USA Coast to Coast 2000 Report 2. USA Coast to Coast 2000 Report 2.
Atlanta to Birmingham AL
Paul's itinerary had allowed for a short day to Birmingham but having been refreshed by our afternoon and evening in Atlanta we headed north past Gainsville for the Blue Mountains for some twisties. With Paul, Hugh and Charles still catching up after Charles little incident we could find no-one else interested in joining us. The original plan was to make Deals Gap reputed to be American best biking road.
Blasting the Wing up some of the passes in the Appalachians was fun, Eric had given me some tips on riding twisties on the Wing and I must say I was impressed. Not as fast as a VFR but a very commendable performance for such a big bike and much faster than some Harleys we met. I just couldn’t quite get it too ground out!
We realised we would be very late into Birmingham if we made Deals Gap so regrettably headed down the very scenic Tennessee Valley past all the white water rafters to Chattanooga. We found a car park and went for a wander around - well we just had to visit the railroad station - and then with evening approaching joined the Interstate and made excellent progress to Birmingham adding over extra two hundred miles to the scheduled distance but we thoroughly enjoyed it.
After enjoying a swim in the pool we ordered a pizza delivery and settled down to minding the washing machines and dryers. (Jim and Ken had the best idea cotton T-shirts and underwear from Walmart at 60p a time).
Birmingham to Jackson MI
It was interesting by now that only one fixed group existed comprising "classic Brit bike riders". The rest of the party made individual arrangements to suit their own itineraries either riding alone or in small groups. Paul had finally caught up with the group and we joined him for the ride to Jackson. What a pleasure it was to ride again with a fellow IAM motorcyclist - good forward observation, anticipation and early planning gave for an enjoyable and progressive ride to Jackson.
Our plan had been to go north on Highway 14 via Columbus but we cut the route short to make an early arrival into Jackson riding straight to the motel which was just off the interstate. While Paul took a rest by the pool we spent the afternoon on a tour of central Jackson including a visit to the old state Senate building now a national museum. This building was replaced in the early part of this century by a new building with a large gold eagle adorning the dome. In true southern style the bird was mounted with its rear-end facing Washington DC.
It was in Jackson that Peter Wilkins, the only Wing owner on the trip, suffered the ignominy of dropping his Wing.
We discovered that there was a Ruby Tuesdays in a nearby mall and unable to convince the majority of the benefits of visiting the establishment we shared a taxi with Andrea and Peter for what was a truly excellent evening meal washed down with some rather large margaritas and very good cold beer.
Jackson to Shreveport LA
Jackson was service time for the Harleys but Moturis had confirmed that the Hondas would do the trip without attention so it was on with the "running in" of the Wing.
While the Harley owners waited for service we headed west to the old Mississippi river town of Vicksburg. Stopping at the tourist information we were advised that the town had an excellent self-guided tour utilising numbered markers above the junction. this allowed us to see a selection of buildings from a prosperous period at the turn of the century and then the modern floating casinos which ply the river. What the guide had failed to mention was that Vicksburg was built on the side of the Mississippi gorge and the route had numerous turns up and down hill. Once again we were indebted to Eric who had given me some slow speed tuition on his (six week old) Wing before we had set off.
Crossing the Mississippi river we headed off the Interstate and through rural Louisiana heading for Natchitoches on the Red River, a tributary of the Mississippi. Stopping for a drink at a small store outside Monroe we were warned to watch out for the Sheriff in Columbia who was on a revenue drive! He must have been on his lunch break because we didn't see him and continued through the Kisatchie National Park to Natchitoches.
Natchitoches has largely been preserved as it was in the 1930s and offered a wonderful afternoon strolling by the river, drinking home-made lemonade in a cafe, sitting under the trees writing postcards and touring a hardware store which looks not to have changed since the days of the depression. We could have stayed much longer but seventy miles north on the interstate alongside the Red River our hotel in Shreveport beckoned.
Shreveport was chosen as a stopping point simply because it was in the right place! (Apologies to the good citizens of Shreveport). However the excellent hotel had a business centre and we were able at last to pick up and send e-mails - we had yet to find an Internet café in America.
