Wednesday stuff

JONESBORO, Ark. – The Hastings Hardback Cafe is full of computer geeks this afternoon -  more than I’ve ever seen in here.

Consequently, I had to take a table without access to an electrical outlet and am operating on battery power. My Dell Inspiron Mini 9 gets about 4 hours to a battery charge, so I’m fine with that.

The termite inspector examined our house about 1 p.m. and declared it free of termites and other pests. It’s good to know, but I’m not sure it’s $181 worth of information.

Driving in to town on U.S. 49, I met a pickup truck that was burning oil at a phenomenal rate. Or else he was fogging for mosquitoes. But then it’s a little late in the season for that.

Our Subaru Forester, on the other hand, has virtually stopped consuming oil. It was using about a quart for every tank of gas back in the spring. I took it to the dealer in Memphis and they couldn’t figure it out – no oil stains on the driveway and no blue smoke from the exhaust. The oil consumption declined sharply after we started using Castrol GTX oil for older engines, so I guess there’s something to their claims.

Cognitive dissonance

As the Democrats prepare to completely rewrite the Health Care Reform Legislation to their liking behind closed doors, it’s a good time to revisit this pledge by President Obama.

What does she have on her head?

Never mind Anita Dunn's lunatic ravings about FOX News being an arm of the RNC. What's up with her bizarre two-tone hairdo?

Rain and planes and big box electronics stores

JONESBORO, Ark. – The only thing worse than a cold October rain here is a cold November or December rain.

It’s 53 degrees and pouring this afternoon, so I’m holed up at my favorite table in the Hastings Hardback Cafe. My favorite barista just brought me a complimentary hot chocolate to drink along with my usual coffee, I’m warm and I’m dry and I have Internet connectivity, so life is good.

My October BMW Owners News was a no-show in our mailbox again this morning so our friend Dom has agreed to share his copy. Ordinarily, I wouldn’t care that much except that the October issue has the photo layout from the July BMWMOA rally in Johnson City, Tenn. and I’m curious to see how many of my photos made the cut. My BMWMOA membership was scheduled to expire at the end of October, so it makes no sense that they would cut off my magazine subscription before then. That said, I went online over the weekend and renewed my membership.

I just fired off a query to BMWMOA Operations Manager Tammy Leuthauser asking where my Owners News is, but I suspect they sent it and the post office lost it.

Today’s Jonesboro Sun had a couple of significant announcements:

1. The new Best Buy store will have its grand opening from 6-9 p.m. a week from Friday (Oct. 23). Beginning the next day, the store will open from 10 a.m.-9 p.m. weekdays and Saturday. Sunday hours will be 1-9 p.m.
2. SeaPort Airlines, which heretofore served communities in Oregon and Washington from a hub at Portland International Airport (PDX), will launch service to Jonesboro, Hot Springs, El Dorado and Harrison, Ark. on Oct. 26 out of a hub at Memphis International Airport (MEM). The flights from Jonesboro to Memphis will be served using a 9-passenger Pilatus PC-12  turbo-prop aircraft.
   Passengers in Memphis will board and disembark the aircraft through Signature Flight Support’s fixed base facilities at 2988 Winchester Road instead of the airport’s terminal building, according to an announcement on the Memphis International Airport Web site.
   SeaPort is offering an introductory offer of $29 each way to Jonesboro (from Memphis) and $49 each way to Harrison, Hot Springs and El Dorado with a 3-week advance purchase. Jonesboro has been without passenger service since June 2008 when Mesa Airlines suspended operations.

The Pilatus PC-12 is a single-engine turboprop passenger plan manufactured by Pilatus Aircraft of Switzerland. Eighteen people have died in the three Pilatus PC-12 crashes this year in the U.S.

A Pc-12/45 crashed on approach to the Bert Mooney Airport at Butte, Mont. on March 22. The pilot, who had taken off from Oroville, Calif., and his 13 passengers were killed. Early reports suggested the plane was overloaded.

A PC-12 crash landed June 12 at Sikorski Airport in Stratford, Connecticut. No one was injured.

A Pilatus PC-12 crashed July 5 in Rockbridge County, Va., after the pilot reported an exterior panel came off of the aircraft. The pilot, Daniel Dorsch, owner of Papa John's Pizza chain in Florida, Fun Bike Center of Lakeland, Fla. and former CEO of Checkers Drive-In Restaurants, his wife Cynthia Dorsch and at least two other passengers were killed. A National Transportation Safety Board report suggests failure of navigational instruments was the main cause of the crash. The failure may have caused Dorsch to become spatially disoriented, causing him to lose control of the plane.

