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First, it was hot, hot, hot. We gathered at the Kroger Store on Highway 70 and the temp wasn't too bad under the shade trees but once we left the heat was relentless. There was no overcast at all, just that ball of fire over our head beating down on us and before the day was over, it would make a couple riders nauseous and that's just pushing this ride crap a little bit too far. I should have cancelled it but the weather terrorist said there would be overcast skies as we moved north. Ha! We didn't see a cloud all day.
We rolled at 4:00 PM and headed up US 70. My original plan was to ride to Stanton but we had not gone but a few miles when I began mentally calculating how to cut the mileage and shorten this blazing ride. We turned on a country road in Mason, and eventually picked up US 51 in Rialto. Our break/hydration point was Halls and we spent about twenty five minutes there. By this time the heat was getting to some of the riders including my better half. But she worked through it. We rode straight through Dyersburg, the shortest route, and landed at the Lake View Inn at 6:30 PM.
We were all looking forward to the cool restaurant as we walked past their two huge commercial air conditioners running full blast. But, there was such a crowd on hand soaking up the A/C it was impossible to cool that place off. Even with electric fans placed here and there the restaurant was muggy and we didn't cool off until we were getting ready to leave. But the sun was going down and even though it was humid, it was a lot nicer going home. Not cool mind you because even after dark it was still 90 degrees.
We stopped at our usual place for a break on the way home, the Sonic in Dyersburg. A few riders continued on home while some of us had ice cream. I was trying to run all the gas out of my motorcycle I could so I could store it for the year so we rode fifty and fifty-five MPH and I pushed the bike to 248 miles on a single tank then chickened out. I couldn't stand the sight of that red fuel warning light so I pulled into a gas station four miles from home and splashed in a gallon of gas. We rolled into the drive at 11:30 PM...Hildia and I agreed, it was one of the hardest rides we have ever suffered through and the heat beat us down so bad that we didn't recover till Monday.
ROLL CALL: Danny Parker, Stan & Nina Viets, David Elston, Chat Lofton, Lou & Carla Nathan, Tim & Linda Duncan, Joe Shoemaker, Hildia Max, Yours Truly and last but not least, six guest riders...
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Tour Riders® 2011
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