Thu 7 Jul. - Montgomery to Atlanta and our last night in the US ...

Today is our last day of riding - we've 200 miles to cover from Montgomery to Marietta, Atlanta ....

It's a buffet buffet breakfast at the hotel, which is unusually somewhat lacking... no peanut butter!
Again today we load up at 8:00, with "kickstands up" at 08:30

Leaving Montgomery , and get onto Interstate (I-85) for a while.
The traffic's not to heavy and it's an easy ride.
It' is already hot as we leave, but not as hot as it has been.... yet

We make a gas stop at a Sunoco gas station, ah Sunoco are official sponsors of NASCAR racing, and I pick up a bunch of nice Sunoco stickers for my toolbox back home. Then it's back onto I-85 heading for Opelika Harley-Davidson dealership.

To get there we turn off the interstate, back onto the 'road less traveled' - Highway 431 and into Opelika H-D. This is a 'proper' dealership - not just a T-Shirt shop like some H-D retail outlets that we've been to - and there's some great bike here. Plenty of T-shirts here but hardly any size S. I Didn't really fancy any of their designs anyway. I pick up a few local bike papers/mags though. Handy.

Off again on #431, out of Opelika, riding through towns of Lafayette, White Plains, Five Points, Stroud. Turning right onto Hwy 34, and pass back from Alabama into Georgia state - and with that transition clocks go forward 1 hour - so 11:40 becomes 12:40 and we're now 5 hours behind the UK.

Passing through Franklin, Georgia, where me make a pre-lunch stop at "The double Scoop" for an ice cream ...

Today we make our real lunch stop in  the town of Newnan. Here we have a choice of where to go to eat, including Arbys, Hooters and Applebees.

Mrs K and I take a look in Applebees. but back out and opt instead for Arbys. We're the only ones We're the only ones. I have the Pecan Chicken Salad wrap...

The food service is very quick (well, they're not very busy) and the food is great. Even better, they have 'happy hour' from 2 to 5, so a lot of the stuff then is only $1. We enjoy our lunch, have a peek into Hooters, just to see what they have, but we don't want anything there today and we venture back to Applebees ...

where we find that all the others are still waiting for food service! Anyway we take a table in there to wait, and the server brings us an iced water each.

Eventually we're all done with lunch, and get head North on Hwy 29

.....

We use the Interstate on the approaches to Atlanta, which we skirt around and then come off the interstate, passing through Smyrna (and it's endless sets of stop lights). Now it's about 4.30 now and the traffic is building up.

We make a final fuel stop, so as to return the bikes with full tanks, and eventually we're at Marietta, at the Eaglerider depot where we started. I unload all our belongings from the bike , chuck it's keys in the saddle bag, and go straight over to the next door Harley dealership. There I find my bargain Tee, a Harley Christmas one, reduced from $35 down to $10

So we say goodbye to the bikes (bye-bye Ted), thank the Eaglerider staff, for there service, and grab a beer off the van.
On my bike, Lic # TGZ575, the mileage out was 9995, the mileage in 11985 - we've covered just a little under 2,000 miles.

above: an old single cylinder Connaught in the Eaglerider depot at Marietta.

We board a mini coach to take us about 18 miles to tonight's hotel in downtown Atlanta - the Hyatt Regency.

Traffic coming into Atlanta is very heavy, but we're soon at the hotel.
The support van is following but Jan get stuck in the traffic and so its bit of a wait till we can unload the van. Then the Hotel make Jan wait ages to get hold of all our room keys. Eventually we're there, on the 22nd floor, #2260

we're in the room a lot later than planned, various things conspiring against us, so we don't have long to get ready to go out again. for the final dinner Jan has arranged for us to eat at the Hard Rock Cafe, which is just 1 block away 215 Peachtree st. NE. The group of us assemble in the hotel lobby at 8 and set off 1/2 later, and we're soon there.

At the HRC, we have a private dining area and are seated 4 or 6 to a table. The menu is interesting and we order drinks, the then the food. Service could be quicker!

I order a Grilled Chicken Arugula Salad (baby arugula, sliced grilled chicken, spicy pecans, dried cranberries, oranges and feta cheese with lemon balsamic vinaigrette) and Mrs. K has Wings, Buffalo style with Classic Rock sauce, served with blue cheese and carrot and celery sticks. The foods good, and it's good to all enjoy a final meal together, with the inevitable photos of each other, Welsh flag signing, and even a couple of speeches. There's no brawling and everyone's in good spirits.

Each couple gets a separate bill to settle and we're done, leaving the HRC at about 00:30 for the short walk back.

Back at the room we do a bit of sorting out, and then its time for bed.

Group Photos (from various days) ......

and some non-group photos, just for good measure ...
('cos I know some of you like to see photo's rather than having to read)...

... and a few more from The Shed...

Wed 6th July - Mobile to Montgomery

Day 13. Today we ride 200 miles through Alabama heading North East to Montgomery. 

