Saturday, June 21, 2003

I got up Saturday with everything packed and loaded on the bike by 9 am. After saying my goodbyes (and telling Blair he HAD TO go to Deal's Gap since we didn't make it together) I started home. I had originally wanted to take 64 to Knoxville having driven the highway by car sometime ago. At the time it was an enjoyable two lane highway much like 70. The previous night at Chili's I had found a way to zigzag down to it without using much Interstate. The route went like this: From the cabin take 321 to the northeast. 321 connected to 70. Take 70 east to Sparta. At Sparta take 111 south to 70S. 70S runs southeast into Interstate 24. A short run down I24 brought me to 64. 64 runs across the southern edge of Tennessee straight into Memphis.

The ride up until I24 was nice enough. Most of the way it was either 2 lanes or 4 lanes divided. The 70 stretch was great. Once I hit 24 the ride was pretty much over. The first of 64 was what I remembered - 2 lane curvy country highway. That quickly changed. The further I got into Middle Tennessee, the more obvious it became as to what was happening. I began to notice LOTS of abandoned houses. I'm not talking your average Tennessee trailer home gone bad. Most of these were houses that had been built fairly recently (and didn't have multiple wrecked cars in the front yard.) The state was in the process of buying up the surrounding area so they could widen 64. This made for some pretty lousy scenery.

By the time I hit West Tennessee, most of the work on dividing and increasing the lanes was done. The remainder of the trip was pretty much small town, twenty miles of highway, small town, twenty miles of highway, etc.

I pulled in to Memphis at 5:30. The trip home was quite a bit shorter than the one out. The divided highways and straight stretches of road make a difference. Pulling into the drive I was greeted by the whole family. Sophie was especially glad to see me and my "VRRM VRRM Moto-cycle."

CONCLUSION

Next year I'll definitely be taking 70 again and possibly finding another set of Tennessee Scenic Highways for the other half of the trip. The Honda Hoot was worth the day pass I bought and from what I saw I believe the full event pass would be worth the price as well. Next year I'm going to add another day to my stay and look into camping somewhere in the area. This was my longest trip with about 1200 miles for the three days. I thoroughly enjoyed the ride and am looking forward to my next road trip.