Tour of Honor Extreme rides for Louisiana and Mississippi (May 24 & 25)

 Out to knock of some Tour of Honor sites and get some points on the books for AULDR (America's Ultimate Long Distance Rider). 

As my plans adapt in the course of the season, I decided a couple of back to back Tour of Honor Extreme rides (all Tour of Honor sites for a state in at least 1000 miles under 24 hours) were in order. This would throw down some points for AULDR and get me at least 2500 miles on my dark side tire (care tire on the rear of a motorcycle). So I mapped out a circuit that would capture the state of Louisiana followed by Mississippi. I had debated on making a jaunt over to Florida to finish it for AULDR but I had a dentist appointment on Wednesday that I had to be back for.

For Louisiana I still needed a few AULDR stops such as a 9/11 memorial, 2 TOH sites, a scenic byway, and a 2019 IBR site. In order to get the mileage in Louisiana would work out great as I could start the clock right here in Collinsville and finish in Slidell, LA with a bit over 1100 miles without having to pad anything to get it. It also meant that once I started the clock in Collinsville that I would be able to knock down a chunk of miles since the first site I needed to stop at would be in Monroe, LA, a run of 472 miles which would require one gas stop in route. The remaining 700 + miles would be a gentle glide through Louisiana heading down to the mouth of the Mississippi. Along the way I would be able to hit New Orleans and then include the San Bernardo Scenic Byway before doubling back through New Orleans to capture the final TOH site and the 2019 IBR site "VENI".

Start time for the ride was 03:33am on 5/24 as evidence by my Dated Business Receipt (DBR). The Iron Butt Association uses a combination of things to verify that a rider has completed a ride that they claim. One of the mandatory items is a DBR that proves the time and location of an event (start, finish, corner, intermediate fuel stop, etc). The picture of the DBR is taken with the odometer of the motorcycle and this provides a certain level of confidence that the rider was in a specific location at a specific time with the motorcycle. The START DBR begins the clock for the ride. So, to complete my Tour of Honor SaddleSore (1000 miles in less than 24 hours) Extreme (all 7 TOH sites) I would need to have a FINISH DBR by 03:33 the following day.

My route would initially take me through 4 Tour of Honor sites. LA5, the Aviation and Military Museum in Monroe, LA2 the War Memorial Civic Center in Deridder, LA7 the Veterans Memorial in Opelousas, and LA4 the Port Hudson Historic site in Jackson.

LA5

LA2

LA7

LA4

My next stop was to the Gold Start Family Memorial Monument in Baton Rouge. These monuments are being constructed in all 50 states to honor the families of the fallen. These are a work in progress and most recently completed the dedication of the 50th state to receive one. There are still more on the way across the country. More information on the GSFMM is here: https://www.tourofhonor.com/pages/gold.html

a

Next on the list was a stop for AULDR, the Merci Boxcar for Louisiana in Baton Rouge (https://www.themetrains.com/merci-train-roster.htm). I have had a difficult time with several of the boxcars in trying to find them and Louisiana was no different. This boxcar is on display downtown on the grounds of the Old State Capital Museum. After riding around the museum for several minutes I was about to give up when I spied the boxcar through a heavy grounds fence. Due to the construction on museum grounds the car was inaccessible but barely visible through the fence. (for AULDR, one's motorcycle must be in the submitted picture in lieu of a flag being used.

Next up was LA3 Veteran's Memorial Park in Gonzales followed by LA6, the Victory Arch in New Orleans. New Orleans is a daytime only stop and this is what had been driving my timing since the start since I had to be at LA6 between sunrise and sunset.

LA3

LA6 Victory Arch

The Victory Arch was erected by the citizens of the 9th Ward of New Orleans following World War 1. The monument was relocated to it's current location in 1951. I've included pictures of the plaques affixed to the monument. Notice a sign of the times in that the names are listed by color.

Here's a link to a news article from 1919 providing some historical context for the monument:

http://freepages.rootsweb.com/~neworleans/military/victory_arch/1919_news_article.html

Following the Victory Arch was now a run to follow the San Bernardo Scenic Byway. This was to be a short 15 mile out and back since it crossed the Mississippi River. After the scenic byway I had the final TOH stop and a 2019 IBR site to visit on the other side of the Mississippi and so would have to pass through/around New Orleans after completing the scenic byway.

