Top Gun
06-01-2007, 15:02
I didn't get to post on our ride to St. Louis, but here's a capsulized version for Days 2 and 3;
Well, we started Day 3 with some cob webs from the night before. After spending our night at Helen Fitzgerald’s, adjacent to the hotel, where we sampled their wings (honey mustard, medium and hot) and their locally renowned pizza, which was a sort of soda cracker crust with a decent sauce and plenty of sausage and pepperoni (hold the mushrooms for Stu), we commenced to depleting their bar. We dropped our jacks at the end of the bar closest to the band. It was an all female band and they played a lot of stuff quite well and kept us all entertained for the night. Billy Wilson let his hair down and he and Gary kept everyone on the dance floor’s attention! At the end of the evening, we had to pry JJ’s pint glass from him. Girth was a hit with everyone!
Gary and I got an early start, visiting the Fedex store and then Walmart. We got the fixin’s for our planned lunch stop at Mammoth Spring State Park in Arkansas.
There was one thing that had been bothering me all night. I stopped back to my ride and it looked like my bike had been moved, but I couldn’t figure out how. I thought it was my imagination. As we readied for our departure, Stu said he’d found a BMW roundel in the parking lot and it had been run over. Closer inspection of my bike showed that apparently, some asshole had backed into me and knocked it off, and pushed in the highway peg and left without saying anything. It definitely soured my mood!
In the meantime, Stu had done some repair work on his jiffy stand spring, which had broken on a cobblestone. “Good Lord, how did you break a jiffy stand?. . .)
We rolled out of St. Louis at 1000 and rolled 60 miles west on I-44, enjoying some pretty countryside, a number of amusement and theme parks, RV dealers and dodged some raindrops that we wondered how long would remain with us. As we reached SR19, we began a spectacular ride through the Ozarks that made an “E” ticket ride at Disney pale by comparison! In the middle of it all, we stopped at Mammoth Springs, as the skies brightened into a beautiful sunny and hot afternoon! We made our sandwiches, shared a bottle of NY wine and spent some time meandering about this beautiful park. We mounted our rides and continued south along SR19 for another 2 hour ride out of the Ozarks, which rivaled the ride in. Definitely, one of the best, if n ot the best road we’ve ridden, ever!
We arrived in Memphis at about 1930 and found that the hotel is across the street from Autozone Park, home of the Memphis Redbirds, and the game crowd was arriving for the 2000 hrs. game as we were checking in. We parked our bikes in the underground garage, which tested everyone’s riding skills with a sharp right turn over a curb and down a steep right then left down an alpine grade! We parked our steeds next to the local detailing dungeon, where the man working there offered to detail our rides for $10/each. Everyone poo-pooed the idea, but as I was the last one out of the garage, I handed him $15 and pointed my ride out. On returning later, I found it in showroom condition, even armoralled tires and seat! The armorall will probably land me on my ass as I leave for Graceland this afternoon! Anyway, as some ventured 2 blocks to Beale St., Billy and I opted for a ball game and for $9 (for both tickets!), we went to the game. Let me say this. Alliance Bank Stadium is a nice park, but doesn’t hold a candle to Autozone! We settled for large Blue Moon’s and the BBq platter, $28 for all of it, a bargain compared to the dismal, expensive fare at the Simone’s nightmare in Syracuse!
We left the game and met up with the rest of the crew who’d settled in at Huey’s and after watching the end of the Cav’s/Pistons game, some went to bed and some went back to Beale St. All in all, a great day, with the only casualty being JJ’s sunglasses, that failed a Samsonite type test under a motorcycle tire!
