Once we’d waved good-bye, I headed back towards the mountains… totally oblivious to her impending plight and totally not lost myself… Nope, just a return to serene, easy riding for this intrepid trekker, doing what I do love to do.

I wound up renting a cabin for a few days, which I’ve already chronicled… I left there and rode over to Lucky 13’s place in Clinton, TN, to exam the progress Troutdude and he were making on the bathroom update currently underway… Impressive!

I then got the ‘all clear’ from my cousin in Morehead City, NC, so I headed over there… Hurricane Matthew had produced a considerable amount of flooding in the areas of central and eastern North Carolina I’d be riding through, so my original plan to go there had been postponed…

Now it was time to celebrate birthdays… Nick and I have birthdays eleven days apart, and we’ve been getting together each year since the late eighties to celebrate… Celebrate we did! And, we ate… plenty…

That guy can really cook, so I must time my visits and limit them to only short durations at a time… otherwise, I’d have to buy a complete new wardrobe! He and I have some history starting when we were little boys… He spent twenty years in the Army, though, so we sort of missed out most of that time, but since his retirement we’ve pretty much picked up where we’d left off… Cousins biologically, but brothers in all other ways…

I left Nick’s place after about two weeks and headed west… I’d delayed my departure for another reason, but that was just enough so I wouldn’t be able to make Mac’s Veterans Day ride on time, but I still could make the last night with the gang if I rode straight there… so I did…

I cruised in Saturday afternoon, and got another surprise when I learned something by doing things this way. I can’t party like I once did, but I can still party once like I always did! By missing the first evening’s follies, I was fresh and really in the mood… and the rest is legend…

Apparently, some others present are serious party animals too… There were reports of varying degrees of cranial discomfort the following morning, and there was even a tale of one of our guys ending up in the wrong bed in the wrong room on the wrong floor of our motel (he apparently got that last part right)! Fortunately, no spouses or girlfriends or SOs were involved, so no bloodshed occurred. Alas, hanging out with our bunch can be such great fun… and very adventurous, too!

Sometime during the previous few days, I’d spoken with Punisher on the phone. He was in Arkansas riding around, and he’d invited me to come on out and join him… I did. I left Mac’s group in Cookeville, TN, and headed for the state that had given us Slick Willie… I probably shouldn’t mention that… some folks there ain’t all that proud of that factoid…

I rode to Forrest City, AR, fifty miles give or take west of Memphis, TN, the first day and got a room at a motel I’ve stayed in several times in the past. It has a Mexican restaurant and a bar on premises, so it just seemed so right…

Once again it was confirmed to this naive novice trekker that one can ‘never go back’… This visit to the bar where I’d had a grin or two in years’ past was nowhere near what my hopes had been, so… a meal and a couple of cool ones, then it was time to turn in…

I rode to Clinton, AR, and met-up with Punisher at the Huddle House there… he was having a late breakfast, so I joined him… I’d departed very early that morning so we could meet-up early enough to still get in some riding, which we did…

We then spent the next seven days riding together, starting with that state, then a jaunt up to Branson, MO, which I’d consciously always avoided due to reports of traffic and crowds. It wasn’t bad on our brief ride-through, but we didn’t dawdle… Nope we rode up to a town about thirty miles north and had dinner at Lambert’s Café… home of the ‘throwed rolls’. They really do throw those baked items to you; I even caught one myself!

We rode a ferry across a lake in Northern Arkansas on our way to Branson, then we rode down through Story, AR, to Mena for the night following that. We returned to Story and the Blue Belle Cafe the next morning, but… alas, this visit didn’t yield a happy result, just like all but my first visit there.

Nope, the burner was out on the stovetop this time, and the owner, Lori, had gone to get another one. As bad as that was (Lori’s a card), it also meant the ham in that much-anticipated mega ham ‘n cheese sandwich couldn’t be fried, so… Am I going to have to return yet again? I may be nearing the point where I’m going to have to consider giving up…

We rode the Talimena Trail into Oklahoma, and that did produce good results! The Fall color was still glorious, traffic was very light, and the road surface was good. The ride down from there to Marshall, TX, for the night was also great, with lots of sweepers free of debris and light traffic there, as well. Even though we didn’t arrive at our motel until an hour or so after sundown, we still managed an exhilarating ride, and we never spotted Bambi or any of her family members the entire way.

From Marshall, we raced the rain laden cold front that was closing in on us all the way to Winnie, TX, for the night. We arrived this time about an hour or so before the negative event, so I suppose things do have a way of balancing out… Rain time also gave us an opportunity to do laundry. Dinner and a couple of cold ones at Al-T’s once the rain ended, but no party occurred… Sometimes things just work out that way.

From Winnie, we rode to Lafayette, LA, where we’d planned to party for sure… Punisher’s ride partner couldn’t muster the wherewithal and/or enthusiasm to engage in any of that by the time we’d arrived, however, so delivery pizza and football became our night’s entertainment… About that…

It was on this stop that I did some serious pondering about a couple of things that had been rattling around in my vast cranial void… sort of like a pair of b-bs bouncing about inside an otherwise empty boxcar… Anyway, I’d gotten another of several surprises on this outing…

Among those items was one about the pacing of activities as I’ve aged… I’d been riding harder and longer each day on this ride than what I’d been doing the last few years… and, I’d held up rather well! Punisher even mentioned to me that I was underestimating my stamina, and it would appear he was right!

Perhaps my activity level decline has more to do with bad habits, possibly even laziness, than it does with the passage of time… Could it be that my ruinous recliner has had something to do with this…? More likely, it’s the result of ‘expectation of need’ rather than some fact-based choice of necessity…

Another surprise was the discovery that there really are indeed good travel companions available to ride with! Truth be told, this wasn’t a new revelation by any stretch, as I’ve ridden with some mighty fine partners throughout my riding career… I just thought I’d mention it this way as a segue to the fact Punisher is a truly great travel buddy! As for ‘his’ travel partner this time… well…

We ended our ride together at his house near Hattiesburg, MS. Jackie had made dinner for us, so there was no need for us to go out to eat.  We had a nice visit for several hours chatting about all kinds of stuff while sitting in front of a roaring fireplace, then we turned-in for a much-needed rest.

Next morning, coffee in front of the fireplace, then I had to tear myself loose and head towards… my rendezvous with that sinister, leather, body-embracing, energy zapping, enthusiasm sapping, eyelid dropping, and spirit draining oh-so comfortable tush respite station… One more night on the road, then I would be planting my weary, delicate derriere right where I so didn’t want it to be, and… you know… no surprise, huh…