Day 6 – May 23, 2022 Monday – Southern Route
This morning we started in Monroe Louisiana and ended up in Meridian Mississippi. Another good day for traveling. We had a little bit of rain drizzle for about 15 minutes and that was it. It was refreshing and did not get those of us very wet that have fairings. It was a total of 225 miles. We started with a full tank and made 2 fuel stops. We started at Sam’s Club parking lot with MacDonalds sausage and biscuit sandwiches along with some fruits and other goodies. The first ride was very short as we went to the Monroe City Hall to have a wreath laying ceremony at the Veterans Memorial that is there in front. It’s a nice memorial for locals that had given all for WWII, The Korean War and the Vietnam War. I was pleased to see it etched in stone that it was the Vietnam War and not the Vietnam Conflict like they pushed in the ‘60’s and ‘70’s trying to avoid the idea we were at war and war was never declared! We headed towards Jackson MS. We had LEO escort the remainder of Louisiana and all the way through Mississippi. Before leaving the Sam’s Club parking lot, we had a couple of the Motor Police do a little show for us on their Harley’s. Very talented riders. I’ll put a link to a movie to try and show case the riding. I mentioned having their escort. They basically shut the highway down not allowing vehicles to get on the highway in front of us and keeping them off until the entire pack had passed. They were doing a bump and go where the police would block the entrance with their lights going, a RFTW Road Guard would stop and take his place, then the LEO would continue on to the next entrance with a few of his buddies doing the same thing with other entrances further up. I was lucky enough to be close to the front of the pack and could see the actions which included 16 to 18 Motor Police riding side by side with all of them flashing their blue lights. It looked like a moving island of flashing blue lights, then there was a bunch of Road Guards right behind them with their yellow and white lights flashing, it was a colorful morning and very impressive. And, almost all the over passes had people waving at us with American Flags displayed. There were quite a few of the smaller towns that had their firetrucks out there on the over pass with lights flashing and often big American Flags hanging off the ladder trucks. We all felt pretty special. It was a huge welcome from the State of Mississippi. We crossed the Mississippi River, very large and continued on to the first fuel stop. The escort took us off and back on claiming the highway to be ours again. It was a fun time. In Jackson, MS, we stopped for lunch at the Jackson Harley Dealer. It started with a ceremony where the Quarter Master announced the celebrity military hero’s that graced us with the presence. To mention a few, there was a Baatan Death March Survivor, a Tuskegee Airman, 32nd Fighter Group, an Iwo Jima Survivor, a Prisoner of War survivor and last but not least, Michael Thornton, a Congressional Medal of Honor recipient. Lt Thornton has quite a list of achievements as a Navy Seal and if you’d like to read a bit more, a link to an informative web page is: https://achievement.org/achiever/lt-michael-e-thornton-usn/
I was able to get a picture of Lt Thornton, myself and Flat Stanley in front of the dealership, it is below. Most everyone on the ride is familiar with Flat Stanley but he’s a character from a beginning reader book series and the Montvale Elementary School in Virginia asked one of us to carry Stanley on the ride with us. I was honored to do so. Flat Stanley is a character that children will make in school, mail him to friends and family around the world and they will have pictures sent back of Flat Stanley having adventures. Kids seem to really like the stories and anything to encourage reading is a good thing. He’s easily Googled if you want to learn more.
From Jackson, we went to our final stop of the day in Meridian MS. We were escorted to the Ag Center where they had a great meal laid out for us. Smoked meats, veggies and potatoes with a long table of homemade deserts. I have some pictures of the Smoker below. They converted an old fire truck into a drivable smoker with a very large drum to smoke the meats. Pretty impressive if you like smokers. Another wonderful service is also offered here in Meridian. Here we are on day 6 and we all have some dirty laundry. There is a group that comes up from Florida and gives us plastic bags with our names on them to fill with our dirty clothes. Tomorrow morning, the bags will be available for pickup, all nicely folded and clean. Amazing people. I understand they have a large truck that is outfitted with washer / dryer equipment, and they travel to disaster spots to help people that are without these services. An exciting day. Tomorrow, we head towards Chattanooga, TN. PS – sorry I don’t know how to format these pages very well. Being new at this role, I didn’t have much time to learn the nuances of formatting.
IMG_5132 <—— Link to movie of LEO on bike.
