November 12th 2023 – Corinth, MS

It was a weekday. To have breakfast with Josh and his family we had to get up early. They all frequent the same school – 2 as teachers, 2 as students. They invited us to pack up and leave in our own time. After they had left the house Katrine went back to bed while I sat on the couch in the garage and posted the previous update to my ride report. We enjoyed the morning and it was close to noon before we headed out.

Florida greeted us with flat and mostly straight roads. The weather was nice and there was plenty to look at. The last couple of hours of the day’s riding was on congested roads along the Gulf of Mexico.

Late in the afternoon we arrived at Steven and Allyson’s place in Pensacola. They had invited us to stay with them.
The conversation flowed easily as it often does around fellow advrider inmates. We shared a lot of things – not least a passion for MotoGP. They had named their youngest son Colin Edwards.
I had to keep an eye on Katrine during the entire visit to keep her from drooling on the truck and the Jeep in their driveway. She has a disturbing passion for that kind of vehicles!

We picked up the conversation in the morning. It was rather late before we managed to disengage and get back on the bikes. With the slow moving traffic on the coastal road fresh in mind, we decided to hit  the interstate for a change. After a couple of hours we need a break from the monotony and deviate to a route along The Redneck Riviera Steven had suggested. For a while we cruised along the beach with the ocean on one side and houses on stilts on the other.

It was late in the afternoon when we stopped by Friendly in Baton Rouge to pick up new rotors for the bikes that I had ordered about a week earlier. They had arrived at the dealer only a couple of hours before we did. It had been a real pleasure to deal with the competent guys at Friendly.

With the rotors safely stowed away we aimed for New Orleans.
The sun had set when we killed the engines in Caesar driveway in Jefferson. He wasn’t home but had left a key for us. He would be out all night so we had the house to ourselves.

We spoke briefly with our host in the morning between when he got back and before he headed out again to have lunch with his 2 sons.
Katrine and I gave the bikes a much needed wash in the morning. I spent the afternoon replacing the front rotors and servicing the brakes on both bikes.

After dark we got in the truck with Caesar. He was to give us a Saturday night  tour of downtown New Orleans. We start out on Frenchmen Street where the locals prefer to hang out and listen to music.
We stopped for Coffee Au Lait and Beignets at Cafe Du Monde.
It was delicious!
Inevitably we ended up on Bourbon Street. The party was on. I would be hard pressed to come up with a better place for a fun night out.
We grabbed a couple of Lucky Dogs before heading back to our crib in Jefferson.

The next morning we drove down to Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve to take a stroll through the Beyou. The trail had been badly damaged back in 2019 by Hurricane Ida. It had been partly rebuilt. Beyond where it had been cordoned off it became really interesting.
We ducked below several big spiders sitting in their webs, saw an alligator, a turtle and got surprised by a snake crossing the trail.
To celebrate that we had survived Caesar invited us for Po’Boys and Gumbo at a bar by the Mississippi River.

The following morning I set to work on the luggage rack on Katrine’s bike. The front corners on the Tusk rack were destroying the foam protecting the Mosko Moto R80 harness. We had tried a few different solutions earlier that helped but didn’t solve the problem.
I had a few ideas up my sleeve and with the assistance of Caesar who’s an engineer I ended up angling down the sides of the rack. It seems to have solved the problem once and for all.

Caesar took us on another excursion to NOLA. This time to The Garden District. What a nice neighborhood!

While in town we also managed to get vaccinated against Typhoid. We have been trying without luck to get that vaccine several times during the last month or so. The company PassportHealth turned out to be our savior. It was a pleasure to deal with professionals who knew their business.

Back at the house Katrine and I spoiled Caesar with a home cooked lasagne followed by Blubunny’s Salted Caramel Craze.
Chris in Mancos, CO introduced us to that ice cream, describing it as crack. We are beginning to see why – it’s highly addictive. 

