Just finished riding the Natchez Trace Parkway from Nashville, TN to Natchez, MS with four friends from my Santa Fe ride a couple years ago. All the riders (except me) are good old boys from Missouri. I didn't bother blogging as the ride was short (400-450 miles) and had to pack sparingly.
In any case this was my first time riding in the South and learned a lot from the ride (and my fellow riders). So instead of a bog I decide to write a quick Ode about my experience.
Natchez Trace Ride, April 2017
An Ode to Southern Cycling
When your sag wagon is a 4x4 that is so big it fits 5 guys, 5 bikes, luggage for 10 days and still has room for two beer coolers.
When you can ride for 500 miles and never see a Prius.
When the guys want to stop to shoot wild turkeys crossing the Trace and they don't mean with a camera.
When your daily ride ends up sitting on Miss Monetta’s Country Cottage’s front porch in a rocking chair drinking sweet tea, local beer and eating moonpies.
When dinner consist of fried bologna, catfish and hush puppies and your appetizer is fried pickles.
When you think your waitress asked what’s the “O'casion” for having steak and what she really asked was whether you wanted your steak “Cook'd Cajun”.
When you're the only person that doesn't know the words to every County song that is playing on the radio.
When you think two stepping at the local honky tonk is doing the dirty at the local house of ill repute.
When one of the guys has to call home and say to take his gun out of the pickup before picking up the kids.
When the truck radio is automatically tuned to Rush and you can actually watch Fox News without worrying what your friends think.
When everybody you meet is super friendly and go out on of their way to help.
When you learn that the best country song ever written includes the words train, getting drunk, momma, truck, and prison.