Here’s the numbers for the Day 2 ride;
Overall- 50.5
Moving- 68.5
Max.- 92.0
Total time- 9:22
Moving time- 6:54
Stoppped- 2:28
Total miles- 449.8
Here’s the numbers for the Day 3 ride;
Overall- 40.7
Moving- 56.2
Max.- 82.0
Total time- 8:57
Moving time- 6:29
Stoppped- 2:28
Total miles- 228
Well, we started Day 3 with some cob webs from the night before. After spending our night at Helen Fitzgerald’s, adjacent to the hotel, where we sampled their wings (honey mustard, medium and hot) and their locally renowned pizza, which was a sort of soda cracker crust with a decent sauce and plenty of sausage and pepperoni (hold the mushrooms for Stu), we commenced to depleting their bar. We dropped our jacks at the end of the bar closest to the band. It was an all female band and they played a lot of stuff quite well and kept us all entertained for the night. Billy Wilson let his hair down and he and Gary kept everyone on the dance floor’s attention! At the end of the evening, we had to pry JJ’s pint glass from him. Girth was a hit with everyone!
Gary and I got an early start, visiting the Fedex store and then Walmart. We got the fixin’s for our planned lunch stop at Mammoth Spring State Park in Arkansas.
There was one thing that had been bothering me all night. I stopped back to my ride and it looked like my bike had been moved, but I couldn’t figure out how. I thought it was my imagination. As we readied for our departure, Stu said he’d found a BMW roundel in the parking lot and it had been run over. Closer inspection of my bike showed that apparently, some asshole had backed into me and knocked it off, and pushed in the highway peg and left without saying anything. It definitely soured my mood!
In the meantime, Stu had done some repair work on his jiffy stand spring, which had broken on a cobblestone. “Good Lord, how did you break a jiffy stand?. . .)
We rolled out of St. Louis at 1000 and rolled 60 miles west on I-44, enjoying some pretty countryside, a number of amusement and theme parks, RV dealers and dodged some raindrops that we wondered how long would remain with us. As we reached SR19, we began a spectacular ride through the Ozarks that made an “E” ticket ride at Disney pale by comparison! In the middle of it all, we stopped at Mammoth Springs, as the skies brightened into a beautiful sunny and hot afternoon! We made our sandwiches, shared a bottle of NY wine and spent some time meandering about this beautiful park. We mounted our rides and continued south along SR19 for another 2 hour ride out of the Ozarks, which rivaled the ride in. Definitely, one of the best, if n ot the best road we’ve ridden, ever!
We arrived in Memphis at about 1930 and found that the hotel is across the street from Autozone Park, home of the Memphis Redbirds, and the game crowd was arriving for the 2000 hrs. game as we were checking in. We parked our bikes in the underground garage, which tested everyone’s riding skills with a sharp right turn over a curb and down a steep right then left down an alpine grade! We parked our steeds next to the local detailing dungeon, where the man working there offered to detail our rides for $10/each. Everyone poo-pooed the idea, but as I was the last one out of the garage, I handed him $15 and pointed my ride out. On returning later, I found it in showroom condition, even armoralled tires and seat! The armorall will probably land me on my ass as I leave for Graceland this afternoon! Anyway, as some ventured 2 blocks to Beale St., Billy and I opted for a ball game and for $9 (for both tickets!), we went to the game. Let me say this. Alliance Bank Stadium is a nice park, but doesn’t hold a candle to Autozone! We settled for large Blue Moon’s and the BBq platter, $28 for all of it, a bargain compared to the dismal, expensive fare at the Simone’s nightmare in Syracuse!
We left the game and met up with the rest of the crew who’d settled in at Huey’s and after watching the end of the Cav’s/Pistons game, some went to bed and some went back to Beale St. All in all, a great day, with the only casualty being JJ’s sunglasses, that failed a Samsonite type test under a motorcycle tire!
Here’s the numbers for the Day 2 ride;
Overall- 50.5
Moving- 68.5
Max.- 92.0
Total time- 9:22
Moving time- 6:54
Stoppped- 2:28
Total miles- 449.8
Here’s the numbers for the Day 3 ride;
Overall- 40.7
Moving- 56.2
Max.- 82.0
Total time- 8:57
Moving time- 6:29
Stoppped- 2:28
Total miles- 228