Wing Ding 37

[rivers63386]

I am a member of the Goldwing Road Riders Assn and they have an annual convention, they call Wing Ding... It was moved to Labor Day this year from the fourth of July... So I convinced Al to go with me to Huntsville, Alabama... Its 675 miles from us here in KC..... Road Trip....!





We left here on Tuesday before the big weekend... It was really early in the morning, before daylight, so we watched the sun come up as we were riding on the Missouri side of our state line here South of KC. By mid morning we were gassing up in Springfield, Mo.





As the day progressed we were in Mountain Grove on highway 60 at a McDonalds for lunch. But only rested and got coffee.. Onward as it became afternoon we arrived in West Plains, Mo in the South Eastern part of Missouri... There we stopped at a Wendy's (of course) and did get lunch...





It was starting to get hotter, as it was now above 90 in the afternoon sun...

Next it was the twisties of the Northern Arkansas, Eastern Ozarks... We were still pumped up because it was our first day out so we raced thru the Arkansas Hills.... Al lot of it is 30 and 40 mph corners, but we didn't slow up much from the speed limit and traffic didn't cause much trouble either..





By about 4 PM we stopped at a Super 8 in Jonesboro, Arkansas, that I had made a reservation for on Hotels.com... Place was a dump... We had ridden 378 miles... The first room didn't have a working air conditioner, and we really needed that after the hot ride... But the second room was on the North side of the building and did have a better AC... We had a nice evening meal in a family restaurant next door and crashed for the night...





Wednesday.... We were off after a quick breakfast in the hotel's breakfast room at about 8:30 AM and rode straight for Memphis... The road becomes 4 lane interstate once 63 merges with I 55 North of Memphis and we rode right thru the town on the perimeter bypass highways...

I 55 is jammed with traffic mostly trucks, so we were glad to have Memphis in our rear view mirrors...





The rest of the day we rode across Mississippi and Alabama... The traffic was fairly light and tolerable, That is until we arrived at Decatur, Alabama... There we ran into a traffic jam... You cross the Tennessee river there, and it was solid construction zone on the South side of the bridge.. Traffic was at a standstill... We had to take off our riding jackets because of the heat from the stopped vehicles.. It took about 45 minutes to get about 2 miles to and over the bridge... Enduring riding a motorcycle in the summer requires you to keep moving to allow the wind to cool you off, so getting trapped like that isn't fun...





Once in Huntsville, we found our way across town and back out a small highway to the South where I had reservations in a Hampton Inn... It was in a valley between two of the mountain ridges. Everything was lush green and it was much cooler up in the mountains above town..

It was as nice, and the previous nights room was bad... Think warm chocolate chip cookies on check in! We made an additional 300 miles on Wednesday....





More in the next post

[Lucky]

Great ride report. We were there also and had a good time. Worked in a trip to Lynchburg, Tn. with a stop at SKUUTER'S place on the way back to Huntsville. Always good seeing him. It was lunch time so he acted like he was in charge. Also got in a trip to Hollywood while we were there. RIDE SAFE

[rivers63386]

Thursday The official start of the show... There was a breakfast, but I never signed up for that as I am not much on listening to the key note speaker.... But folks were there way early, while I was back at that Hampton Inn soaking up scrambled eggs and sausages... Hampton does a nice job with their included continental breakfast...

But when we did get downtown about 9 AM we found everything parked full.... Streets were cordoned off and small alley ways were set up that only motorcycles can get thru... This was a convention center with an Ice arena and many large meeting rooms as well as a commercial show floor...

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While cute, the corvette seemed too small to be practical... That's my black trike parked next to the trailer... I had put my helmet on the back rack, but when I came back I found it knocked down on the paint... I hope it was just the wind...

We went to the commercial vendor show every day for three days in a row.... Not that we bought that much, but we seemed to be looking at everything presented... We dug thru racks of accessories looking for just the right half cover to go over my bike when it is parked outside of a motel... And I tried on almost every helmet in the place looking for one that fits my big head...... No snickering...!

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I appear to have taken a picture of myself taking a picture... In the rear view mirror...

But this is the line up to go on the parade on Saturday Morning.... They counted the rows of bikes and said there were over 2500 on this street they blocked off...

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Even behind where I was staged, they started to make another group.... This was mostly full by the time we started out.... We were four bikes wide but they sent us off single file. It took quite a while to just get us rolling... The police had every unit at every corner while we went thru town and then left for the mountain to the East of the town... We wound around on the top of the mountain and then came back down thru the really oldest part of town... There were really big stately homes that were in mint condition of repair... Everywhere folks were out along the parade route with their kids watching us go by and waving... My arm was really sore when we got back to the parking garage...

This is kind of cheesy but its what you do in order not to have the atmosphere created by Sturgis type of rally...

For the most part the bikes were parked and people walked around during the event.... There was no endless driving up and down the main streets thru town like the Daytona or Sturgis events.. There were no big bars or drunken folks.. The evening events were dry...

On Thursday evening they had a bike light show... It was after dark and folks did parade thru the pre arranged course with all their bikes lit up... This is a big deal to some of there folks as they cover their bikes is lights..... And now that we have LEDs, the bikes are covered in all colors on every inch.. These are hot sales items inside the commercial area....

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I include this picture as it was taken in the commercial area of the show... This is a new modern Indian motorcycle that has been triked by Roadsmith... It seems we were so busy talking to everyone and looking at all the neat stuff that we didn't bother taking many pictures inside....

The pictures were taken by my friend Al with his Iphone...

The format of the commercial area is half for people that actually work on your bike and the other half of the floor is for vendors that sell smaller stuff or just display their trailers and stuff... There are quite a few fair like vendors hawking pots and pans and massage chairs too... Jewelry and T shirts and the ever proverbial wonder cleaner guys........

