Tip Toeing to Tupelo

It's gonna be another one of those long days in the saddle, a 400 miler. Not alot if you are on the slabs, but take the road less traveled and throw in a bunch of stops, it is a long day. Since I am writing this in the present tense and didn't really do that good in English, I can lapse back into past tense and mix them as I please. It may be confusing to the reader, but it is my blog after all. Our original plan called for 376 miles and when it was all said and done, it ended up 395 miles, so some how I added places. We are going from Americus, GA, crossing Alabama and ending up in Tupelo, MS for the night.

(All pictures are clickable and will enlarge upon the click)

Here you can see the FJR getting abit antsy to get the show on the road.

In Americus, if we headed abit east just a bit,  we could have visited Andersonville National Historic Site, but with the miles ahead of us, we elected west to Jimmy Carter National Historic Site. It was on the way. The site is a bit underwhelming to say the least. It is located in a school, with a bunch of memorabilia.  (Guess we should have gone to Andersonville)

MeAsWe being Presidential

Jimmy and June's High School.

Actually Billy Carter's gas station is more exciting than the High School. Remember Billy Beer ??

Couple more pics from Plaines,GA

For the most part the roads from Florida thru GA and so far thru AL are pretty straight, but the countryside has plenty of things to look at. In some regards you get to see more when the roads are straight.

One of the treasure hunts I participated in with the NER's in New England, had tanks as a subject. I tested the waters on this subject taking pictures of gas tanks on bikes, gas tanks for grills and the rally bastahd decided on military tanks. This place would have been the jackpot.

Grabbed a couple Smoke Chasing and USA Towns along the way.

This place was hopping so it's gotta be an awfully good place to eat..really
neat mural

MeAsWe not too happy
Maybe I passed some gas or something

Isn't this song great ??
but I feel bad for the blue and yellow ones

Next National Park site is Horseshoe Bend to shore up Alabama as a state for the NP tour. Horseshoe Bend is a War of 1812 site, whereas most other battle fields under the NPS are either Revolutionary or Civil War sites. Horseshoe Bend was a battle between the US, led by Andrew Jackson (think Trail of Tears) and the Redsticks, who were part of the Creek Indian tribe. The Creeks were forced across the border into Florida's Seminole land. The Creeks were forced to sign a treaty, ceded much of their land to the US Gubermint. The Cherokee claimed this land as allies to the US, but they would find out what kind of deal they had with Jackson in the future.

We took a ride around the auto course thru the battlefield.

Horseshoe was our last time sensitive stop. We have completed maybe a third of the miles for the day and its 2pm,  conclusion: it is going to be a long day. We have places to see and places to go.

I think these are the Sloss Furnaces (a National Landmark) that we were suppose to stop and see

 A view of downtown Birmingham AL

One of many BBQ Joints we grabbed in Alabama. We have been thru NC, SC, GA, FL and Alabama without a doubt had the most BBQ joints out of all these states.

A neat mural, I believe it was in Guin, Al

Amory, Mississippi for USA Tour

Neat locomotive in Amory

A really kewl roadside BBQ joint in Nettleson, MS. The owner was there with his granddaughter. He was curious why were taking pictures of his mobile joint. We showed our flag and explained the tour.

Just outside of Tupelo, MS our destination for the evening.