MILLERS FERRY AND SOGGY TOES

Well, now that you've all had a nice little peek into my head... let's get on with what this blog is all about. Riding motorcycles!

Harley and I took off for a little "road therapy" a few weeks ago, on the Saturday right after New Years. We anticipated a nice leisurely ride to Camden, down in Wilcox County, and then over to Miller's Ferry on the Alabama River. We figured we'd put about 250 miles on the Glides and just spend the day taking in the scenery and enjoying the warm temperature. Our weather forecast called for low 70's and mostly cloudy all day.

There was a small percent of scattered rain possible, but not until that evening. I was pretty smug about getting in some road time. I've been dealing with holiday "stuff" for the past several weeks, and our New Year's Day ride was just a tease. I couldn't wait to spend the whole day doing nothing but riding my motorcycle with Harley.

We scoped out a nice route and got off to a pretty early start that Saturday morning. We left the house about 9:30 and proceeded Southwest toward Camden. We took a short little sprint down I-65 so we could go west on Hwy. 26 over to Hayneville, and then get on Hwy. 21 and ride south to Camden. The roads that lead you to Camden remind me a little of Louisiana with it's swampy terrain and small palms growing everywhere at the base of dormant winterized trees.
Unlike the roads we ride in the northern part of Alabama near the Talladega National Forest, our path today was less curvy and more open to the scenery around you.

Camden is an old southern town in Wilcox County with beautiful plantation style homes, set high on lush green pastures dappled with bearded trees and swampy creek beds.

This land is rich with history and scenery so beautiful, it feels like I've transcended to an era long forgotten. This part of Alabama reminds me of how I imagined the South to be like when I was a child growing up in Iowa. As I ride through here, I think that at any moment Scarlet will come running across the grounds with her antebellum skirts flowing around her as she calls out for her beloved Rhett.

We continued west, on Hwy. 10 through Camden and turned north on Hwy. 5 toward Miller's Ferry Lock and Dam. Along our way, we found a nice little restaurant in Pine Hill called Carolyn's, and decided to stop here for a quick lunch. This was the kind of place that serves hamburgers that taste like you made them at home. The sweet tea was good and the food was even better. As Harley and I sat and ate our lunch, we noticed how the conversations flowed easily among the other patrons, as if we had plopped right down in the middle of a nice family gathering. The numbers of folks coming and going with take out orders reestablished the fact, that this was a very popular little eatery.

With our bellies full and more road to cover, we rode north Hwy. 5 and turned east on Hwy. 28 to get over to Millers Ferry Lock and Dam on the Alabama River. We tried to get closer to the Dam so we could get better pics, but there wasn't an easy way to get there on the bikes. Luckily, our camera has zoom x10, so we can get pretty good shots from far away.
Millers Ferry is a 17,200-acre reservoir on the Alabama River impounded by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1969. It has a nice little park area and boat ramp, so we stopped for a few minutes to stretch and take in the river view. There's good fishing for large mouth bass and spotted bass in this area. When we left there, we stayed on Hwy. 28, which took us through Camden again to Hwy. 21 East. Our plan was to head home, back through Hayneville, the same way we came, but as plans go... they change.

Remember when I mentioned that we weren't supposed to get rain until later that evening? Well, as you know, plans change and so does the weather. I started feeling sprinkles that were nothing more than a teasing spit from Mother Nature. I had on my chaps and leather jacket, so this was no big deal. This went on for a few miles when all of a sudden it came into view. About two miles up the road, a huge wall of rain, reminiscent of a big dark curtain draping across the landscape assuring us that getting wet was inevitable. I saw Harley's blinker come on as a signal to me we would be pulling over. We were only about 25 miles away from home at this point, but we felt like gambling. We discussed which direction to take and agreed that the rains were supposed to be scattered and moving north. So, with the Topo map as our reference, we decided we could skirt around the storm if we go back toward Camden, and turn south on CR 59 to Pine Apple. Then we could take Hwy. 10 east to Greenville where we'll pick up I-65 north and probably follow the storm home into Montgomery. Great plan. Oops! Did I say plan?

As soon as we get back on our Glides and put our "plan" into action, I noticed the playful spitting we were getting, had turned into a slow drizzle. Harley was pretty good at reading the sky and has kept us dry and out of storms many times before. I figured this was just another opportunity to outsmart Mother Nature and play a little game of Rain Roulette. Ha! By the time we got to Pine Apple, about 15 miles later, we were getting rained on pretty hard. We pulled into a church parking lot that had a pavilion like carport over on the church's side entrance to take shelter from the rain. We stood there a minute chuckling and chastising ourselves for trying to fool with Mother Nature. We were pretty wet by this time, but I chose to put on my rain gear anyway. I figured if nothing else, it'll keep be warmer while I'm riding wet in the rain. Harley, on the other hand, decided WTF? He was already wet, so he did not. That's my hard core biker. Yeah!

We left the church and rode slow and cautious for another 15 miles or so, until we got to Greenville. We picked up I-65 and headed north toward Montgomery. Up ahead I saw a sign. Ugh! "Montgomery 42 mi." (Do I need to remind you that we were only 25 miles from home when we decided to turn around and "miss" the rain?) By this time, our hard rain turned into thunder and lightning. Yikes! I saw lightning streak across the sky above us a few times. The next thing I know, Harley's blinker is on again. We had to pull off the road twice and park under an overpass to take cover. We also kept getting foggy glasses and foggy face shield, making it even harder to see.

During one of these stops, I noticed the grimace on Harley's face. I asked him what was wrong. He explained that the long johns he had on under his jeans, have gotten so wet, they were dripping like a river down into his boots. He said it feels like his feet are sloshing. I started laughing about his soggy toes when I reminded him how comfy my rain suit was keeping me. He carries one with him all the time (with booties!) but sometimes, he'd rather put up with the rain than bother with the rain suit. Hmmm. Must be a guy thing. :)

The weather hounded us the rest of the way home and this reminded of Dave's post over at Road Grits Cafe, last Spring called "Ride The Lightning". I was hoping I wasn't going to test the theory of whether a motorcycle rider is grounded or not during a storm. Oh well, so much for scattered anything. We played Rain Roulette and lost. The best consolation prize I could claim was Harley's soggy toes. We still had a nice ride to Camden and Millers Ferry, and ate a good hamburger at "Carolyn's". Albeit, a little more wet than I care to get, I'll chalk it up to just another good day of riding.

Lady R