If you purchased something to be installed on your bike, you could bring it in for the vendor to work on.... This is controlled with armed guards... Well strong arm anyway.. Our ride leader from the Arizona club is one of the guards that polices this... I found him outside behind the building with a walkie talkie.. Lining people up in the sun to wait their turn.

You buy your accessory, and get a pass with a specific time on it... Then you go thru a gate with a guard house and show your pass about 15 minutes before your time... Then you wait in the dreaded line up behind the building...

They call your vendor to see when he is ready... Then when its time, your are admitted to the show floor at walking speed as you make you way thru the people in the aisles... Everyone in the show knows how this works so they make way for the guys on bikes going to a specific booth... Many of the booths are pen stripers so don't touch the paint is another common thing to be heard...

I wondered how this procedure would work, but it seemed orderly and to my knowledge no one was hit or hurt.... 

Note, I write this for a travel blog, and a lot of folks aren't motorcycle people.... So some of what I explain is common knowledge for the rest of us.... Rod

[rivers63386]

As we finished the last entry, all we had left was the Saturday night final dinner. It was held in the Ice Arena that was part of the convention center there in Huntsville, Alabama... It is a fairly new facility and hold lots of people.... The web site says 10,000 but that would be all of the arena seating for an event including the floor...





We were having a sit down banquet, so I have no idea how many folks were there, but I would guess somewhere around a 1500 sitting at round 10 person banquet tables... I know the tickets were limited, and had to be purchased in advance... Several folks said they couldn't get tickets..





It was a barbecue and was as good a rendition as could be expected from chafing dishes. We all lined up in the hallways of the convention hall, and it was somewhat overwhelming as the line seemed several blocks long... We only came a half hour before the event, and found ourselves way at the back of the line...





But when the doors opened, it went really quickly.. They had about 10 serving lines, but as luck would have it, since we were at the back of the line, most of the food had already been eaten.... I managed to get a couple of rolls and a gob of pulled pork with a really small ear of corn...

The salad was completely gone as were most of the condiments...





They were selling raffle tickets for the drawing.... Products were donated by JM headsets that were drawn randomly from a big barrel... Some of the items were really pricey give aways... The money from the tickets was donated to a charity.





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This picture was inside the arena as I waited to go thru the food line... There was live entertainment that was overwhelmingly loud... My cell phone doesn't do a good job with my very shaky arms holding it high above my head, so the focus is quite soft.





And with that, the party was over.... The vendors were open on Sunday, but we were out of there..





We rode from Huntsville across Northern Alabama and then up into Tennessee.. It was overly hot that afternoon, so we stopped often for drinks and air conditioning. We stuck mostly to back two lane roads. Having a sit down lunch at Chili's in Florence, Alabama...

From there we rode to Savannah, Tennessee, and then to Dyersburg, Tennessee... Stopping about 4:30 in the afternoon sun I was really glad to get off of the trike... The heat index had to be in the 110 area... Sunday was 225 miles.





We again stopped at another Hampton Inn, but this one was an older property that was converted from a different motel... It was more of a Motel format with interior doors.. The heat and humidity was causing low voltage in the electrical grid there in town, and we couldn't get our computer and cell phone devices to charge.. I had a meter in my top case and measured the voltage at barely 100 volts... But as the night pressed on the ACs came back to full power and our items finally charged..





We were up at 5 on Monday, labor day... Rolling by 6:30, we were out to beat the heat of the day.. Crossing the Mississippi river at about daybreak we headed off into rural Missouri on the small lettered roads...

We were in the boot heal and ran into several closed highways... We weren't really lost because we were heading North and West but you just couldn't get there from here.. Somehow we ended up in Poplar Bluff.... From there US 60 brought us across southern Missouri...





There is quite a windy road from Mountain Grove thru the forest to Lebanon, Mo. This is somewhat like the dragon in Deals Gap, North Carolina.. It isn't labeled as a motorcycle run as it goes thru Ft Leonard Wood Forrest, but seems to have just as many curves and hills.. Its more like 40 miles long not 11 like the dragon... We zoomed right thru this stretch (fun).. Never seeing too many cars or police anywhere... I think there was one gas station and it was a ma and pa gravel drive place..

We had filled back at the Wal Mart in Mountain Grove..





Of course, since we had enjoyed wonderful sunny weather up to this point, the clouds threatened all the way to Lebanon... And stopping at a Wendy's in Lebanon for a quick coffee and bathroom, gave the storm time to catch us... So now it was rain suits for the rest of the ride into Lake Ozark...





Lake Ozark, meant we could stop at the lake cabin and save a night of Motel... Also the restaurants are now familiar and it seems like home... Monday was 310 miles.





On Tuesday it was on home after the morning pancake inn breakfast... And the rains never stopped until we were withing sight of KC... Another 160 miles. 8 days on the road! The hot days were taxing with exhaustion and we walked a million miles in the show... All and all another adventure.

[2blackbelts]

Hey Rivers...you actually drove by both of my home towns on your trip.

I practice in Nevada, MO. and your probably took I-49 (old 71) and went right past us.

On the way home, you stopped in Lake Ozark, and you probably drove by our exit where I live full time in Osage Beach.

Don't forget Bike Fest starts Thus. at the Lake of the Ozarks.

[rivers63386]

Blackbelt, we went down 13 to Springfield so we missed your home town on this trip... But we are Romeo Riders and do lunches all over Missouri and Kansas and were in Butler recently so that was close...

The lake cabin is on the 2 MM of North shore so were actually neighbors there..... almost...LOL