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Despite a forty percent chance of rain, fourteen hardy souls showed up at the Iron Skillet in West Memphis for our fifth Seven States in One Day Classic Ride. I always thought that a forty percent chance meant that four out of ten weathermen think it might rain but I recently learned that it means a forty percent chance of rain within twenty five miles of any given point. Whatever, all of it missed us and that's the main thing.
We left West Memphis at 7:00AM sharp and picked up I-55 in Marion and got the worst part of our ride out of the way pretty quick. First stop was an early leg stretch in Hayti and while there we went ahead and topped off with gas mainly because it was so far to the next multi-pump station on our route. Plenty of two pump stations but with eight motorcycles it simply takes to long to fuel.
When I planned this ride I goofed and didn't drag my route to the Skullbone Store waypoint on my GPS software. So while we sat at our second fuel stop in Dresden, TN I plotted a course to the store. You can choose the shortest distance or the fastest route and in my haste I chose the shortest distance. I knew from experience that this choice could send you down some very interesting roads and it did. They were barely paved and a few could even be called gravel. Mark Hansen was so disgusted with these little pig paths he yanked an imaginary GPS off his handlebar and threw it into the weeds in frustration. But the GPS got us there and on time. We arrived at 12:00 noon, straight up and down.
If you have never visited the Skullbone store, you should. Everybody winds up there eventually, even President's. There's a picture of Ronald Reagan and First Lady Nancy on the wall taken in front of the store with Secret Service Agents crawling all over the place. Willie Nelson, Charlie Daniels, Eddie Arnold, who hails from just up the road, are a few other notables who have made their way to Skullbone over the years. At this point Rick & Donna Hightower were forced to bail on us at Skullbone; a wedding was the reason I believe.
The rest of our trip was uneventful except for a close call on gas for Mark. He has a countdown meter that lets him know how many miles are left when he gets low on fuel and by the time we found gas for him near the Alabama line, he had barely nineteen miles left in the tank.
We arrived in Corinth at 5:30 and for a change we had dinner at Peppers. I think everybody was just getting a bit tired of Ryans. I had a Reuben sandwich and it was pretty good too. After dinner, we hightailed it home non-stop. Hildia and I rolled into the drive at 8:30 PM after racking up 568 miles. Long day but a lotta' fun.
Roll Call: Mark Hansen, Dan Randall, Paul Romesburg, David Elston, Charley & Darnel Gibson, Rick & Donna Hightower, Buck & Donna Perminter, Hildia Max and Yours Truly.
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Tour Riders® 2010
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