Many of the people in this group are assholes. If you were to ask them, they would say, "Yes, this group is heavily populated with assholes." That said, a specifically crafted post generally gets some valuable return. I'd say about 15% useful information and 85% crap. Insert vinegar and wine cliché here. Well the short of it is that the best way to do this is to arrive the day before, get your paperwork done, come back to the US side and cross in the morning. This will help avoid some of the badness that could ensue as the bad people are waiting in ambush for you at the center where you're doing your paperwork. If they see a single rider on a $25,000 motorcycle, it's a target. That was enough for me because even though I had 4 days off, I didn't have enough time to do this. So, another trip, another time. That said, I was destination hunting. I tried once before to get in touch with a friend Jack Jones, who is in Baton Rouge LA and this time I had some luck. He would be working the 6am-6am shift on Sunday the 21st. Game on, I have a destination. I need to arrive in Baton Rouge sometime on Sunday.
As always, someone calls a late meeting on Thursday, which delayed my pack out. I really do have it to a science, so it didn't take that long; but, when you're trying to put some miles under your belt before dark, you have precious little time to do it all, so I didn't get as far as I wanted.
My first stop was in Chiefland Florida; pretty amusing, since I was going to visit the fire chief in Baton Rouge. So, when I saw the sun going down, I decided to take a side road, any side road, and ride into the sunset.
I stayed at a Quality Inn. I always ask where the good food is and I was pointed down the street to Bett's Big T restaurant. This is nothing to write home about. At least, it's not fast food. I had a pork chop, not a PORK chop that's like half an inch thick and juicy. It was two paper thin chewy pork chops. Oh well. I was going to Louisiana and there's plenty of good food there.
So, about this time, I got to thinking that I'd have a day to kill before getting to Baton Rouge and I thought I'd take care of the fact that I hadn't ridden my K1600 in either OK or AR. So, I thought I'd land somewhere in MS or LA on Friday night, do OK and AR on Saturday and part of Sunday and stroll in sometime around lunch. Really, this is the extent of my planning and, as has happened before, I could get an idea about going somewhere else and change course at any time. This was a good start and at least I knew that 98 West would be a nice scenic ride across the gulf.
Friday morning was wet. It had rained and it was threatening to do it again. I looked at the weather and found that if I were on the panhandle by 9am, I'd avoid most of it. So, I delayed breakfast and beat feet. I didn't stop until I saw a place for breakfast in Panacea Florida; basic breakfast, no frills. The service was good and the waitress was so interested in the bike and my travel stories. She seemed like a nice lady who has never been more than a couple miles from home. I have to remind myself that my "weekend trips" are more than just a trip to most people. For them, the effort to do a 100 mile trip is probably the equivalent of my 1,000 mile trip and many would simply take a plane, if they went at all. Back on the motorcycle, the temperature is already over 90 degrees. It's all fine as long as I'm moving. Once I get into stop and go traffic or I'm standing on the pavement waiting for a traffic light, it's not so pleasant. The scenery on the panhandle is sporadic. The first part is very boring with barely any view of the gulf. Then, you get a couple bridges and get to see the bay. Then, you go through some more touristy sections and then "Welcome to Alabama." I was ready for lunch somewhere in Florida. I stumbled across a BBQ place. Shame on me for not remembering its name. They made a good pork BBQ sandwhich with a nice Carolina sauce; but, they destroyed it by not toasting the bun first. No bun in the world is going to survive being saturated with a vinegar based sauce. Before I knew it, it was in shreds and I was eating it with a fork. I'll call it a semi-fail.
I grabbed this video of the Bank Head Tunnel in Mobile Alabama for my friend Joe Wydock who loves tunnels on a motorcycle.
So, as I was leaving Alabama and crossing into Mississippi, I came across this:
Don't ask me. I haven't a clue and they were closed. It looked like they were closed for a long time. Moving on...
About a mile after this, I was in Mississippi. I knew I would have to start going North at some point and the GPS showed that I-59 was in front of me. The sun was going down and it was time to find a room anyway. I grabbed the Interstate and found a hotel in Hattiesburg. I learned later that I was by the University of Southern Mississippi. I thought this was a good landing spot for the night and put me in good position to do AR and the Southwestern corner of OK tomorrow.
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