All around Alabama

[R100R Rider]

I hear that Bob & Gary are about try this again. I know that they will be successful and that makes it hard to keep up.

Here are some pictures of Monday and Tuesday's work and ride (less work & more ride).

http://picasaweb.google.com/smoothnaturals/May562008

The location of the the Mt Pleasant Methodist Church near Russellville is in the wrong place on the planning ABEES touring guide on our web site. The correct location is: N34 35.428 W87 42.465.

[Bikebum]

Thanks for the photos and write-ups Martin. Where is the grocery that serves breakfast located, also where is Nesmith's?

[dixieoutlaw]

Yep Martin, We did the ride and maybe for one shining moment I may be ahead of you in total tickets, but nowhere close in POI visited. WE completed the ride at about 8:00 p.m. Tuesday. Our ride was 1313 miles, obviously we had about 50 miles of detours, missed roads, and chasing tires, over the 1266 listed in the book. It was a wonderful ride and I can say with all sincerity that I don't think we went on a bad road except maybe weeding our way through Phenix City. It took us 14 hours each day with about 11 hours of saddle time each day. The first day we rode 682 miles and the second 631 miles. We kept the throttle bent and there are no chciken strips left on the tires. I encourage everyone to do this ride even if you don't do it all at one time. Each of the five routes are a nice day's ride and I think you will discover parts of Alabama that you didn't know. Probably the most pleasant surprise was the discovery of Lauderdale County Road 8 near Waterloo. Maybe one of the best riding roads in Alabama. No need to go all the way to Deals Gap. Should add Bob Steber, Tom Gilbert and Steve Schuckman were with me on the ride. Yes I do have a sore butt.
Didn't take many photos - not enough time. We did earn 14 new ABEES tickets. The day after the ride I accompanied Bob to a few ABEES sites around Limestone County.

Martin, I enjoyed your photos. I'm surprised we didn't cross paths in NW Alabama on Tuesday. You need to put more miles on your bike. I tripped to 120,000 on the trip.

http://picasaweb.google.com/duboisga/AAARide

Gary

[SteveS]

I'll echo Gary's sentiments on the AAA ride. I thoroughly enjoyed the ride and the company. I'm sure I'll be hearing about the tire thing for a while though. If not for Big Boy's Motorcycle & ATV Repair, I may have had to spend the night in Roanoke. Although I was at their mercy, they charged me only $138.00 plus mounting for a Bridgestone Battlax BT014 tire. Thanks to Tom for noticing the steel shinning through and to Gary for finding the repair shop. Not much time for pictures, but here are a few I took.

http://picasaweb.google.com/schuckmanweb/AAA_Challenge

[dixieoutlaw]

Steve,
I really didn't want to say anything about you and Tom getting blisters on your throttle hand. Looks like wuss riders to me. Maybe y'all need to get out and do a little manual work. I really did enjoy the ride. I can honestly say I had smile on my face all day Tue and most of the day Mon. What roads! My hat is off to Bob for designing this route. I just can't imagine the hours he spent hovering over a map and then mapsource to lay all of this out. Thought about going back to Waterloo Tues with my nephew visiting from MO. But think I will go over to Mentone area and then into Lafayette, GA to visit an ailing brother-in-law. Might as well knock out some new points since I will be riding.

Gary

[R100R Rider]

Jamie,

Staggs Grocery is in Florence and Nesmith's is in Moulton.
Both places are worth the ride to eat. There are a lot of good roads to get to there.
Some suggestions: Hwy 278 from Cullman to Double Springs. Hwy 33 from Double Springs to Moulton. Hwy 101 from near Moulton up across Wheeler Dam and by Wheeler stat park.

[R100R Rider]

Jamie asked where a couple of places were. That got me to looking around the Picasa web site and found out you can put pictures in a map.

Jamie, here is the post with the new features. Just look for the map in the lower left. Click on a pin and the picture will pop up.

http://picasaweb.google.com/smoothnaturals/May562008

I had to go to Dothan Thursday and was able to get a few more points.

http://picasaweb.google.com/smoothnaturals/May892008

Gary and Bob are making me work hard just to stay close.

[Bikebum]

Martin, that is just way too cool. I also noticed that I can click on a picture and the location of the pointer appears in the lower right of the screen(if I scroll down slightly). Thanks for the heads up on this...now if I can figure out how to do this for my pictures.

[dixieoutlaw]

You guys are getting to technical for this dumb redneck. Heck, I'm still trying to figure out the scroll button on my mouse. Will have to check this out or have Martin post the instructions on how to do it.
Gary

[R90srider]

Martin. You've done it again. Your photo/location system is really excellent and Jamie's clicking the photo idea is an excellent feature too.

Please do a sticky on how you set up the photo location feature.

Your photos and captions as usual are helpful to see what there is to see in Alabama.