- Joined
- Dec 30, 2008
- Messages
- 5,703
Most of my riding this year has been in the extreme NW corner of Georgia and NE Alabama. It's some beautiful country made up of the southernmost Appalachian Mountains as they taper down, rolling ridges and farmland. We average over 55" of rain per year (over 17" above normal so far this year) making this one of the greenest areas of the country. My day trips run anywhere from 175-325 (max) leisurely miles with multiple stops. Most lately have include 80-110 miles on top of Sand Mountain, Alabama.
The bike for Saturday's ride:
Sand Mountain Alabama
The running joke was if you were from Sand Mountain you first discovered shoes when you moved off it. I've always said that SM is 40+ years behind the rest of the country, far more good than bad.
SM is a plateau maybe 12 +/- miles wide. You'll see old tractors and farm trucks rusting right where they were left decades ago. You'll see the old white frame houses now overgrown with brush. There was even a graveyard of old VW Beatles that never changed for years and years, gone now. I've always gotten the feeling that I was stepping back in time, a better time for the most part. Ponds are everywhere, but there are more churches than ponds with new ones going up, several of them. You're not going to be in a hurry up here. An old man in a PU will slow you down every time. I think you get the idea that I think it's a really cool place, all by itself up there.
I remember in about '05 I took a GF from Colombia, South America on a motorcycle ride on the Mtn. I tried my best to explain to her about the folks living up here. I remember telling her that I could never remember seeing a person of color. That's not to say that there weren't any.
Yesterday I was riding southward in an elongated figure 8 with an extra loop at the bottom of the 8. On a stretch of road I've never been on were about 10 restored tractors that looked brand new. John Deere, Massey and International Harvester Farmall tractors all looking like they were on a dealer's lot in 1949. I knew I'd have to stop there on my way back north in a couple of hours.
There are only a handful of towns up here, most of them unincorporated or with a single traffic light. Rainsville is the largest I cut thru, a tornado magnet if there ever was one. I recall 3 tornadoes hitting it since '97.
AL has been slow to open with the WooFloo and all so I stopped at a fast food joint in Rainsville for a large coffee to take the chill off the 90* day
Inside was a sight--about 7 Hispanics who looked like they might have been from Guatemala. Time marches on. There was the cutest little girl about 4 years old who kept smiling sheepishly at me while we played peek-a-boo. She would not smile when I took her pic on my phone. I hope she's never taught to hate.
;
I started working my way here and there back to the tractors. There was a big snake on the side of the road in a shadow that I thought it might have been hit by a car. I turned around and it was doing just fine, a beautiful corn snake maybe 5' long...with an attitude. He did not want to get out of the road! I finally found a stick big enough to pick him up, get some pics and video while cars drove around me, and put him in the brush. I left when it had disappeared away from the road.
;
I had to park the bike on a narrow driveway that led up to a house somewhere in the woods not too far away. I love old tractors more than I love old cars. These were simply immaculate! I no sooner started taking a few pics when a man in a PU pulled around me in the drive I was partially blocking. He said Hi and introduced himself and said he didn't mind me stopping to take pics at all. He was just happy to talk about these old work horses. He asked where I was from and then asked if I knew this family. Yup. How about this one? Yup, Mike and Patty lived 2 doors down from me in the 80's and my daughters were friends with their daughters. He told me Mike's dying from brain cancer I'm over 50 miles of country roads away in another state and I get the news. It's a small world.
I think the oldest tractor was a '47 and the newest a '53. Then he started about 5 of them! They started faster than a new one and just purred without a shake, smooth as a sewing machine. Those old diesel's sound so amazing! He said that he did convert them all to 12 volt. I even got the history about where he found them. I believe it was the gray Massey that he'd bought from the original owner. He seemed the most proud of that one, even though it was homely compared to the others. The gauges in these tractors looked brand new, including the glass! Every one of them was in perfect working order and could have been put to use.
I told him how much my 3 year old grandson loves John Deere tractors and he said to bring him up and he'll take him for a ride, just stop by or call first and handed me a business card. Then he invited me in for dinner. Gotta love country folks. When I mentioned that I'd be concerned about someone stealing the tractors he said that he'd lived there all his life and never locked the barn or his house. He then gave me 2 of his tractor color hats for my grandson. What a fine gentleman!
