2006 Summer Solo Ride About – Part 3 of 4

Like Part 2 this installment only covers two days of travel.  Not that there was any shortage of miles driven, but I am getting ahead of myself.  Here is a map of this parts travels.

 Part 3 Route: Braselton, GA to La Junta, CO

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My goal for the day was to get to Hot Springs, AR., which is about a 620 mile day if I was heading strait there.  My pre-trip research had only dug up a single side trip that seemed interesting.  That was the Talladega Scenic Drive.  While I hadn’t seen anything on the web that really looked inviting to me, it would only add about 50 miles to the days route.  Besides I had never seen the Talladega Superspeedway so what the heck.  

I left Braselton, GA very early Saturday morning, that’s September 2nd, because I wanted to beat the traffic going through Atlanta.  I took I-85 South to Atlanta and picked up I-20 East.  Traffic was light and I made very good time.  I crossed into Alabama and about 20 miles later turned South on US-431 and then on to AL-281.   I followed some nice scenic country roads and eventually got to the end of the scenic drive at Chandler, AL..  At that point I would have needed to go North back to I-20 if I wanted to see the speedway.  During my trip research I had also found a road that some folks liked to ride but it wasn’t in that direction.  So I chose a little fun factor over more long strait stretches of tree lined roads and a view of the speedway.  So I continued West to Childersburg then NW to Harpersville.  North of Harpersville I eventually picked up AL-25 and some of the only interesting road I would find until I reached Arkansas.   AL-25 took me back to I-20 which I took to Birmingham, AL.  I didn’t want to spend the whole way on the super slabs so I headed NW from Birmingham on US-78.  While slower it was a much more pleasant ride. 

US-78 took me out of Alabama, across the NE corner of Mississippi and all the way into Memphis, TN. I picked up I-40 West and ran it to Little Rock, AR and then on to I-30 to head towards Hot Springs. Just past Benton, AR I turn off on US-70.  20 minutes later I was in Hot Springs.  

I had been noticing a lot of motorcycles on the road ever since I got to Nashville, TN.  This was Labor Day weekend but this was a lot more than what I would have expected for even a holiday weekend.  Most of it seemed to be heading West.  When I turned off onto US-70 the alarm bells started ringing because there was a lot of other motorcycles turning off there as well.  Once again my trip research came up a little short.  As it turned out this was the weekend for the annual Hot Springs Motorcycle Rally. 

Now normally this would have been an unexpected bonus but I had no reservation for the night.  I even thought about changing my plan and spend the next day at the Rally.  After two hours and almost 100 miles of driving around looking for a room for the night I finally had to give it up.  The sun had already set so I just forged on and figured I could find a room somewhere a little further on my planned route.  So with the light fading fast I headed for  the Talimena Scenic Byway with my eye on every motel looking for a vacancy sign. 

I got about half way through the scenic drive and there wasn’t a motel room to be had anywhere.  I decided to turn North on US-259 seeing as how scenery kind of looses it’s attraction at night.  At this point I figured I would just get as far as I could towards my next destination.  I wish I could have made that run in the day because there was some very challenging road that I had to run at very slow speeds at night.  There weren’t any streetlights along any of it and even with all my lighting it was not easy going.  I suppose having already ridden 750 miles that day had something to do with it as well .

To make a long story short I finally found a room in Henryetta, OK.  My mileage for the day was 1080 miles.  I was pretty worn out and even that Economy Inn looked pretty good at midnight when I pulled in.  This day of riding is the event that eventually got me thinking about the Iron Butt Association.  If I could ride a 1000 mile day without planning or preparing for it I should be able to complete some of the qualifying rides for the IBA.

In the morning I got onto I-40 and started out for my next destination which was La Junta, CO.  I got through Oklahoma City early enough to beat the traffic and continued on for another half hour.  I turn North on US-281 and headed for Kansas.  At Selling, OK I picked up US-270.  At Fort Supply, OK I continued North on US-183 then turned West on US-160.  A little past Ashland, OK I turn North and this took me all the way into Dodge City, KS. 

The windmill in the above picture is probably one of the more scenic shots I got that morning.   Most of the way it looked like this .

At Dodge City I turned East on US-50 and took it all the way into La Junta, CO.  I have to admit I was pretty bored driving across the plains of Oklahoma and Kansas.  The topology changes that were starting as I approached La Junta were encouraging.  I was looking forward to getting back into mountain country again. 

I didn’t have much in the way of photo opportunities during this part of my trip but I did get 1600 miles of fairly boring travel behind me.  I would like an opportunity to get back to Hot Springs, AK, with a motel reservation of course .  I would like to check out more of the roads in the area especially in the daylight .

This ends part 3 of my Summer Solo Ride About.