Catfish Cabin Ride
De-Brief - by: B.J. Max

May 28, 2011

Our ninety-three mile ride to the Shiloh National Battlefield and the Catfish Cabin was extended by forty-three after your fearless leader got us hopelessly lost on the Ames Plantation. And it's no wonder. If you look at the 18,600 acre working plantation from a birds eye view (see below) you can see that it is laced with little roads going every which-a-way. And some of them are gravel, go nowhere and dead end into a corn patch, bean field or swamp. But all agreed, getting lost in this area made for some great riding and no one, except David, complained. I will freely admit that I was truly lost and finally had to pull over, cancel the route and let the computer figure out how to get us out of there and to our destination before all the fish got cold.

We had intended to take a leisurely stroll through parts of the Shiloh battlefield but the delay put us at Shiloh right at dinner time and it being Memorial Day, there was festivities going on and the place was crowded. So we only stayed about 45 minutes then on down to the restaurant.

The food at the Catfish Hotel seems to get better every time we venture up there. Delicious. And for a change we didn't have to wait, probably due to this being Memorial Day weekend. After stuffing ourselves we waddled out to the old cabin that sits on the banks of the Tennessee River, relaxed in the shade and just took it easy for about an hour.

Back on the road we split up with the Mississippi contingent heading south and the Tennessee contingent picking up US 64 into Selmer where we gassed up and cooled off in Hardee's restaurant...Back on the road it was now non-stop for home and Hildia and I rolled into the drive at 5:15 PM..Other than being a bit warm on the (ninety-one degrees) ride home, everyone agreed that overall it was one of our best rides ever. 

ROLL CALL: Jake Abraham, Terry Scott on his new Yamaha Star, Tim & Linda Duncan, Danny Parker, David Elston & Brenda Crawford (good to see Brenda back in the saddle again) Lou & Carla Nathan, Hildia Max & Yours Truly...

A few worthless stats: We rode a total of 239.6 miles. We averaged 45.7 MPH and our total time in the saddle was 5:40. Maximum speed: 76.2 mph