I hear people saying how they'd like to move to another state or part of the country. I can't say that. There's no place I'd rather be than right where I'm at. I like the scenery, the people, the mild winters, and the conservative politics. I'm already looking forward to my next ride on Sand Mountain. I like feeling like it's 1970 again. It's kinda pretty up there, too.
The bike for Saturday's ride:
Sand Mountain Alabama
The running joke was if you were from Sand Mountain you first discovered shoes when you moved off it. I've always said that SM is 40+ years behind the rest of the country, far more good than bad.
SM is a plateau maybe 12 +/- miles wide. You'll see old tractors and farm trucks rusting right where they were left decades ago. You'll see the old white frame houses now overgrown with brush. There was even a graveyard of old VW Beatles that never changed for years and years, gone now. I've always gotten the feeling that I was stepping back in time, a better time for the most part. Ponds are everywhere, but there are more churches than ponds with new ones going up, several of them. You're not going to be in a hurry up here. An old man in a PU will slow you down every time. I think you get the idea that I think it's a really cool place, all by itself up there.
I remember in about '05 I took a GF from Colombia, South America on a motorcycle ride on the Mtn. I tried my best to explain to her about the folks living up here. I remember telling her that I could never remember seeing a person of color. That's not to say that there weren't any.
Yesterday I was riding southward in an elongated figure 8 with an extra loop at the bottom of the 8. On a stretch of road I've never been on were about 10 restored tractors that looked brand new. John Deere, Massey and International Harvester Farmall tractors all looking like they were on a dealer's lot in 1949. I knew I'd have to stop there on my way back north in a couple of hours.
There are only a handful of towns up here, most of them unincorporated or with a single traffic light. Rainsville is the largest I cut thru, a tornado magnet if there ever was one. I recall 3 tornadoes hitting it since '97.
AL has been slow to open with the WooFloo and all so I stopped at a fast food joint in Rainsville for a large coffee to take the chill off the 90* day
Inside was a sight--about 7 Hispanics who looked like they might have been from Guatemala. Time marches on. There was the cutest little girl about 4 years old who kept smiling sheepishly at me while we played peek-a-boo. She would not smile when I took her pic on my phone. I hope she's never taught to hate.
;I started working my way here and there back to the tractors. There was a big snake on the side of the road in a shadow that I thought it might have been hit by a car. I turned around and it was doing just fine, a beautiful corn snake maybe 5' long...with an attitude. He did not want to get out of the road! I finally found a stick big enough to pick him up, get some pics and video while cars drove around me, and put him in the brush. I left when it had disappeared away from the road.
;I had to park the bike on a narrow driveway that led up to a house somewhere in the woods not too far away. I love old tractors more than I love old cars. These were simply immaculate! I no sooner started taking a few pics when a man in a PU pulled around me in the drive I was partially blocking. He said Hi and introduced himself and said he didn't mind me stopping to take pics at all. He was just happy to talk about these old work horses. He asked where I was from and then asked if I knew this family. Yup. How about this one? Yup, Mike and Patty lived 2 doors down from me in the 80's and my daughters were friends with their daughters. He told me Mike's dying from brain cancer
I'm over 50 miles of country roads away in another state and I get the news. It's a small world.I think the oldest tractor was a '47 and the newest a '53. Then he started about 5 of them! They started faster than a new one and just purred without a shake, smooth as a sewing machine. Those old diesel's sound so amazing! He said that he did convert them all to 12 volt. I even got the history about where he found them. I believe it was the gray Massey that he'd bought from the original owner. He seemed the most proud of that one, even though it was homely compared to the others. The gauges in these tractors looked brand new, including the glass! Every one of them was in perfect working order and could have been put to use.
I told him how much my 3 year old grandson loves John Deere tractors and he said to bring him up and he'll take him for a ride, just stop by or call first and handed me a business card. Then he invited me in for dinner. Gotta love country folks. When I mentioned that I'd be concerned about someone stealing the tractors he said that he'd lived there all his life and never locked the barn or his house. He then gave me 2 of his tractor color hats for my grandson. What a fine gentleman!
I hear people saying how they'd like to move to another state or part of the country. I can't say that. There's no place I'd rather be than right where I'm at. I like the scenery, the people, the mild winters, and the conservative politics. I'm already looking forward to my next ride on Sand Mountain. I like feeling like it's 1970 again. It's kinda pretty up there, too.
