Day 1 Ride Map
Ride Day 1
Today is the first day of our Blue Ridge Parkway Motorcycle Ride. We have planned to make this ride for several years now… but life always gets in the way of the best laid plans. We have driven parts of the Blue Ridge Parkway before and that is what inspired us to ride it. Today we are finally going to make it happen.
We loaded up the bike the night before so we could get an early start. The plan is to ride to Jackson, Mississippi. 523 miles, just a little over half way to my friend Larry’s in Bryant, Alabama. Normally we schedule sightseeing stops on many of the days we ride and don’t travel so many miles. It helps to break up the time on the bike and gives us a chance to stretch our legs a bit. We have traveled this route many times going out to visit my ol’ Air Force buddy and best friend, so we have seen much of what is to see along the way. Today we are just riding, covering a lot of miles.
Early morning riding US 79 headed to Shreveport, LA
Crossing the mighty Mississippi River in the rain
It was a cool, crisp morning, perfect riding weather. I checked the weather along our route before we left and there was a good possibility of rain (50 – 60%) once we left Texas. We have driven this route many times and it seems that we almost always hit rain going through Mississippi. At our first gas (petrol) stop we talked to a guy about our trip. When he realized we would be riding through Mississippi he asked if we brought our rain gear because he said he always gets rained on traveling through Mississippi. I guess we aren’t the only ones who have made that observation. Over the years we have ridden many miles and generally have missed any heavy rain, so I was hoping our luck would hold out for this trip… Riding through Louisiana we encountered light rain from time to time but not enough to stop and put on the rain gear. As we approached Mississippi the sky became darker and darker the closer we got to Mississippi. We realized our luck was about to run out. We stopped and suited up with our rain gear. Within a few miles we were crossing the Mississippi River into Mississippi in the rain. It wasn’t long until it was raining very hard. It has been 30+ years since I have ridden in rain this heavy. I was Ok but my concern was how Janet was handling the rain. She handled the rain really well. We reached Jackson, Mississippi, our planned destination, just before 5:00 PM. Because it was still early we decided to ride on (in heavy rain) to Meridian, Mississippi. That would leave us with less than 300 miles to ride tomorrow. If there was rain tomorrow we could take our time and not be rushed.
We rode 609 miles today. This was the longest we have ever ridden in one day. All in all it wasn’t too bad. It would have been better without the rain. Janet did well in the rain, except her rain suit pants leaked and her jeans got soaked…
Day 2 Ride Map
Ride Day 2
Today there is a 30% change of rain along our route. The sky is overcast and it looked like we might get wet again. It’s just 283 miles mostly freeway to Larry’s. We will be there by noon. It was cool from the earlier rain which made for good riding. The sun did manage to break through the clouds from time to time. As usual everything was lush and green, rolling hills and eventually mountains. Our only stops were for gas and to put on our rain gear. It started to rain a bit when we left the freeway and headed up Sand Mountain (actually it’s more of a plateau). Two or three miles from Larry’s it did start to rain heavily for a few minutes. It rained just enough to get us wet and then stopped before we got to Larry’s. All in all it was a good short riding day.
Heading to Larry’s in Bryant, AL
We haven’t been out to Larry’s in a few years so it was good to get back. We will spend the next two days visiting before we all (Larry C., Jo , Larry T., Alfred, Jean, James, Janet and I) head out to ride the Blue Ridge Parkway.
Come follow along as we ride the scenic Blue Ridge Parkway and enjoy the scenery and fun as we ride. See y’all there…
We had a great time on our ride. You may want to check out the other days of our ride by clicking on the links below.
- Blue Ridge Parkway Motorcycle Ride June 2014 Ride Day 3
- Ride Day 4 Blue Ridge Parkway Motorcycle Ride June 2014
- Blue Ridge Parkway Motorcycle Ride June 2014 Ride Day 5
- Blue Ridge Parkway Motorcycle Ride June 2014 Ride Day 6
- Blue Ridge Parkway Motorcycle Ride June 2014 Ride Day 7
- Heading Home – Blue Ridge Parkway Motorcycle Ride June 2014
Below is my first my first attempt at making a video of our ride. Have a look. It condenses the ride down to 9:13 minutes…