Shreveport to Dallas Fort Worth TX
The next morning we headed west and quickly entered Texas. Aware of the reputation that everything was bigger and better in Texas we were expecting a degree of excess. The first stop was the Texas visitor centre - the biggest one we had seen so far - where we were given a Texas guide book the size of an Argos catalogue. We had noticed since leaving Atlanta that the pace of life, and of driving, had been more relaxed and certainly it appeared that the "Drive Friendly - Drive the Texas Way" that was seen on entering Texas held true.
We left the Interstate and headed west on Highway 80. The countryside, while still green was taking on the more open prairie look and we started seeing the "nodding donkey" oil wells. Our first stop in Texas was in the twin town of Dallas-Fort Worth which, while not the largest city in Texas, covers an area the size of the whole of central Scotland. Our hotel was in Fort Worth but we resisted the temptation to go through downtown Dallas and took the Freeway through the outskirts instead. One of the benefits of being spread out was that it does have an excellent road system to allow traffic to move easily and quickly around this giant conurbation. Arriving mid afternoon we took advantage of the hotels pool for a well lazy session and a chance to study the Texas guidebook for interesting places then we joined the locals for a meal at the "The Rig Steakhouse".
Dallas Forth Worth to Midland TX
From our perusal of the Texas guidebook we planned to head south west to San Antonio before swinging back north. Passing Granbury we began to see the fields of oil wells and the vast ranches synonymous with Texas and the roads were long straight and almost empty. The road was littered with dead armadillos - they would definitely not be interesting to hit on a bike!
Stopping in Comanche for a look round we discovered that Friday was "closed day" and so we continued to Ballinger where there were more sheriffs deputies than locals in the town square. After a cold drink we continued through Ballinger towards San Angelo where we intended to visit the restored Civil War Fort Conche.
While driving through San Angelo we ran into "the best rain in six years" and for almost two hours the roads were totally awash and we could not move. Once it eased off we made our way to a very wet Fort Conche we were made very welcome by the custodian who had served for several years in the US base at Edzell.
Heading north for Midland it became clear that the rules on using the title of "city" are less strict than in the UK. Sterling City comprised of two gas pumps and no bar - the modern equivalent of a "one horse town" I suppose. The roads continued wide and straight allowing excellent forward vision and it was possible to cruise in three figures although this did necessitate rather more frequent fuel stops.
Arriving in Midland we quickly located the road where our hotel was located but had some difficulty in locating it due to the fact that it was carrying the "livery" of a different chain, the change only having been made after we had left the U.K!
Midland to El Paso TX
Our motel in Midland was less than five miles from the Museum of the Confederate Air Force and together with Jim and Ken we spent a very enjoyable morning touring the WWII exhibits of this living museum where that very morning they were starting up their Liberator after a major rebuild. Fire extinguishers to the ready they started up each of the engines in turn, unfortunately a minor technical problem delayed its first flight till the next day.
Having spent too much time in the museum we had to use the Interstate to reach El Paso …three days and still in Texas!! We pulled into an Interstate rest place and found Paul already there and were soon joined by Kevin and Chrissie. We watched the huge trains with multiple engine units and over 120 wagons trundle slowly by checking all of the time for any of the local reptilian wildlife the signposts warned us of.
While we had been enjoying the museum others in the party had headed on a more northerly route through the Guadeloupe Mountains and had travelled for over 100 miles without passing a filling station, an interesting experience on a Harley with a reported tank range of around 100 miles.
Our hotel was on the west side of El Paso and travelling along the Interstate we passed what claimed to be the world's biggest HD outlet, strangely none of the HD riders had stopped to pay homage! El Paso is effectively a town split by the USA/Mexico border. El Paso on the US side is typically American, admittedly with a strong Hispanic flavour, some of our group crossed the border into the Mexican city of Ciudad Jaurez and found they were entering a very different place. On the recommendations of a Virago rider we had met in the hotel pool we headed for a restaurant called the Stateline where after a wait in their pleasant courtyard we were shown to a free table and enjoyed an excellent Texan meal.