Besides SeaPort, the PC-12 is in service with Pascan Aviation, Wasaya Airways and Dexter Airlines.

The plane cruises at 312.5 mph with a service ceiling of 30,000 feet and a loaded range of 1,753 miles. It needs 1,475 feet of runway for takeoff and 945 feet for landing.

Blanche apparently wants to retire

I just emailed my senator, Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., to express my profound disappointment with her vote this afternoon. Here’s what Sara Sendek, RNC Spokeswoman, had to say.

 

“Today, Sen. Lincoln confirmed that she will put a government-run health care experiment over the best interests of working families in Arkansas. Under the Senate Finance Democrat’s health care bill, the cost of family coverage will increase by $4,000 over the next decade. For working moms and dads, struggling to keep their jobs in a weakened economy, that’s real money – money most folks simply don’t have. Placing the burden on families isn’t the answer, and we encourage Arkansans to call Sen. Lincoln to ask her why she turned her back on her constituents.”

As was reported here earlier, polls suggest any of the four possible GOP challengers can beat Blanche when she runs for a third term next year. She drove the stake a little deeper into the heart of her candidacy today.

Awsome

I hope he got his money back.

May be hert

I noticed this note on the post office bulletin board this morning.

Take a few steps to the Right, Blanche

A Rasmussen Reports poll from a couple of weeks ago indicates Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) could be in big trouble in her re-election bid next year.

If she wants to keep her Senate seat, she's going to have to vote against Obamacare and Cap & Tax and every other crazy socialist scheme Obama wants to jam down our throats because it's becoming increasingly clear that Arkansans don't want any part of it.

According to the Washington Post, Lincoln votes with her party 86.9% of the time.

Another Democratic senator may be at-risk in 2010. Arkansas' Blanche Lambert Lincoln trails all four of her leading Republican challengers in the first Rasmussen Reports Election 2010 survey in the state.

Lincoln fails to get 50% of the vote in any of the match-ups, and any incumbent who falls short of that level is considered vulnerable. In three of the match-ups, however, she is virtually tied with the challengers at this time.

The two-term senator who was reelected with 54% of the vote in 2004 is perhaps made more vulnerable by her seat on the Senate Finance Committee which is now wrestling with the national health care reform plan, a measure which is highly unpopular in Arkansas. Just today she voted against including in the bill the controversial “public option” being pushed by liberal senators in her party.

State Senator Gilbert Baker runs best against Lincoln so far, beating her by eight points – 47% to 39%. Five percent (5%) like some other candidate, with eight percent (8%) undecided.

State Senator Minority Leader Kim Hendren beats Lincoln 44% to 41%, with five percent (5%) favoring another candidate and 10% undecided.

Curtis Coleman, a private businessman with ties to former Arkansas governor and presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee, holds a 43% to 41% lead over the incumbent. Five percent (5%) prefer some other candidate, and 11% are undecided.

Just as close is Tom Cox, head of the Arkansas T.E.A. Party, who leads Lincoln 43% to 40%, with six percent (6%) favoring another candidate and 11% undecided.

Twenty-six percent (26%) of Arkansas voters have a very favorable opinion of Lincoln, while 28% view her very unfavorably. Just four percent (4%) don’t have an opinion of the incumbent senator.

Very favorables and very unfavorables for all four GOP challengers are in single digits, and over one-third of the state’s voters don’t know any of them well enough to even venture a soft opinion about them.

At this point in a campaign, Rasmussen Reports considers the number of people with a strong opinion more significant than the total favorable/unfavorable numbers.

Just 30% of Arkansas voters favor the health care reform plan proposed by President Obama and congressional Democrats, while 67% oppose it. While 20% strongly favor the plan, 52% strongly oppose it. These numbers are much higher than those found nationally even as opposition nationwide hits a new high.
Fifty-eight percent (58%) expect the quality of health care to get worse if the plan passes. Nineteen percent (19%) believe it will get better, and 14% say it will stay the same.

Fifty-six percent (56%) say the cost of health care will go up if the plan becomes law, but 16% say costs will go down as the plan’s sponsors contend. Twenty percent (20%) think there will be no change.

Seventy-three percent (73%) of Arkansas voters anticipate that the cost of the health care plan will increase the federal budget deficit, and 81% think it is likely that taxes will be raised on the middle class to pay for the plan if it passes. Sixty-seven percent (67%) say a middle-class tax hike is very likely.

Ten percent (10%) say the U.S. economy is good or excellent. Forty-six percent (46%) say it is poor. Thirty-one percent (31%) think the economy is getting better, while 45% say it’s getting worse. Eighteen percent (18%0 see no change.