Our time in NOLA had been a nice mix of productivity and pleasure. It was sad to say goodbye to Caesar. He had been a wonderful host and conversationalist. Because of him, I’m now aware that there are such things as “Attachment Theory” and “The 5 Love Languages” – yep I know, classic manly adventure rider subjects.

We left the city behind as we crossed Lake Pontchartrain on The Causeway. The bridge has the longest continuous span over water in the world. From the middle of the bridge we couldn’t see land in any direction.

Back on terra firma we soon entered Mississippi, working our way towards Smithdale taking back roads and stopping to chat with the locals.

It was still early in the afternoon when we turned down the long gravel driveway to Jimmy and Lois’ house. They had invited us to come and stay with them, when we met them 10 days earlier at Two wheels of Suches. It was good to see them again. They had prepared an interesting day for us.

First they took us to the nearby Lynyrd Skynyrd memorial at the site where the band crashed back in 1977. 
Back at the house Jimmy and Lois spoiled us with a delicious homemade southern dinner and Poke Cake.

We had arrived on election day. One of their close friends’ son, Wally Jones, was running for sheriff in Pike County. After dinner they invited us to go with them to the election party in downtown McComb.

It was an interesting and entertaining evening. We got introduced to a lot of people – including family, friends, the sheriff-to-be and his mother. For a long time it was a close race, but in the end Wally pulled away and won the election.

Our hosts decided to ride with us in the morning. The tail light on Jimmy’s Goldwing led us to the start of Natchez Trace Parkway. From there I took the lead until Jimmy and Lois decided to turn around and head home. We said our goodbyes before Katrine and I continued north along NTP.
In Kosciusko we checked into a motel right by The Trace.

We got back on NTP early the following morning in an attempt to avoid rain later in the day.
It was overcast but pleasantly warm as followed The Trace north. There are several historic markers along the route and in some places we took a closer look at the remains of The Old Trace.

A detour forced us to leave The Trace at milepost 239. From there we took the shortest route to Lake Hill Motors and Marine i Corinth. At the counter we were greeted by the part manager Homer. Mark and Janine from MVMC had suggested, when we stayed with them a couple of weeks earlier, that we reach out to Homer if we passed through Northern Mississippi and needed any help or a place to stay.

Homer showed us around the shop’s rather impressive museum, before supplying us with oil,  oil filters and the code for his own shop back home. He would meet up with us when he got off from work.

Homer has a very nice shop with an equally nice integrated bunkhouse.
First thing on the agenda was to change oil on the bikes. The rain arrived shortly after we did. It was cozy to work on the bikes to the sound of rain drumming on the roof.
Katrine had lunch ready when I was done.
Homer joined us after dark. His wife was working late. We invited him to join us for dinner. We had homemade BBQ burgers on the menu. He contributed with perfectly prepared fries.
We hang out and talk late into the evening.

Katrine and I spend the following day in the shop catching up and getting practical things sorted.
In the evening Homer and his wife Angie invite us to join them for dinner together with  their daughter, son in law and grandchildren. We felt privileged to be included like that.

I enjoy my morning coffee while watching MotoGP. Damn it’s exciting this year!
Later Katrine rode into town to get her hair done. Homer’s daughter had set her up with a friend of hers. While she was doing that Homer and I had some 4 wheel fun. First he took me for a ride in his heavily modified Camaro. Then we got in the old truck and crossed the stateline to watch Small Tire Drag Racing at Pickwick Dragway in Tennessee.
Homer’s brother was competing in his +1500 hp Ford Falcon. It was fun to hang out and watch the racing – and I got to meet Homer’s brother and father. A girl in a nondescript S15 was killing all the boys. To get the full experience we had a Nasty Newcomb Burger for lunch.

On the way back we stopped by another friend of Homer. The legendary creator of the TAT Sam Correro. It was an honor to meet the guy. At 84 he was still going strong and as busy as ever with the TAT.
I got to introduce him to Katrine later in the evening when we bumped into him at a restaurant. Katrine and I were out for dinner with Homer and Angie to try the local Catfish and I got to taste an Arnold Palmer.