At the end of the byway, both of my GPS units identified another route that would save me 20 minutes. Since both of them agreed, I jumped on it. This route was taking me to Pointe a la Hache which I assumed was another bridge to cross the Might Miss and was approximately 45 miles down the road. This would save me riding back through New Orleans along with several miles. Unfortunately, once I got to Pointe a la Hache, I discovered this was NOT a bridge, but a ferry and while the sign at the ferry said the ferry ran on the hour, every hour, until 10pm it looked pretty locked up at 8:25pm. So instead of waiting for the 9pm and then the trek across the river, I decided to back track my way to my original route. What had occurred was that on a previous venture I had changed my avoidances in my GPS from avoiding routes that included ferries to allow ferries as that particular trip required one. Once reconfigured it correctly, it plotted a route back up through New Orleans that was now adding 2.5 hours to my route :(. As I was leaving the ferry, I spied a fire station and decided, before leaving the area, to enquire what they knew about the ferry schedule. There I learned that the last ferry was 8pm, not 10pm, and that it was locked up fore the night. So away I went back to New Orleans and to travel down the west side of the Mississippi to LA1 Fort Jackson in Buras followed by the 2019 IBR site VENI.

LA1

VENI

In the 2019 IBR, VENI was used as part of a combination bonus that riders were able to choose to ride the entire length of the Mississippi and VENI was used to get the riders as close as possible to the mouth of the Mississippi.

From VENI I was off, back up through New Orleans, to my hotel in Slidell via a 9/11 Memorial and a Huey for both TOH and AULDR before getting a few hours rest for the follow on TOH Extreme ride through Mississippi.

9/11 Memorial in Slidell

Final Stop for the night

The link to my route for Louisiana is here: https://new.spotwalla.com/trip/576a-229c605-8c28/view

A few hours later my TOH Extreme for Mississippi began. My first stop was to ride the NASA Scenic Byway to Space. This was to be a 30 mile ride around NASA's Stennis Space Center. After following the trail for about 20 minutes the trail led me to the main gate of Stennis, to which was not open to the public and I was unable to gain access. Not completing a scenic byway for Mississippi would prevent me from completing the state and cost me two points for state completion. After some parking lot re-rerouting I discovered the Beach Blvd Scenic Byway which was perfect for my route as I had a TOH memorial to hit in Bay St. Louis which would be right in the middle of the scenic byway.

Beach Blvd Scenic Byway

MS1 Bay St. Louis

For the remaining trip through Mississippi I had planned a mix of TOH (I still had to complete all 7 Mississippi sites), AULDR, and Team Stranges Grand Tour. Due to the loss of so much time on the Mississippi the night before, I mad the decision to cut the Grand Tour sites from the route because I had a dental appointment at 10am on Weds and wanted to get a couple of hours sleep before sitting in the chair. So off I went for the next stops of MS2, the Veteran's Memorial in Columbia followed by MS5, the Veteran's Memorial in Liberty.

MS2 Columbia

MS5 Liberty

Next stop was Jackson to capture the Merci Boxcar for Mississippi and an Old Railway station. The information I had (remember my problems with locating these boxcars?) was that the boxcar was located at the Museum of Mississippi History in Jackson. After circling around the museum, which is a sizable campus of several entities, I assumed the boxcar would be inside the museum since I couldn't locate it outside. Parked the bike, traded ball cap for helmet and then walked to the entrance. Once there I was greeted by security who wanted to empty ALL pockets, pat me down and run me through a scanner. This was going to be a true PITA and I didn't even know if the boxcar was inside or not! I asked the guard whether the boxcar was inside the museum and he didn't know. I pushed a little harder and pointed to the information desk behind him and asked if we couldn't ask them. Good thing we did because a nice staff person took me outside and gave me directions to where the boxcar was located a few blocks away - so off  I went on my hunt. Turns out the boxcar was located right next to an old train station converted to offices, a 2 fer!