John McCain carried Arkansas by 20 points over Barack Obama last November, and just 37% of voters in the state now approve of Obama’s job performance as president, with 28% who strongly approve. Sixty-two percent (62%) disapprove, including 52% who strongly disapprove. This again is much more negative than Obama’s job approval ratings in the Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll.

But 69% approve of the job Democratic Governor Mike Beebe is doing, including 27% who strongly approve. Only 30% disapprove of his performance, with eight percent (8%) who strongly disapprove.

Rasmussen Reports has begun surveying potential 2010 Senate match-ups and has released findings from California, Colorado, Connecticut, Iowa, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina and Ohio. Later this week, we will release numbers from Senate match-ups in Delaware, Kentucky and Louisiana.

Rasmussen Reports also has released recent data on the 2009 governor’s race in New Jersey and Virginia along with the 2010 governor’s races in Arizona, California, Colorado, Iowa, New York and Ohio. A Virginia update will be released later this week.

Back when newspapering in Indianapolis was fun

This is me being a makeup editor at The Indianapolis News on Dec. 21, 1968. That’s the front page chronicling the launch of Apollo 8, the first mission to the moon in which astronauts Frank Borman, James Lovell, and William Anders completed 10 orbits of the moon before returning to earth.

Those were the days when newspapers were created in composing rooms to the clatter of Linotype machines cranking out thousands of lines of type on lead slugs.

I spent a couple of years of my 34-year newspaper career as a makeup editor, most of the time designing all of the inside pages of Indiana’s largest evening daily and then supervising the printers who put them together. I learned quickly to read upside down and backwards because it was usually necessary to edit stories in the page – it took too long to pull a proof for editing. I also learned how to properly “lead out” a story from the bottom up and how to cut a story in md-sentence by having the printer cut the tail off of a comma.

I went from the composing room to the state-suburban desk as a reporter and became chief of a suburban bureau when the paper went to zoned editions in March, 1985. I jumped at the chance to get out of the downtown office because a martinet city editor, fortunately not in my immediate chain of command, was making all of my city desk friends miserable and I couldn’t bear to watch it.

I had, in my judgment anyway, the best of the three suburban zones and spent my days and nights covering the two fastest-growing counties in Indiana. It was exhilarating and fun because there was always something interesting going on.

In the meantime, the paper was losing circulation – partly because of the the nationwide trend of decreasing interest in evening newspapers, but also in great measure because the circulation department promoted our morning sister paper, The Indianapolis Star, over The News and bungled what News promotions they did do. I know because I shared an office with circulation district managers and heard their conversations and saw their numbers.

My bureau got folded into a three-county operation when The News was merged with The Star in the autumn of 1995 and even though the new metro editor favored me for chief of the new bureau, she was overruled by the managing editor who had to find a place for his predecessor’s city editor.

So I became the bureau education writer, covering about a dozen school districts in three counties. I also wrote feature stories on a variety of topics, shot photos to illustrate most of my stories, and pitched in on breaking news stories. The work was still fun, but being subjected to annual job performance reviews by the guy I trained as bureau chief and having to create stories to suit the uninformed whims of downtown editors had a corrosive effect on my enthusiasm.

I think it was sometime in late 1999 when I was sitting in my bureau chief’s office discussing the latest ridiculous demand from downtown that I opined, “You know, we don’t have to do this. We can always go do something else for a living.”

He shot me a horrified look that told me he found my suggestion incomprehensibly scary.

But I was at a point where I really meant it.

By this time, The News had been chloroformed and we all worked exclusively for The Star. I never liked The Star. I felt it lacked the friendly personality and familiar style of The News. In my opinion, newspapering in Indianapolis died in 1995 with the merger of the staffs. From that day on, we were just going through the motions.

Gannett bought the paper in early 2000 and, with their bottom-line management style, sucked the last bit of fun out of our jobs.

So when my mother died on Oct. 5, 2000 and left me a golden parachute, I didn’t hesitate. My first day back at work after the funeral, I walked into the bureau, picked up the phone and called Human Resources to announce I was quitting.

Since I had turned 55 a few months early, I was able to take early retirement with a reduced pension. All the better. I cleaned out my desk and was gone by noon.

That was nine years ago yesterday. I have never regretted my decision. Not for a second.

I like to think my departure triggered the exodus that followed. Within a couple of years, all of my reporter friends in the bureau had retired or flat-out quit and the bureau chief bailed out to take a public relations job.

Fellow Newsie Art Harris retired and is a member of the town council in his rapidly growing suburban hometown. Police reporter Diane Frederick quit and is now a supremely talented artist. Scott Miley left to do public relations for an Indianapolis school corporation. Paraprofessional Pattie Doty went to a great job with Aspen Education Corp.

