The Nashville weekend run
My Brother, One of his chums, and one of my friends decided we’d meet in Nashville for the weekend and tour around Tennessee. This was to be kind of like the Wild Hogs bike trip 2009. I live in Greensboro Georgia and would come in from the South east. They would ride from Bryan Ohio and ride in from the North, and yes, I’m a transplant yankee in the south.
I wanted to stay out of the rat race traffic as much as possible on my excursion to Nashville, and figured going down interstate 20 through Atlanta to Birmingham Alabama would be the easiest, and then up I-65 to Nashville. I left home around 5:00 (Am) in hopes of missing all the traffic going to work, but arriving in Atlanta at 6:00 (AM) just wasn’t soon enough, and to make things worse, it started to rain. Well, not just rain, cow peeing on a rock rain, where it just didn’t matter that you had on a rain suit. My glasses soon had water on both sides, my water proof boots were filling up with rain. At Villa Rica Georgia, I decided after a little fish tail, that I needed to take a break, fuel up the bike and get some coffee.
When I walked out of the Waffle House, I thought my luck had changed, but it was only for a few minutes. I continued cruising on to Birmingham Alabama through the on an off rain. I picked up I-65 and the clouds parted as I exited Birmingham. I started to dry out as I neared Huntsville Alabama, but the boots were still full of water.
Out of nowhere, and a shock, stood a rocket. I mean a NASA rocket standing there, and I would’ve liked to have gotten a photo, but didn’t want to get run over. I decided to hit the first exit and cruise back for the photo. This rocket is at the south bound roadside rest, just south of Huntsville
I continued on to Nashville, to where I found our meeting place and hotel. The others came rumbling in around 4:30 that afternoon. After our reunion and a couple Beers to relax on, we had dinner and called it a night.
The next morning, we had wanted to head for Jack’s place, that is Jack Daniels distillery, and take a tour. We headed down I-65 south to Mudsink exit, and got on to state route 96 east. We continued route 96 until Triune, where we picked up route 41 south. From there, we road to Shelbyville, and got on to route 82 south to where we ran into route 55, and straight into Lynchburg. These roads were very good condition and with little traffic. Nice gentle country roads.
The tour at Jack Daniels distillery was very informative, as I had always wondered about making whiskey.
After the tour, we road further into the town and checked out other Lynchburg establishments such as the Harley Davison store, General store, and leather shop. You can tell this is a biker town.
We traveled back to Nashville the same way as we come, except stopping at the Harley Davidson dealer in Cool Springs just off I-65. From there we had dinner and called it a night.
The next morning, we were off to Natchez Trace Parkway, 444 miles of paved road across the three states of Tennessee, Alabama and Mississippi, but the plan was to only cover Tennessee & maybe into Alabama.
This is the perfect road for touring, the road is in perfect condition, with no truck’s, and very little traffic. The road starts out winding gently back and forth and at a top speed of 40 MPH. It does get up to 50 MPH as you straightening out and are heading south towards Alabama. There are plenty of places to stop, rest, and look around, including some waterfalls.
But then the only bad thing was that exits to get off the Natchez Trace Parkway, which are about every 20-30 miles between, and you may want to watch your fuel. You may see houses or roads as you travel, but there aren’t accessible roads to get to them. You also may see plenty of wild life, such as deer and turkeys as you ride.
We continued on the Natchez Trace Parkway until around mid day, around Alabama line and toured back. It was a full day, but what a great road to travel on.
Monday morning was the day to return home, and as luck would have it, they were calling for rain in Georgia. It was also 58 degrees, and was going to be a little cool ride home for me. The weather for the northern bound travelers looked to be good though. We parted ways at around 7:00(AM).
I decided to head on to I-24 east to Chattanooga, and then on to I-75 south towards Atlanta. I arrived in Chattanooga around 9:00(AM) and needed to buy my wife a shirt from the trip. I decided to get her a Honda shirt from the place I had bought my bike at in Chattanooga, Southern Honda.
After my purchase, I headed on to Atlanta, picking up I-75 south and deliberating on how I wanted to get to home. I was anxious in that, the traffic on the bypass (I-285) was always packed and running at breakneck speeds. Just 20 miles north of the bypass, I re-fueled & took a break to decide my fate.
I decided due to the weather, to go for the bypass. It was looking as though I was going to get wet, and I really didn’t want to have to bear the rain suit. I got on the bypass, and as I expected, found the speed to be 80 miles per hour, or get run over. I know that you can get a decal saying you’ve ridden the dragon’s tail, and I now believe that you should be able to buy a decal for riding the belt of Atlanta.” I survived the belt of Atlanta”. As I rode, the clouds would spit at me, but at least I wasn’t in the rain suit.
I picked up I-20 east, and cruised on by Conyers, Covington, Madison, and into Greensboro. Only 11 more miles to the house. Back to reality, work for tomorrow. I’d rather be riding……………
miked has been a member of our motorcycle community for 14 years, 174 days. miked's home location for riding is Greensboro Georgia.