Open Road Biker

I have spent the last couple of weeks here in Alabama just relaxing. Sometimes I will take off and do a little fishing, sometimes a little riding. Well since the site is about motorcycles, riding, and all things related then I guess we will talk about riding.

I haven’t done a whole lot since being here. I set off alone one evening on a little ride and was able to get about 130 miles in. When I started off it looked a little like it was going to rain but hey I spent 3 years in Belgium dealing with rain, why would I let a little cloud stop me here. I spent the first 20 miles on county and state roads with a few little twisties involved but mainly easy riding two lane roads. (For those that want to know I started off in Locust Fork Alabama on county highway 13 and went out to state highway 160). Around Warrior I hit the interstate (I 65) and headed north at a pretty fair clip with the rain looming ahead a little more severe looking than I first thought. I stopped just outside of Cullman and got a little gas and headed back up the interstate when the rain finally started. It wasn’t real bad to start with that’s why it surprised me to see a few riders under an overpass on the southbound lane. I just waved and rolled on by then the rain picked up and pelted me fairly hard. Almost to the point of starting to think about pulling into a gas station but I twisted the wick and rolled on a little harder. No sooner though than it had started, it stopped. It was one of those nice quick showers that just cool off those hot Alabama nights and make them somewhat bearable. About five minutes after the rain had stopped a guy on a sporty come by me weaving like he was trying to get my attention so I sped up and got beside him to see what was up but I guess he was just acting up (children don’t try this at home). He didn’t even look over. He continued to wobble his bike and then turned on his signal and headed off on an exit ramp. The next 20 or so miles were fairly boring but in a good way. It was beginning to be a nice night and my exit was coming up. I got off on the state highway 67 exit and headed back through the country towards home. It is one of those roads that doesn’t seem to such a whole lot of traffic at night and that was just perfect for me. I rolled on the throttle and kept it somewhere around 60 for most of the ride. There aren’t many curves on the road, as a matter of fact it is mostly straight but it is very hilly. That being said you can imagine that the night air and those valleys mixed might have been described as a little bit chilly. Highway 67 comes to a t intersection where it runs into highway 231 and that is where I headed south. Not too far up the road though was where I just had to stop and get a little snack and some Barber’s sweet tea. If you know anything about southerners then you know we love our sweet tea. Well there are only two brands of premade tea that I will drink, Barber’s and Milo’s. Barber’s is a company that mainly does dairy products and Milo’s is a hamburger stand that also has some fairly good tea. If you are ever in central Alabama look for them and tell me what you think.

Now back to the ride (I know I got a little side tracked there, and no that wasn’t an advertisement).
Highway 231 runs up through Blountsville where a county car pulled in behind me and decided to follow me for a little bit. Now I know I wasn’t doing anything wrong but you just can’t help but be kind of leary when those guys follow you. He probably ran my plates and checked me out before he decided to pull off about 10 minutes later but for that little bit of time I tried to just ride like he wasn’t there, a few miles over the speed limit and all that stuff. The rest of the ride wasn’t too far. About 7 miles outside of Blountsville Hwy 231 splits from state hwy 79 in a little town called Cleveland and I took hwy 79 south for another 7 miles or so to Locust Fork and parked the bike covered in bugs.

There is nothing like a good ride to relax you and help you get to sleep (other than sex or am I the only one who falls asleep right after?) so as soon as I was through with the ride it was bedtime. Man I love being off from work! Well I guess I will write about my other rides later on. The next story involved some even stormier weather and my dad rode this time. Stay tuned until next time keep the shiny side up.

Do you want to talk about some of your rides? Share them with us over in the biker forums.