I’m sure we all share a nostalgia for how things were before Gannett, but we’re all happier with our lives today.

Eagles

This came from a gent who runs a 2000 acre corn farm up around Barron, WI, not far from Oshkosh. He used to fly F-4Es and F-16s for the Guard and participated in the first Gulf War. Submitted for your enjoyment, and as a reminder that there are other great, magnificent flyers around besides us.

I went out to plant corn for a bit to finish a field before tomorrow morning and witnessed The Great Battle. A golden eagle - big bastard, with about a six foot wingspan - flew right in front of the tractor. It was being chased by three crows that were continually dive bombing it and pecking at it. The crows do this because the eagles rob their nests when they find them.

At any rate, the eagle banked hard right in one evasive maneuver, then landed in the field about 100 feet from the tractor. This eagle stood about 3 feet tall. The crows all landed too, and took up positions around the eagle at 120 degrees apart, but kept their distance at about 20 feet from the big bird. The eagle would take a couple steps towards one of the crows and they'd hop backwards and forward to keep their distance. Then the reinforcement showed up.

I happened to spot the eagle's mate hurtling down out of the sky at what appeared to be approximately Mach 1.5. Just before impact the eagle on the ground took flight, (obviously a coordinated tactic; probably pre-briefed) and the three crows which were watching the grounded eagle, also took flight thinking they were going to get in some more pecking on the big bird. The first crow being targeted by the diving eagle never stood a snowball's chance in hell. There was a mid-air explosion of black feathers and that crow was done. The diving eagle then banked hard left in what had to be a 9G climbing turn, using the energy it had accumulated in the dive, and hit crow #2 less than two seconds later. Another crow dead.

The grounded eagle, which was now airborne and had an altitude advantage on the remaining crow, which was streaking eastward in full burner, made a short dive then banked hard right when the escaping crow tried to evade the hit. It didn't work - crow #3 bit the dust at about 20 feet AGL.

This aerial battle was better than any air show I've been to, including the warbirds show at Oshkosh. The two eagles ripped the crows apart and ate them on the ground, and as I got closer and closer working my way across the field, I passed within 20 feet of one of them as it ate its catch. It stopped and looked at me as I went by and you could see in the look of that bird that it knew who's Boss Of The Sky. What a beautiful bird!

Not only did they kill their enemy, they ate them. One of the best Fighter Pilot stories I've seen in a long time...

There are no noble wars-- Only noble warriors.

106 and counting

This is my collection of motorcycle rally, membership and destination souvenir pins.

I think my rallying season is over for this year, so I don’t expect any additions until next year. So far there are 106 pins, the tail plate from my 1981 R100RS, a nametag and a volunteer button from the 2008 BMW MOA National Rally in Gillette, Wyo.

A lot of riders toss their rally pins into a dresser drawer or throw them away. I was fortunate to have some cool display cases left over from my militaria collector days.

On the road again

Dom rolled out of our driveway a little after 8 a.m. for the 7+ hour ride back to Indianapolis.

His plan is to stop for gas and a couple of McDonald’s breakfast burritos in an hour or so at Kennett, Mo., hometown of Sheryl Crow.

The temperature here is about 48 and the temperature in Indianapolis is about 36, so he’ll be in pretty much the same  temperature throughout his 450-mile ride. There is cloud cover over most of the route, but no chance of rain.

He should be perfectly comfortable with his Gerbings heated jacket liner under his Aerostich Roadcrafter riding suit.

By the time Dom gets home, he’ll only need about 200 more miles to earn his 10,000-mile award from the Indianapolis BMW Club for 2009.

In retrospect, I think we made an excellent decision to skip the Falling Leaf Rally in Potosi, Mo. this weekend. For all we know, the campground could be underwater from the torrential rains Thursday and Friday. It looks like it didn’t get as cold as expected overnight there, but it still would have been a crappy weekend of wet, gray and cold. Throw in the $18 admission fee and it seems like too much to endure for one more rally pin.

Afternoon in Memphis

The rain is gone but today was a chilly, gray day.

The temperature was only in the high 50s by noon and I counseled against a motorcycle expedition to the hills west of here on the grounds that it was too far, too cold, and too late in the day.

So I decided to take Dom to Memphis, a city he’s only visited once and that was back in the 1990s when I led him and four other BMW friends on a 14-state loop over a three-day weekend. We rode through Memphis and he never got a chance to experience the town  that day.

We spent about 45 minutes driving around the northeastside looking for three businesses the GPS found that have “bagel” in their name, hoping to score some real bagels. Turns out, they’re all out of business.