Mississippi Merci Boxcar

Train Station in Jackson

Now off to Flora for MS3 Veteran's Memorial which I happened across a large rooster needed for AULDR. These would be followed by MS6, the War Memorial in Quitman, MS7, the War Memorial in Tupelo, and MS4, the War Memorial in Iuka. This would complete the 7 TOH memorials for Mississippi and all that was left were some AULDR stops along with completing the 1000+ miles on the way home for my dentist appointment.

Rooster in Jackson

MS3 Flora

MS6 Quitman

MS4 Tupelo

National Cemetery in Corinth

9/11 Memorial in Iuka

I will mention that the trip along the Mississippi the night before had created quite the layer of bugs on both my windshield and my light. Seeing through my windshield had been impossible since the night before. This isn't so much an issue as I sit just above the windshield and rarely look through it unless I'm looking at something up close to the motorcycle. The night in Mississippi though revealed that the layer of bugs was cutting down the light from my forward facing lights and thus resulted in a stop to clear them of the layer of bug crud. 

After leaving the National Cemetery in Corinth, the ride was pretty much a 400 mile ride straight home with brief cat naps and fuel stops. As I crossed Arkansas a very heavy fog, intermittent with rain, set in and with my tired state slowed me down a bit and required a few more cat naps along the way than I would have like. Still, I was able to complete the ride pulling a finish receipt in Webber Falls Ok and finally arriving home around 8am - in time for a shower and short nap before the dentist.

I was able to complete 2 Tour of Honor Extreme rides for the states of Louisiana and Mississippi and closed out the states of Louisiana and Mississippi for AULDR earning those bonus points. I didn't get any of the Grand Tour photos that I had planned on and so those will be left to another time.

The Spotwalla track for Mississippi is here: https://new.spotwalla.com/trip/a7fa-2f781fd-6947/view and the track for the entire two days is here: https://new.spotwalla.com/trip/8233-9cc14d-f4fd/view

The IDE of May

 For those of your following, yes, I did take off and complete a SaddleSore 1000 ( >1000 miles in less than 24 hours) without throwing out my courtesy heads up notice... my apologies but this was caused by changes in ride/route due to threatening weather and my typical not getting my act together in time. 

As I've shared before, this riding year one of my goals is to complete the Iron Butt Associations (IBA) 12 Ides Insanity ride (https://www.ironbutt.com/themerides/ides/index.html). For this ride one must ride a SaddleSore 1000 on each of the Ides. The IDE of each month falls on either the 13th or 15th of the month. For the Insanity version of the ride the term BEWARE THE IDES is uses to determine a starting and finish city for each ride. In proper sequence, over the course of 12 months, 13 SaddleSore 1000's must be complete and each one must start and end in a town of one of the letters of the term in sequence. So the first SaddleSore (SS1K) must start in a town/city that begins with B and the ending town/city must also begin with B. For those paying attention, there are 13 letters.... so for one of the Ides, you must start the day before the Ide completing the SS1K on the IDE and then begin the next letter SS1K on the IDE finishing the following day - so completing two back to back SS1K's. To date, I have complete B E W and this May ride was to complete the A.

For the B ride, I completed this on the way back from the IBA's JAX Party in Jacksonville, Fl. After spending the night with friends in Pensacola, I started the SS1K in Bay Minette, AL and completed it in Big Cabin, OK. 

April I knocked off my back to back for the letters E and W by starting out in Eufaula, OK and ending in El Dorado, Kansas. After resting a few hours I then shot over to Wichita to start a Tour of Honor SaddleSore 1000 Extreme for the state of Missouri (making it to all 7 of the Missouri Tour of Honor sites by traveling 1000 miles in less than 24 hours) and ending in Wyandotte, OK.

