In July 2003, my brother David and I set out on a southern tour. He rode his 1995 Yamaha Virago that I sold him a year earlier and I rode my 2002 Honda VT1100 Shadow Spirit dubbed "Vicious Cycle"....
Along with us my girlfriend Erin rode with me. I let her try both of my seats before the trip to see which one she preferred. She chose the Corbin Gunfighter over the stock pillion pad. Reason being was the stock pad sat so high that the backrest was against the tailbone rather than providing back support. With the low Gunfighter, the backrest was more in her lower back. My daughter had complained about the same thing... the Virago has a higher sissy bar back rest that is more comfortable. I think Honda should rethink this aspect of their bikes.
Our trip is mapped out. Wednesday we would drive from Plano Texas (outside Dallas) through Louisiana and Mississippi, to Bessemer Alabama where my sister lives. Our first night would be spent here.
Thursday we would head up to Tennessee to run US129 dubbed "Tail of the Dragon" (http://www.tailofthedragon.com) into North Carolina and drive back to Bessemer to spend a second night at our sister's house.
Friday we would cruise the back-roads of Alabama going south to Pensacola Florida where our Dad would be puttin up with us! Saturday would be spent at the beach.
Sunday we cruise to New Orleans for an evening on the town. None of us have been there before.
Monday we would cruise home to Plano taking the back highways in east Texas.
Now for the trip! Tuesday night my brother comes over to get a few hours of shut eye before we go.... gets to be about midnight and none of us can sleep we are so psyched up for this trip so we decide to hit the road. We had just hit the highway about 12:30 heading into Dallas to catch I-20 east when cars are passing us honking their horns and giving us the thumbs up! This only boosts our excitement! Don't they wish they were us! Bet they wonder how long we have been on the road! LOL
We get past Shreveport and stop about 4:30a.m. at a cheap motel about a mile off the highway. Figured we would rest up and hit the road in a few hours and this would save us 4 hours off of a long drive. I only got 111miles before going to reserve on my first tank... loaded down with me, Erin, and about 100pds of gear in both saddle backs and a sissy bar luggage pack. Here are a couple shots loading back up the next morning and heading out from the motel.
We hit the road about 9 and stopped for breakfast about 45 minutes down the road. Here is a shot of Dave on the way! Doug in Dixie had called me this morning so I called him back and let him know where we were and about when we would be in.... we decided to meet up just outside Bessemer when I got there just to shake hands an introduce ourselves.
We cruised through Louisiana without incident and into Mississippi. Erin is starting to feel all those bumps in the road from the seat. We stop just west of Meridian to fill up. At this point 113 is the best distance before switching to reserve for me. Erin awaits every fill up to get off the bike for a moment and is ready to walk to Bessemer rather than get back on that seat! We pull out a couple of beach towels I had just bought that week. They have the round cushions in them for your head and roll up into a nice little roll with a strap. We strapped them on and she tried it out! BINGO!! Ready to roll!
We hit I-20 again and within a couple miles get passed by a big rig with a flat bed. It is cruising about 80-85mph. We roll in behind him. The trailer has a 12" lip at the back and creates a real nice roll back draft and our rpms drop as we move in. We are about 10-15 feet back and feel'n great! We came through one thunder cloud that looked like we might miss at first. Got pretty wet but dried out soon afterwards. Into Alabama we go...... we hit 113 miles and no reserve yet....120...not yet.... 125...still no reserve.... Dave is wondering at this point why he hasn't hit reserve...usually 120 on that bike....130...nope...not yet...135....huh uh.... I cannot tell you how many times I have checked my fuel switch at this point to see if I accidentally left it on reserve at the last fill up... 140.... getting really antsy about this now... 147.. that's it... I cannot hold out any longer... we are supposed to be pulling over soon and meeting Doug and I figure we will need to fill up any moment. We pull over and fill our tanks... I was STILL a half gallon away from hitting reserve!!! What a draft we got off of that guy and without the battering wind that the full size trailers give you.
I call Doug and we meet up just a couple miles up the highway. He shows us some back-roads to our sisters house as he knows the area so well, having grown up and lived there for so long. He took us on some windy (sounds like wine-dee) roads there after stopping at a bike shop to see if they have a replacement set of highway pegs for my bro's Virago... he lost one on the highway somewhere! Here is a shot of the group before we head to my sisters. I know.. a homely bunch... but hey... we just rode 640 miles. That's Doug's blue and white shadow, nice huh?
I was thinking to myself on the way up to my sister's place.... I said "Self.... sure would be funny if Doug knew my sister or her husband in particular since his family has been in that area as well for 30 years." So we get up there and I introduce our new friend Doug to my sister... Doug has been in law enforcement in the area and so has my sisters Uncle on her hubby's side.... they knew the same people! Small world....
Doug heads out and we visit with sis for a while and crash for the night...just as planned. We didn't get up until 9:30 the next morning! Ouch! We wanted to be on the road by then. We actually didn't get on the road to Tennessee until about noon. I snuck a shot of Erin as she tells her sister goodbye, we are going Dragon Slaying!!
David found some new pegs at a huge cycle dealership Doug told us to go check out. Lots of stuff there but not too much to speak of in the customer service aspect. As we hit the highway we see storms form in front of us and drift off to the east all afternoon. We got pretty lucky coming up behind a few and spray from the road wet out boots. That's about the worse of it. Saw some deer standing just outside a forest off of the southbound lanes, the early afternoon sun made their red coats glow against the dense dark green backdrop. They were munching on the wet grass just after a rain storm had gone through. Too bad we didn't have the camera out. Click on Page 2 below to continue with this story!