So it was off to Beale Street. We parked in a parking garage and dropped in to B.B. King’s Blues Club for a late lunch and a couple of beers. There was live music this afternoon and it make the place a completely different experience than when I first dined there.

We checked in at Tater Red’s and scoped out the voodoo stuff, then strolled down to Silky O’Sullivan’s to say hello to the goats.

We walked down a block or so and back up the other side of the street before heading back to the garage for an uneventful drive back home.

Now we’re hanging out and waiting for Maria to get home from the office to begin our evening festivities.

Day trip to Memphis

We're off on a del Sol trip to Memphis and Beale Street.

Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize

It’s hard to think of anyone less deserving than Yassir Arafat, Al Gore or Jimmy Carter, but the Nobel committee topped themselves this week.

Un-freaking-believable.

Alfred Nobel must be spinning in his grave.

Dom’s here

Our Indianapolis BMW Club friend Dominick rolled in about 2:15 p.m.

We hung out for awhile, then took the top off of the del Sol and sprinted up the county line liquor store for a 12-pack of beer.

Unfortunately, I forgot to put the roof back on the car last night and remembered after it started to rain about 6 a.m. today. I used a synthetic towel – sold at Walmart under the name “Absorber” and same thing as a ShamWow – and soaked up most of the water from the seats. It should be useable later today when we head out for sightseeing and errands.

Dinner was at the Whole Hog Cafe where they have the best barbecue in Jonesboro. Dom polished off a full rack of ribs and pronounced them excellent.

My Man Mitch

Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels on Chicago losing its Olympics bid:

"What's the world coming to when Chicago can't rig an election?"

Morning errands

JONESBORO, Ark. – I’m having my morning coffee at Books-A-Million in the midst of a flurry of errand-running.

I forwarded a stack of mail, probably mostly junk, to Morgan in Arizona, returned a couple of rented movies on DVD, and am about to go next door to Kroger for some coffee, Kefir, milk, etc.

Our Indianapolis BMW Club friend Dominick presumably left home at 6 a.m. our time, heading this way. Assuming he’s making reasonable time, he should be somewhere in south central Illinois by now and could arrive at our house as early as 1 p.m. I’ve cleared space in the garage for his bike, a BMW R1100GS. I also repacked my now-dry tent and put my now-dry BMW Gore-Tex lined gloves back into my tank bag.

Dom has excellent weather for his ride this morning, but the forecast still shows the weather turning to shit tomorrow and Friday. If we have to ride to Potosi in rain Friday, I just hope it clears out by the time we arrive. I really really really don’t want to pitch a tent in the rain.

Kira’s turtle

From Found Magazine:

Black’s Enter Here

A friend’s son reports that paving on South Henderson Street in Bloomington, Ind., made for a confusing traffic situation for people wanting to get into the Black Lumber Co. parking lot.

So the proper access/egress point was marked with a sign reading, “Black’s Enter Here.”

Soon after, the Bloomington Police Department got a call about a racially inflammatory sign.

Enduring the rain train

JONESBORO, Ark. We’re in the path of a rain train – a diagonal swath of rainstorms stretching from north of Dallas to Cincinnati that is tracking to the northeast, rather than east to west.

So instead of blowing through in a couple of hours, the rain will be an all-day event.

Consequently, I have my wet tent, fly and ground cloth spread over stuff in the garage in hopes that it will eventually dry.

I just talked to Indianapolis BMW Club friend Dominick who plans to ride down here tomorrow for a visit before we head north on Friday for the Falling Leaf Rally at Potosi, Mo.

It looks like he’ll have a pleasant, dry ride tomorrow, but there’s a 70% chance of rain for our four-hour, 177-mile ride up to Potosi. The Weather Channel says rain chances will drop to 20% on Saturday and Sunday, so I should be spared a repeat of Sunday’s miserably wet and cold ride home from Shiloh.

The Potosi overnight lows Saturday and Sunday are forecast for at or below freezing – that’s why the alternate name is the Frozen Leaf Rally – so I’ll pack warmer stuff, including my heated jacket liner and gloves.

I’ve been to the Falling Leaf Rally a few times and remember one year in particular back in the early 1990s when I went through several thermal handwarmer heat packs in my sleeping bag to get through the night. The next morning, I awoke to find a heavy layer of frost on the seat of my ‘91 K100RS.

This weekend’s forecast clearly calls for my heaviest sleeping bag.

Rally decompression and random thoughts

My rally clothes are in the washer, my gloves are drying, and my rainsuit is dry, but my camping gear remains in the big black-and-yellow BMW duffle until the day warms a bit and the humidity drops enough to make drying plausible.

And I’m back at Hastings, having dropped off the DVD of “I Love You, Man” that we watched last night.

