My birthday ride

I’m on the road again – my first ride of any significance since Daytona Beach Bike Week – headed for the BMW MOA International Rally at Johnson City, Tenn.

Maria shot this photo moments before I hit the road at 7:38 a.m. The temperature was in the mid-70s, but the humidity was 93%, making for a chilly first few miles as the sweat I’d worked up loading the bike evaporated.

As you can see, I had my Camelbak hydration system strapped onto my back and I pretty much drained it over the next five hours or so.

I rode up to Paragould and picked up U.S. 412 east across the bootheel of Missouri and over the Mississippi River into
Tennessee. I stopped for a late breakfast at a McDonald’s near where U.S. 412 joins I-40.

I left home without my spandex bicycle shorts because they appear to have vanished into another dimension since my return from Daytona. I emptied all of my dresser drawers and searched the storage bins under the bed, to no avail. I learned long ago that firm seat support is the key to comfort on a long ride and always wear them under my riding pants when I head out for anything longer than a couple of hours.

So I took my Dell Inspiron Mini 9 into the McDonald’s intent on doing an Internet search for bicycle shops around Nashville.

I got my fruit parfait and large coffee and was headed for a table when a guy already sitting near the door called out, “Have a seat!”

It turns out he was apparently waiting for someone to tell his life story to and his narrative made it virtually impossible for me to focus on my breakfast and my search.

But I do know that he was a Marine who served in Korea and Vietnam and he has two sons and six daughters. He is an expert at martial arts and regaled me with stories about how he threw a bank robber through a plate glass window and took down a guy abusing a woman in a restaurant.

He taught all of his kids how to fight, except for one daughter who has a bad temper and no self-control. She lives in Memphis and once stabbed her husband with a butcher knife.

His conversation opener was to tell me that he used to ride a motorcycle, but quit after an accident. He claimed he was sideswiped by a semi and saved himself by jumping off of the bike, much to the amazement of the investigating police officer.

He consented to being photographed, so here he is.

I think I was maybe 80 miles from home when I realized the first thing I had forgotten – the charger for my Olympus point-and-shoot camera. I have the D100 and its battery charger, so I have a backup system and I did remember to fully charge the Olympus battery Monday evening.

The second thing I forgot was the Indianapolis BMW Club flag to display at our campsite, along with my BMW cable lock. None of those oversights constitutes a crisis.

Since I couldn’t do a coherent Internet search for bicycle shops, I asked Garmin to find me businesses with the word “bicycle” in the name around Nashville. It found me the Nashville Bicycle Company in Franklin, an upscale southern suburb, I followed the prescribed route over about 30 miles of back roads and city streets only to fail to locate the place in the shopping center where Garmin says it is.

So I found a gas station, topped off the tank and headed east on I-40 to the Comfort Inn where I had a reservation. It’s just so-so. They gave me an upstairs room baking in the afternoon sun and the Wifi is useless, so I’m blogging with my cell phone as an Internet modem.

I feel kinda silly checking into a motel after only 350 miles and at 3 p.m., but this positions me for an easy ride to the rally site tomorrow morning.