Tonight we're in the Double Tree Hotel in downtown Montgomery, which is the state capital.

120 Madison Ave. Montgomery AL 36104

We leave Mobile on Interstate I- 65 heading North East...

There's an early coffee stop at the Stage Coach Cafe in Historic STOCKTON
but we arrive before it opens, so they open it early for us... and they give us free coffee...

From Stockton we take Hwy 59, then Hwy 21 and stop the Chevron gas station at Mama's Place, Monroeville, to refuel.

above: ironic sign at Mama's place.

on up Hwy 41 to our lunch spot, which today is in the town of Camden, at Hardees, where the food service isn't so fast - i guess we just tripled there normal customer numbers!

above: historic picture!

Leaving Camden , it's not so far to ride this afternoon to get to todays destination. We manage to dodge a few thunderstorms again, depite the distant lightning and storm clouds, we remain dry

And so, we're soon at the Double Tree, get our room keys off of Jan, and get settled in.

Tonight Mrs. K and I , together with 4 of our traveling companions, eat at the Mellow Mushroom  restaurant, a short walk from the hotel. It's not somewhere we'd heard of before but apparently there's a chain of them. They have a varied menu. the others all have Pizzas, I have 1/2 an old School Jerk Chicken Hoagie (and me pint of Guinness)

After the meal we all leave the MM and go for a drink at another bar nearby, but everywhere is so quiet. On the street there's hardly any traffic, and the bar is not busy at all - this is surprising to me,  for a state capital.

Back at the hotel, the bar person won't serve us, ounless we take the drinks back to our rooms. We don't bother. very odd. So endeth the 13th day.

Tomorrow: 200 mile run back to Marietta, return our trusty steeds, and one last night together in Downtown Atlanta before going our separate ways.

footnote: logging trucks bound for the cellulose plant

Tue 5th July - NOLA to Mobile ... "Let the Good Times Roll" ...

The arrangement was to leave Le Richelieu at leave at 7.30 as we're not having breakfast there, but it ends up being more like 8.15. Ho hum.

First off there's a stop for gas, then it's out of the French Quarter, out of the City and onto the bridge over lake Pontchartrain which is the 7th longest bridge in the world at nearly 24 miles end-to-end. its two separate dual carriageways that go causeway-bridge-causeway-bridge-causeway.

It goes from New Orleans to Mandeville. and is 3 miles longer than the shortest distance between England and France.

And Mandeville is where we stop for our breakfast at... LIZ'S WHERE Y'AT DINER

And an excellent breakfast it is too, the best of the trip I'd say.
Steak and eggs with spuds and toast is my choice, with lashings of coffee.

We leave Mandeville, East along Hwy 190, onto Hwy 90 at White Kitchen (aren't these place names somrthing else?), over the Pearl River, over the big bridge at Bay St. Louis,  after which Hwy 90 runs along the beachfront of beautiful white sand Gulf coast beach.

Lined with beautiful beach front properties (lots of which are on 15 foot stilts).
We all pull over to admire the view and me and a couple of others take the opportunity to go for a swim in the Gulf of Mexico. The waters lovely and warm, and the slope down under the water is very slight. Just a quick swim though. Totally unprepared for this, so it's done without any pucker bathers. Jan finds a towel for us on the van thankfully.

We stay on Hwy 9 as it runs along the beach front, through
Pass Cristian and Island View...

...through  Gulfport, Boloxi...
We leave Mississippi and enter (Sweet Home) Alabama... (it actually says that on the road sign as you cross the boundary)

Todays lunch stop is at "the Shed Barbeque and Blues Joint" , in  Ocean Springs but I dont have anything - not after that breakfast!

This is a 'quirky' place though. I don't suppose you've eaten out at a restaurant where the floor is just gravel have you?

There's an amazing of junk displayed here. I'll let the photos do the talking...

by the way, just look at the length of this articulated caravan...

From here it's about 70 miles to the city of Mobile (pronounced Mow-Beel) where our hotel is tonight, the Renaissance  Riverview Plaza, in the centre of the town. Room 1303 (13th floor)

and yes, it does have a river view - here's the one from our room...

Tonight we eat al fresco at LODA BIER GARTEN , on the corner of Dauphin St and St. Joachim St.

I order  a Reuben sandwich , and a pint of Guinness. Mrs. K has Fish n Chips

One odd thing I've noticed on this trip, is that in the bars, the beer pumps are not mounted on the bar like we do, but on the wall behind the bar, like we do with the optics for spirits, see..

no shortage of different beer here though - but then it is called he Beer Garden

After dinner we walk back towards the hotel and stop for a coffee at Serda's Coffe Co.

Mrs K has a 'Blue Dolphin' (it's a drink), me just an espresso. There's a pub quiz going on but the questions are all very obscure, and we leave after 2 rounds.