My tent is a special edition Eureka made for the now-defunct Galyan’s sporting good and outfitter chain. I use it because it can accommodate me and my stuff in tolerable comfort, it packs down to a rather small package thanks to its 12”-long pole segments, and it has door zippers that don’t jam when you enter and exit – just a nice smooth semi-circular one-handed swoop and the door is zipped or unzipped. It’s the only tent I’ve ever had that’s so easy to zip and unzip.

You see a huge range of camping styles at a BMW rally. Our Indy group included two of the Big Agnes tents that you can stand up and walk around in and have huge vestibules that really constitute an extra room. They’re enormous and their distinctive yellow color makes they easy to spot in a campground.

At the other end of the spectrum were a guy in a bivouac bag and another using a hammock strung between two trees and sheltered by a tarp. The guy in the bivvy bag said the worst thing about it is that it’s hard to get in and out of. It looks claustrophobic to me and I’d worry about being so inconspicuous that someone would run over me in the middle of the night.

Mister Hammock arrived on Friday, missing Thursday night’s rain, so I have no idea how well his system works in bad weather.

Bob Bender had the tallest Eureka A-frame style tent I’ve ever seen.  It’s identical in design to a one-man model I used for several years until a storm killed it in Missoula, Mont. in July, 1998, but big enough to accommodate three or four people and tall enough to stand up in.

I’d love to have a bigger tent, but I am loathe to give up even an extra cubic inch of space in my duffle because I really like being able to stuff air mattress, sleeping bag, tent and pillow into a single package that can be secured to my luggage rack with a pair of ROK Straps

Recovering from a 4½-hour cold shower

I'm home and I'm wasted after about 4½ hours of riding in the rain.

Riding in rain is one thing, but riding in cold rain is much much worse.

I rolled out of the campground at 10:10 a.m. into intermittent drizzle and entertained guarded hope that I might find dry pavement somewhere along my route home. It was not to be.

Unsure about parts of the route home, I put a Ziploc sandwich bag over my Garmin 200W GPS unit for a rain cover and was pleased to find I could read it just fine and it survived the ride. It kept tying to route me through Memphis and I finally had to set incremental destinations, like Jackson, Tenn. and Hayti, Mo. to force it to see things my way and chart a more rural course.

My Gore-Tex lined BMW rain gloves kept my hands dry, but the wind on the soaked leather made them painfully cold. I finally pulled under a gas station canopy north of Jackson and put my glove liners in for a little more warmth.

My 13+ year-old First Gear rainsuit performed admirably and I'm very glad I wasn't carrying the Frogg Toggs because they wick water where my stomach contacts the back of the tank bag. I would have been really miserable if that had happened.

I pulled into The Store gas station at Kennett, Mo., on fumes and put 4.831 gallons of gas into my 5.4 gallon tank. I had hoped to warm my hands on a restroom hand dryer, but all they had was paper towels.

I was glad to have the heated grips and seat, but there is just no way I could get comfortable in the cold cold rain. I had left my Gore-Tex boots at home in favor of my low-rise summer city boots. My feet stayed reasonably warm and I was surprised to find my socks were soaked when I got home.

The Liberty Bank time/temperature sign at Paragould was alternating between 51 and 50 degrees when I rode past about 2:30 and I was more than ready to quit by the time I rolled into our garage at 2:38.

I had toyed with the idea of just booking a room at the State Park Inn and putting the ride home off until tomorrow, but I figured I would be bored out of my mind and I didn't want the extra expense. If I had known what a wretched ordeal today's ride would turn out to be, I might have stayed put. Whatever. I'm glad to be home, having covered 685 miles since I left home Thursday morning.

I just hope my Indianapolis friends all get home safely. Judging from the weather radar, they were in rain until about halfway through Kentucky and it doesn't look like it got quite as cold there as it did here.

Looks like a rainy ride home

 SAVANNAH, Tenn. - Well, I didn’t see this coming.

I rode over to the Inn for breakfast, smugly congratulating myself on my plan to eat first, then strike camp and pack a dry tent, anticipating a short, pleasant ride home.

I noticed the overcast, but supposed it was light and would burn off once the sun got a little higher in the sky.

Then, about the time I finished my scrambled eggs, I checked the Weather Channel web site and saw this radar map. WTF? I looked out the dining room window and studied the surface of the lake near the shoreline. Crap! Rain!

So I dashed out and put the rain covers on my XM radio, tank bag and tail bag and came back in to knock out a blog entry.

The really bad news is that this big blob of rain extends all the way west to Oklahoma and it’s not going to clear up anywhere along my route home in time to do me any good. So I might as well take my time.This is the payback for absolutely gorgeous weather Friday and Saturday.

