Saturday
Quote of the day:
Gary: What’s there to do around this here town at night
Wal-Mart cashier: We’ll, we’re open until 6. That’s the big thing in town…
We’re feeling good this morning, with a tailwind and a mostly downhill day ahead. That is to change quickly. First, the bridge across the Mississippi in Memphis was a death trap. We, of course, send Cliff over it and he rides it in his usual fashion, passing trucks, RV's and paddlewheelers. He doesn’t even fall off once. Memphis is characterized by a huge glass pyramid that you see coming over the river – real cool.
Gill hits the first (of many) rainstorm of the day. She takes over the “Ironman” award, riding it out through just a torrential rainstorm. She almost looks pretty when finished, or as pretty as a wet rat could look – maybe glowing is a better term. We take a vote and elect to leave her on the roadside – nobody wants her in the RV… Chris is run off the road twice by "morons passing morons”, which could be a new NBC TV show. This is easily the worst state for drivers that we have been in.
Jerry gets the second rainstorm of the day. This one is just as violent, but also has lightning and our rule was to pull bikers if lighting is near. We bivouac at a Pizza Hut and a Wal-Mart for 2.5 hours – loosing valuable ride time and likely costing us a Monday evening finish. The PH waitress is as dumb as a rock – didn’t know how many pieces in a pizza, didn’t know where there could be soap for the bathrooms, on and on. We pepperoni ourselves silly. We then go hang at the local Wal-Mart, along with half the town, and wait out the lighting.
I take the first post storm pull and have a great ride – 22mph for 15 miles. I decide I’ll train on pepperoni from now on. Or maybe it was the Wal-Mart excitement. I also get out of control with the drivers. A woman in a green Saturn (shades of "you know who" for the Rochester folks!), rides behind me blowing her horn for ¾ mile. I’m pleasant of course, calling her a stupid ignorant whore and going on with my ride. She thanks me also. Then I loose my gears again for the 4th time and have to ride the last3 miles with just 3 gears. My bike continues to bedevil me, although now I know the problem and am able to fix it. 2 carloads of Tennessee morons pull adjacent and harass me, calling me a faggot, yelling at me to get off the road, and asking me to have sex with their sister (I explain to them that is Chris's job). And people wonder why I ride with a handgun back home. I wanted to kill them, but alas, poor Yorick, I had no armaments…
We’ve now resorted to using toilets at any shop we go by, as Chris (now named “The Snake” for what will become obvious) has destroyed the RV toilet with a massive burst of excreted manhood. Amazing how your life starts to revolve around bowels and food after a certain stage.
Of course, being July 4th, we’re treated to firecrackers by everyone at every point. Gunpowder should be left to the experts. These Oakies are just in awe of loud noises…
MORE TO COME. THE LAST 3 DAYS….
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