to meet up with Emmitt, a friend of Charlie’s, for a ride up to the Breaks Interstate Park. It’s located along a gorge that separates Virginia from Kentucky, and it affords a very scenic view of a river, cliffs, and a historic railroad. Those and the overlooks with their story-boards blend together to tell the story of this location. There is a restaurant inside the Park that provided our lunch… brown beans, cornbread, sweet tea, and coconut pie for this fellow!

One more night at Charlie’s, then it was time to hit the road. A couple of phone calls I’d received the previous day or two had persuaded me that I should go ahead and cut this road trip off and head for home. Stuff to do, people to see, a house to finish preparing for sale… I needed to take care of business for now… so I can play lots more soon!

DDT