The Indianapolis BMW Club placed second in attendance at the Return to Shiloh Rally last evening. We posted a dozen members present early in the day yesterday and later the Alabama club logged in with 13. We suspect they cheated – maybe recruited a member or two at the rally just to beat us. The good news is that none of us has to find space to haul an award plaque home today.

Craig Vechorik, the genius of classic BMW restoration from Sturgis, Miss., won the Best of Show award in the rally bike show with his R75/2. Nobody was surprised. It’s the spectacular bike I mentioned seeing yesterday.

I got a shot of him chatting with Rich Nathan about the bike.

I guided Rich and Bob Bender to the Broken Spoke for dinner last night, based on a good experience I had with Wayne and Peggy Garrison last year.

Rich loved his catfish, and my pasta was pretty good, but Bob discovered the checf doesn’t know how to cook a lobster. His lobsters were rubbery and refused to come out of the shell, so he sent them back for two more. The second attempt was no better. Fortunately, the management adjusted his bill to compensate for the screwup.

Bob booked a room at the Inn last night, having had an uncomfortable and largely sleepless night Friday in his tent.

The rest of the club members were taking down tents and packing when I left the campground and are doubtless many miles away by now, chuckling at how they packed dry tents and mine is going into the stuff sack very very wet.

Visiting the Shiloh battlefield

While we haven’t a chance of winning the attendance award at the Return to Shiloh Rally, the Indianapolis BMW Club has made a pretty good showing with a dozen members present.

Nine of us went to breakfast at the Inn and then Rich Nathan and I rode over to the Shiloh battlefield. I remembered that the movie in the visitor center is kind of dated, but it wasn’t until today that I realized it was made in 1956. I think it’s appalling that they haven’t had a new movie made in 53 years, considering how low-budget the one in use is. Yeah, it gives visitors a general overview of the battle and the principal characters, but it’s off-the-scale cheesy.

Before the film started, we got to listen to a guy sitting behind us explaining to his friend who was who in the Civil War, like who were the Confederates and who were the Federals and the Union. The friend was in his 50s and spoke perfect English, but he seemed to know absolutely nothing about the Civil War. I can only suppose he’s Canadian. I can’t imagine a grown American being so ignorant of U.S. history.

Across the parking lot at the bookstore, we noticed the replica Union and Confederate kepis are made in China. They were also out of National Parks Passports, but I picked up more stamps.

We cruised the battlefield with me in the lead and I suspect I went too fast and stopped too infrequently for it to be a useful experience for Rich.

I did stop for a closer look at the Bloody Pond, the spot where wounded Union and Confederate soldiers crawled during the battle for a drink. So many died there that the water turned the color of blood, according to historical accounts.

While we were chatting about the importance of studying history, I mentioned that my firefighter brother-in-law has a degree in history from Marian College. A woman standing nearby asked if I was from Indiana, saying she lives in Fishers. I replied that i used to live in Carmel and was a reporter for The Indianapolis News and The Indianapolis Star in a previous life.

Turns out she and her brother were on a pilgrimage to Shiloh. Their father, a big Civil War buff, who died recently, loved Shiloh, so they decided to visit in his memory.

I also shot a bit of motovideo, but it’s pretty uninspiring.

A quick one

Two cups of coffee at registration and we’re finishing breakfast at the Inn.

No time for a serious blogpost. We’re off to the Shiloh Battlefield.

The gang’s all here

The Indianapolis crew is here and mostly camped in the same place.

Steve Osnamer and Dennis Shelly are camped separately on the river bank, saying it will facilitate their departure tomorrow morning.

Our club enclave in the piney woods, anchored by my tent, includes Jerry and Judy Pearson, Rick Nelson, Wayne and Peggy Garrison, Bob Bender, and Rich Nathan.

Rich and I both wore our U.S. 50 t-shirts to commemorate our 2001 U.S. 50 tour in which we rode the entire length of the transcontinental highway. U.S. 50 runs from Ocean City, Md., to Sacramento, Calif.

We did the western leg July 14-16, 2001, and the eastern leg in on the third weekend of October of that year.

Tonight was the big barbecue dinner at the rally. But I still had room for a little piece of cake and some coffee at the state park inn to justify my use of their wifi.

The dining room is jammed with locals – the waitress said it’s Hardin County Alumni Night – and it’s very noisy, probably because of crappy acoustics. Even so, it feels like they’re all shouting and I’m ready to flee up the road for some convenience store beer and then back to the campground.

Stamp-o-rama!

I accomplished my National Park Passport stamping mission, but rode a lot of extra miles today.