So, along comes May 15th and my original plan was to start in Afton, OK and end in Alliance, Nebraska. Well, weather was looking to get pretty rough and in addition, my original plan had called to be out for 3 days - Alliance, NE is a bit far from home, so why not also get in Colorado and New Mexico... this started to get complicated as for each of these states I would be completing a TOH SS1K Extreme as well as getting a bunch of America's Ultimate Long Distance Rider (AULDR) bonuses. The complications began when several of the stops were to be daylight only... this got to be a hard problem - so I then mapped out a TOH SS1K Extreme for South Dakota - again, many daylight complications and did I mention impending foul weather. So, to make matters even more challenging, this would be my first time dark siding (using a car tire as a rear tire instead of a motorcycle tire). 

As time was running out (since the Ide ride has to be ON the IDE) I checked the weather south and started looking at options for Texas or Louisiana. To keep it simple, after looking at a few different options, I chose a simple down and back to Lafayette, LA. Remember, this starts getting a bit difficult because I need to start and end in towns that begin with A. Atlanta, Texas looked to be a reasonable option but also involved about a 3 or so hour to get there, run the 1000+ miles and then 3+ hours to get back home. I finally settled on the town of Antlers, OK and was able to start and end the SS1K in Antlers... the gas stations chosen was 24 hours and generated good receipts. This would make a total of about 1350 miles. 

A little side note here about dark siding. Dark siding is the use of a car tire in place of the rear motorcycle tire. There is a bit of controversy regarding this practice... those who do it swear by and then there is a lot of haters that just can't understand it and in todays culture can't accept that it is something that they choose not to do but need to go on the offensive to folks who do dark side. There are several reasons a person might choose to dark side. For me it's mostly about tire range. My rear tires on my BMW R1200RT last from 6-9000 miles typically. I've pushed and gotten over 10. Recently I tried changing to a Dunlop Roadsmart IV and it looked promising... the 1st one I got just shy of 12,000 miles but it probably should have been changed a bit earlier. With the CT I've chosen, I expect to get 20,000+ miles out of it. The reason I've decided to try dark siding is because of my participation in the Iron Butt Rally this summer which is trademarked at 11 days and 11,000 miles. Top contenders may finish with 12,000 - 13,000+ miles. I expect I'll fall in the 10 - 11,000 mile range and the IBR is tough on tires - so I've decided to go to the dark side..

So, off I went to get down to Antlers, OK - about 160 miles. Tire pressure is something that always affects how a tire performs and this is especially true with dark siding. I started out with the tire at 38 PSI.. on my bike, the normal pressure for a MT is 42 PSI per BMW. This pressure felt nice and I didn't notice any adverse effects.... it did feel a bit edgy in the turns but I wanted to get a few hundred miles under my belt before I tweaked on the pressure. I got to Antlers and took a bio break and then filled up with gas to grab that starting receipt. I had gotten a bit of a late start out of the house so my starting time was 5/15/21 @ 11:37AM.

My first stop was to back track back up north to capture a bonus for one of the tours I'm participating in. That is Team Strange's Butt Lite Grand Tour which has bonus' from both Butt Lite IX and X. The stop I needed was HON (bonus code). This stop while it back tracked 100 miles, give me the additional 200 miles I needed to complete my planned trip from Antlers to Antlers.

From HON it was down to Shreveport, LA for several stops. A doughboy for Tour of Honor, a giant Dalmation for AULDR, a Rooster and an old railway depot for AULDR.

From Shreveport it was down to Alexandria to stop at the national cemetery there, another AULDR stop.

Which was followed by the run down to Lafayette to stop at a 9/11 memorial which was used for both AULDR and TOH. It was pointed out to me in the following days that there was another 9/11 memorial that I wasn't aware of nearby. This taught me to also use my TOH app to see what bonus's may be near by.

I was fortunate getting in and out of Lafayette. Downtown was full of the party crowd and people were in the streets.... from Lafayette it was a straight backtrack north to get to Antlers to stop the clock (5/16/21 @ 6:12 AM and 1058 miles) and then home. I had a bit of a rough time from about 3am until around 5 am and had to take a couple of cat naps along the way. I had started this trip out tired and began the clock soooo much later than what I normally do.

In Lafayette I stopped and let out two pounds of air from the rear tire. It still rode smooth but still had a little edge to it in turns... so I'll be playing around with the pressure for the next few times out and try to get a few thousand miles on it before final preps for IBR.

Link to the Spotwalla track