DDT (12)
Member
Posts: 4120
Sometimes ya just gotta go...
Winter Springs, FL - Occasionally...
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« on: February 20, 2016, 03:09:17 PM » |
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Tour de Dixie (Part Seven)
Jim and I cut short our get together, and we departed the same Huddle House where Terry, t-man403, and Troy had had their very first ‘grits experience’ a year and a half before following the Asheville InZane. That was an experience for all of us, by the way!
I got the joy and personal satisfaction of being the one to share the good news about grits with my friends from the far north, and they then got to test my grace under pressure when devotion to tradition was being seriously challenged. They did this by applying their own method of final food preparation before ingestion. No kidding, instead of salt, pepper and lots of butter, they actually put Tabasco Sauce on their inaugural serving of what to us southern boys is a primary staple of our diet!!! Gawd! The sacrilege!
I proceeded to make a stop or two on the way home to pick up needed items, then I went to the barn to make final preparations… Dennis had also suggested I make a hasty post on the board about our plans, just in case anybody else might want to join us at the last moment. I did.
I used to have a goal of sorts to always have myself ready to ride in twenty minutes or less. I did this precisely so I could take advantage of spur of the moment opportunities just like this one. I’ve been living in my own home now for nigh onto seven years, and riding until the last couple of years had eased up considerably…
Alas, I’ve not kept that readiness plan going with the same zeal I once did, so it took a bit longer with ride preparation this time. Not bad, though, but still, I had 350 miles to ride, and it would probably be dark by the time I arrived… it was. A really great ride down, however, and no traffic issues to complicate matters… Just a long ride with only ‘necessary’ stops, and focused, harder than usual riding…
Darkness comes early this time of year, so even though the sun had disappeared, no one had had dinner yet. Good thing for me, as I was hungry by then, not having eaten anything since earlier that morning.
The Acme Oyster House became our destination… and a great call it was! A casual but very nice eatery, where our bubbly server kept us well attended throughout our visit. A couple of pints to wash down the oysters, good fellowship, and lots and lots of laughs to make the cold ride down worthwhile!!! We even texted a picture of our dinner fare to t-man403 while we were there.
The news after I arrived wasn’t all good, however… Darryl couldn’t get off work, so he wouldn’t be going with us. Shelia had taken ill (a cold) and didn’t think it wise to be riding around in the chilly air all the next day… Well, she actually felt really bad and ended up staying in bed most of the next day. It would be just us three amigos… or should that be ‘tres’ amigos…?
In keeping with tradition, we planned too much trip into too little time, especially with the short daylight hours and coldness all about. Oh well, anything we didn’t get around to doing this time would simply provide an excuse for a future ride! Dennis is such an optimist… he came up with that helpful bit of rationalization… I like it…
We rode to within a couple of miles of the chicken place, and even though Dennis had led all the way, I still got to demonstrate my navigational prowess… I was riding right behind Dennis when we approached the four lane, HWY 61, also the road where the chicky would be found.
Dennis raised his hand and pointed left then right, since he was unsure which way to turn. With all the confidence I usually handle such matters, I decisively pointed left (south), so we proceeded to make the turn and ride on, anticipation building all the while… Soon, I became much less confident, though, but I couldn’t bring myself to admit the obvious.
Fifteen miles later, we’d all had enough, so we stopped and regrouped… Had we turned right back at that intersection, we would have been eating by then!!! As my sister-in-law is fond of saying, “It’s just in me…” I reckon so. I don’t much care myself, but I do hate to impose my boo-boo proneness on my pals… So far, they’ve always forgiven me…
Arthur Davis was just finishing singing to some patrons as we were crossing the threshold of his renowned eatery. The nice lady who greeted us suggested we take a table that was farther from the food, but right next to a space heater they had going. She had correctly surmised by noticing our riding apparel combined with her own awareness of the temps outside that probably would suit us best… She was even more right than she could have known!!!
I suppose one could order from a menu there, but I’ve never seen anybody do that. We went to the self-serve buffet line and did our thing… Dennis and Mitch went to the salad fixing’s first, while I went straight for the gusto! I won’t allow myself to eat too much at one time, so I need to make every morsel count… Yeah, I sometimes don’t quite hold the line very well on this…
The story of the old building is interesting, but the story of its current proprietor is even more so. Arthur Davis is quite a guy, and he sings, too! I don’t have the finger strength to attempt to describe the whole ‘experience’ to you, so let me encourage you to visit there yourself sometime… I plan to return too, one of these days…
After lunch, we rode in search of Red Bluff… we didn’t make it. Dennis suggested I lead, so… you can imagine how that worked out… I first attempted to turn around and go back to our road that I thought I must have missed… Dennis straightened me out… We then proceeded to ride in search of our next stop, but we never found it.
We weren’t sure just where the place was, and the sun was irreversibly sinking off to our west, so… a decision had to be made. It helped with deciding how I voted that by then I was tired, cold, in need of a nap, and too full of chicky to much care about anything scenic. We unanimously voted for home… and I was put in the lead again… Hmmmm… Some people just don’t learn!
I did rather well for a while… until the road I’d been following ended. That particular road, while being a great road to ride, didn’t have very good signage where it did finally end at an intersection. I led us through the intersection and only a few blocks later the road turned into a goat trail… That’s when I knew it had ended. We dismounted and began checking maps and GPS tracking devices and all sorts of conversation followed…
We sorted all that out, and after only one more miscue by that ‘Navigator’ leader we had, we fired him, and Dennis retook the lead… A long, cold ride followed, and less and less sunlight made our way seem like it might turn out to be a mile or two longer than it should have been… It’s a really good thing we gave up when we did on the Red Bluff portion of our plan… and firing that group leader we’d had was a really sound decision, too!
Back to the home of Dennis and Shelia… and heat! Nobody was hungry, so we all skipped dinner this time, and I did what I sometimes do on such occasions… I fell asleep sitting on the sofa. I got up after everyone else had retired only long enough to make a bed out of my perch and to void my bladder. The next time my eyelids opened, it was time to rise and shine…
We piddled around waiting for the sun to climb some in the sky and burn-off the frost on our bike covers, then we rode in the truck down to the nearby Waffle House for some breakfast… The main feature of my meal besides grits was a double order of bacon! I just love that stuff…
A part that Dennis and Mitch had been waiting on for the car they were repairing had arrived, so their plan was locked-in and set in motion… Mine was to hit the road… I’d been thinking all along that I would continue on to Texas from there, but a strange sensation (sensitivity to cold) had occurred with a couple of my teeth. Not wanting to end up in some motel in Nowheresville, TX, with a throbbing toothache, I made the disappointing choice to return home…
A great day in the saddle followed! Cold, but my Gerbigs once again proved their worth… I even got home in time to call the dentist’s office and make an appointment for the next day so he could have a look at me… Looks like this might turn out to be a small detour and delay but not a show-stopping event after all… Soon enough we’ll be back on the road!
DDT
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