The Brices Crossroads National Battlefield is separated by several miles from the battlefield visitor center where the coveted stamp is housed. I toured the battlefield, following the signs on the highway, then let Garmin take me to the visitor center.

The Tupelo Battlefield was kinda the same deal. The visitor center is not on West Main Street where the battlefield memorial stands. It’s actually at the Natchez Trace Parkway visitor center north of town.

Happily, the Natchez Trace Parkway visitor center also has stamps for the local branch of the parkway and the overall parkway, so I picked up three in one fell swoop. The also have the Brices Crossroads stamp. If I had only known, I could have scored all four at the parkway visitor center and saved myself a lot of to-ing and fro-ing.

But then I wouldn’t have found Elvis Presley’s humble birthplace on the east side of town, where I posed my bike.

Friday morning report

SAVANNAH, Tenn. – Well, not actually Savannah, but close.

The rain arrived about 1:30 a.m. and continued off and on until about 3:30 but my Galyan’s Special Edition Eureka tent kept me and my stuff completely dry.

I just finished a so-so buffet breakfast at the state park inn. I’ll continue to eat here, thought, because the Internet access more than makes up for the food. And the view isn’t bad either.

Apropos of nothing, I noticed yesterday that U.S. 45 south of Jackson, Tenn., is designated as the Rockabilly Highway.

I crawled out of my tent about 6:20 a.m. and walked over to the port-o-lets and on to Registration where perpetual coffee pot was waiting for me and about a dozen other guys.

I chatted with other riders through two cups of coffee and then walked back to my tent, stopping at the shower/restroom building to brush my teeth.

The temperature was in the low 60s and the cold front that followed the rain brought a brisk breeze that kept the mosquitoes at bay, even in the piney woods.

I loaded the bike for a day ride and rode over to the inn, about 5 minutes from the campground.

I noticed in my National Parks Passport yesterday that there are four significant historical sites within easy riding distance, so my project for the day is to collect rubber stamps from at least three of them down around Tupelo: Brices Crossing National Battlefield Site, Tupelo National Battlefield, and the Natchez Trace. I figure I’ll ride over to the Shiloh National Battlefield tomorrow.

This strikes me as a splendid way to spend the front end of the day, since my Indianapolis friends won’t arrive until this afternoon and the weather has turned sunny and pleasant. The campground is still sparsely populated, but I expect it will fill up quickly today.

I paused to get a photo of the Estes Kefauver Memorial Bridge last night and again this morning in daylight. It’s named for a Tennessee senator who was Adalai Stevenson’s running mate in the 1956 presidential election, losing to the Eisenhower-Nixon ticket for Ike’s second term.

It occurs to me that more than a few of my readers have no personal memory of 1950s politics. It also occurred to me while riding over the bridge that the watchword of my generation in the late 1960s was “never trust anyone over 30.”

I think that may have morphed into “never trust anyone under 60.”

Mystery solved

Ever since I saw this photo of me dining with a bunch of Indianapolis BMW Club friends, I’ve been trying to remember when and where it was shot.

I noticed the photo in an album in the Indy Club area at the Indianapolis BMW dealership when I was there for MotoGP in August. I thought it might be from the BMW MOA rally last year in Gillette, Wyo., but I couldn’t place the restaurant.

It all snapped into focus for me this afternoon when I registered for the Return to Shiloh Rally here and got my wristband – my blue and white checkered wristband. Just like the one I’m wearing in the photo.

Aha! It was dinner at the Botel next door to the rally site at last year’s Shiloh rally.

Now I can work on other unsolved mysteries.

Dam!

SAVANNAH, Tenn. – They call the Return to Shiloh Rally’ “the best BMW rally by a dam site” and this is the dam.

I’m camped in a piney woods on the banks of the historic Tennessee River and the mosquitoes are numerous, big and aggressive. I set up my tent as quickly as possible and then got the hell out of the woods.

I’m told that old timers here say they can’t remember a worse year for mosquitoes. At the moment, I’m at the Pickwick Landing State Park Inn & Conference Center where they have free wifi. As soon as I finish here, I’ll ride to a convenience store and invest in some serious mosquito repellant.

The ride down here was easy and uneventful. I left home about 9:50 a.m. and took the northern route gassing and hitting an ATM at Paragould and taking U.S. 412 east across the Missouri bootheel and into Tennessee, crossing I-40 at Jackson and avoiding Memp his. I stopped somewhere south of Jackson for a McDonald’s lunch, gassed again about 28 miles from the rally site and rolled in to the campgrounds about 2:15 p.m., having covered a little less than 200 miles.

I was the 18th person to register, just ahead of a guy from Lincoln, Neb. I thought I saw Rick Nelson ride in, but I was probably mistaken.