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By Lynx, on November 7th, 2009  Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church moved from Rodney, Mississippi On our way to Vicksburg from Natchez Trace Parkway we saw a tiny sign for a civil war museum. The Grand Gulf Military Park was a pretty cool place, many original earthen fortifications were still in place. They have quite a few interesting artifacts from the area. Most of it is Civil War related but theres everything from mastodon bones to Indian tools to a bootleggers submarine too. Its definitely off the beaten path, its a ways down a narrow 2 lane road deep into the woods that feels like you must have taken a wrong turn somewhere. There was also these odd roadsign markers in tenths of a mile measurements that I eventually figured out were distance markers from a nuclear power plant hidden back in there too, yikes! I dont know what I was worried about, I lived in Los Alamos and think the Trinity Site is a cool place to visit, we already glow in the dark.
If passing through the area check it out:
Located eight miles northwest of Port Gibson, Mississippi off Highway 61, this 400 acre landmark is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and includes Fort Cobun and Fort Wade, the Grand Gulf Cemetery, a museum, campgrounds, picnic areas, hiking trails, an observation tower, and several restored buildings dating back to Grand Gulf’s heyday.
– www.grandgulfpark.state.ms.us
(I’ll put up these new July Trip posts here for a while, then backdate them to July where they belong when they fall off the first page)
Continue reading Day 8 – Grand Gulf Military Park
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By Lynx, on July 20th, 2009
 Let's get the heck outa Dodge! Continue reading Day 12 – Lets get the heck outa Dodge
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By Lynx, on July 16th, 2009  Hot Springs AR I sure am glad we made the extra push to stay the night in Hot Springs, Arkansas, this place is the coolest town we’ve been through yet. (this will be a theme from here on out, throw my plans based on the squiggliest roads on the map and distance out the window and listen to the locals as we go) Hot Springs sorta has the feel of Durango and other old Colorado towns, lots of old fancy historic stone hotels and bathhouses were everywhere and the main streets anyway had nice landscaping and were well manicured. It also felt a few degrees cooler with the shaded valleys and trees, I dont know how high up we were.
Continue reading Day 9 – Hot Springs, AR
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By Lynx, on July 14th, 2009
 Breaking Camp Continue reading Day 7 – Into the bayou
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By Lynx, on July 13th, 2009  Motorcycle Sunrise from the tent Relaxation. Theres nothing quite like camping out on the shore and waking up to a beautiful sunrise with the sound of waves lapping on the rocks with absolutely nothing to do and nowhere to be for the day. Our plans for the day: Fishing, Relaxing, and resting from the road.
We slept good but it wasn’t quite as peaceful as we had hoped. Once the sun went down the frogs started up. Right away I thought Uh-oh I hope these don’t keep us up all night. Cece said she liked the frogs singing us to sleep. That was until 3AM when they went ballistic and were suddenly about twice as loud. They all just went crazy. Cece woke up too, “I don’t like them anymore, make them stop…” I couldn’t help but laugh. The second night I figured out that 3AM was the time the moon came up over the tree line, triggering the frogs to really crank it up.
Continue reading Day 6 – Lifes a beach
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By Lynx, on July 12th, 2009  Love's Lookout Its amazing to see pine trees everywhere in east Texas with myrtles in bloom interspersed among them. It seems unnatural. For me, I’m used to pines being a high altitude cold climate tree and myrtles only growing in the low lying flats with scorching heat. Complete polar opposites, but here everywhere along the road you see splashes of color reds and pinks of wild myrtles amongst the pines.
We were told to look out for a mountain watch tower where there was a nice scenic rest area where you could see all across east Texas for miles and get a better feel for the area. We kept an eye out for it and eventually came to a Mt. Selman Texas without seeing any sign of a mountain at all. Looking on the Google topographical map view of the area later its just a ridge thats a whopping 400 ft higher than the valleys to the east. I guess if 400 ft classifies a genuine mountain we have a lot of names to change back home.
