Terri has been riding motorcycles now for a year now and it was time to take our first long ride together. With her job completed for summer break, we decided to take off for a 6 State ride through the great south.
We left on a warm late spring morning in Clarksville Tennessee. Our goal was to spend our first night in Piggott, Arkansas, a short 239 miles away. Our ride started on US Highway 79 once getting across the Tennessee River, we turned north on TN-119 towards Murray Kentucky. After crossing the Kentucky state line the road changed to KY-121. Geographically Kentucky is much like Tennessee with the Appalachian Mountains and the Cumberland Plateau in the east that gives way to rolling farmlands in the mid state and west.
Once getting to Murray we stop for lunch and then take highway 94 across the bottom of Kentucky. This is a great ride over straight country roads where you can average 55-60 miles an hour. It is a great day partly sunny with the temperature in the low 80’s. It is a perfect day for riding.
Once getting to Hickman, Kentucky on the Mississippi River we ride to the ferry terminal that is on the south side of town. Once arriving there we read the sign and push the call button to let the ferry operator know that we're ready to be picked up. The ferry stop/terminal is nothing more than a boat ramp where the road ends in the water. The terminal sits in a channel off the main Mississippi river channel so we can't see the ferry terminal on the west side of the river, but it does feel like the ferry just left here. It is a 45-minute turnaround and time to wait.
As we wait to cross other cars show up, one couple on their way back from Florida is getting ready to retire and try’s to sell me his junkyard that he runs in Illinois. They seem to be a nice couple but I really don't want to own a junk yard. After deciding not to have a second career in used car parts, a hand from God above makes the Ferry appear from around the corner.
There are only 2 cars coming from the west after they drive off we load the ferry. The fair is $5 per bike to cross, J.D. taking the fairs sees the airborne patch on my vest and says;” hey man I was an Airborne Ranger with a tour in Iraq and Afghanistan”. We spend the 25-minute ferry ride swapping airborne jump and Afghanistan stories. He tells me that his job is temporary and that he is waiting for a position to open up on the Dyersburg Fire department. We tell each other it is always good to meet a fellow paratrooper. I think to myself it is always good to meet a member of the current greatest generation.
When we unload the ferry we are in Missouri, we are in a geographical gray area between north, south, and west. It is definitely Mississippi delta farm country, except this is the bootheel of Missouri. Getting to highway 62 proves to be a challenge of the mind. Like a dummy, I don’t follow a turn that my GPS recommends. Thinking that it can't be right, it’s in the opposite direction. So instead of going through New Madrid like planned, we end up taking Highway 61 across the boot heel. Although we got the same results it was not like we planned; oh well a hiccup.
We eventually join up with Highway 62 in the boot heel and make it to Arkansas. We stop for the night in Piggott, Arkansas with plans to tour the Pfeiffer Hemingway House in the morning. It is good to get the motorcycle boots off.
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