Memorial Day Weekend

Sam on the Trace.

If you can ignore the absolutely asinine, ridiculously ludicrous 40 and 50 mile per hour speed limits (and you can trust me, we do) then the Natchez Trace Parkway is a great place to have a fang. You know that no blue hair is gonna' pull their Buick out in front of you, there are no drive-way connections, and about the worst obstacle in your path are the gaily spandex-clad hard-headed hard-core bicyclists that insist on riding three to five wide, and taking up the whole lane. But, that too can be turned into entertainment. A well timed upshift, with the appropriate exhaust back-fire, and barely brushing an elbow of the outside squirrel bicyclist with your mirror (or your elbow) at the the same time sure does make 'em scatter......kind of like pigeons in the square.....ah, but I digress.

As far as ignoring the speed limits, 'lemme 'splain myself just a bit. It really helps to be on a first name basis with the ranger that will probably be the one to stop you, and it also helps that he is a fellow sport-biker, natch. And, as far as ignoring the speed limits, I'm only talking plus ten to fifteen m.p.h. maybe, just enough to make it not boring.


Self portrait. The red scalpel rides again.

Sam and I were lucky enough to put in about 600 miles this week-end in the mid-state area, banging all the back-roads we could. Wasting petroleum products was our forte, tires and fuel, ol dubbya would be proud. I am totally fortunate to be able to ride with the old man.

We ate good (Lordy Lordy, the etoufee at Puckett's Grocery in Leiper's Fork....YUM), saw some of the wonderful scenery that is our state, grinned like hyena's a whole bunch, and visited with some old friends. It was especially good to see Big Al Dente on Saturday, hopefully he'll be able to join us on the back-roads again soon.

Thanks also to The Captain for inviting us over for the Memorial Day festivities.