A little ways past Mt Selman we found Loves Lookout. This place was amazing! By far the nicest rest stop I’d ever seen, thanks for the tip Terry. The landscaping was pretty spectacular, it looked more like a garden park instead of a roadside restroom. They had very nice bathrooms, free cold bottled water, pamphlets and info on touristy things to do and even had wifi. Quite a change from NM rest stops where you are lucky to even have running water or a bathroom at all.
Continue reading Day 5 – Happy 100th
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By Lynx, on July 11th, 2009  Cece and Lil Bit After our little adventure in the bog we desperately needed a drink. The big box of Emergen-C
packets we bought has turned out to be a wise investment, all you need is some cold water and instant tangerine fizzy drink. Its easy to find a water fountain somewhere or just run the faucet in the bathroom a while for some cold water, the packets are small enough to easily stash nearly anywhere without taking up valuable storage space and they just plain taste good. I used to use this stuff quite a bit when I was cycling and doing track and cross country in high school, when you’re exhausted from a workout it really works to help you recover and rehydrate. This one box we bought will probably last the whole trip and only cost $10, way cheaper than 2-4 gatoraids a day X 14 days. I love that they have many flavors available now and not just the generic lemony citrus kind they used to.
Continue reading Day 4 (cont) – Terry and Wanda’s
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By Lynx, on July 11th, 2009  Goin through the big D Ok, so we didnt see man eating plants, but I was excited to unexpectedly get to see a carnivorous plant bog at the East Texas Arboretum. Cool! how many people get to see those in the wild.
Traffic was not so bad in the city early on a weekend, but I did end up getting turned around (I thought) and took a wrong turn. From my directions I was supposed to take I35 to I30, seems simple enough. I saw the sign for I30 and merged, then quickly 200 feet away theres another turn for I30, what the? So I took the second turn also and suddenly we’re going north east. Well this cant be right, now we’re going the wrong way, we need to be going south… I thought I’d somehow made a big circle and ended up on the wrong direction of I30.
So just a few miles down the road I’m already lost and had to pull over to look at the map. I was going the right way after all, who designed this mess? At least it allowed us to get a few Dallas skyscraper pictures before we hauled tail out of town.
Continue reading Day 4 – Lizards, spiders and snakes, oh my!
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By Lynx, on July 10th, 2009  We made it to Patricks House Not many pics today, it was just too dang hot and we had too far to go. It was rather uneventful and boring anyway. By 10:00 it was already in the high 90’s and only getting hotter. Every time we stopped I downed an entire large gatoraide and my eyes were just killing me. The best I can describe riding across west Texas is try putting on a jacket and ski pants with a hair dryer up each limb and one pointed at your face and turn on high. I’m thankful I had the foresight to pack a bottle of visine.
Continue reading Day 3 – Texan Blast Furnace
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By Lynx, on July 9th, 2009
Today was another short day so we took the scenic route and played tourist. From 8200 ft and 74 degrees in Cloudcroft to 3200 ft and 107 degrees in Seminole, quite a change in scenery.
We took highway 244 through the Rez to Cloudcroft. This road is amazing, I’m jealous that my dad has some of the best roads I’ve ever ridden just 15 mins from the house. Lots of sweepers down valleys with lots of tall spruce and fir with wispy spanish moss hanging from the branches, some good twisties and climbs, this road has it all. We will definitely have to come back this way during the Golden Aspen Rally in the fall.
In one of the meadows we cruised through was a golden eagle sitting on a rock in the tall grass not 5 feet from the roadway. It didn’t fly away or anything, it just watched us rumble past, an eerie feeling, like a guardian spirit checking us out as we enter holy ground. Yesterday was the buffalo, today an eagle. I wonder what tomorrow will bring.
We stopped by The Lodge in Cloudcroft to take a few pictures. It looks like they could use a paint job again. From here the landscape changes quickly, about every 5 miles the climate changes. First its alpine spruce and fir wilderness and looks very similar to the rain forrests of Oregon I went through once. Then you drop back into ponderosa pines, then pinions, then junipers and finally cactus and dessert all in about 30 mins of riding.
Continue reading Day 2 – Goin Down
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