Last Wednesday we packed up the R1200RT and went for a ride from our home in northern Kentucky to Franklin, TN.  The ride down was 380 miles and we stayed off the interstate highways - but we did end up on some nice 4 lane roads where the traffic was light and speeds reasonable.

My wife wanted to visit Franklin to learn about the Civil War battle that occurred on November 30, 1864 - it was the biggest single battle of the Civil War.  There were 30,000 Confederate and 33,000 Federal troop involved, and the battle lasted around 5 hours - it started around 4PM and darkness set in around 6......a large part of the battle happened in complete darkness.  The battle killed 5 Confederate Generals and 55 regimental commanders...there were 2,326 Federal casualties and 6,252 Confederate casualties....it is claimed to be the bloodiest US battle in history (including D Day).

The bike ran flawlessly and was a joy to ride and we traveled a bit over 1,000 miles over the 5 days....the middle 3 days were local rides around town and didn't cover many miles as most rides were less than 3 miles each way.  I now have a better understanding why folks like these big, heavy motorcycles for touring, as the long wheelbase and heavy weight make the bike very stable at speed, and the windshield and bodywork keep the strong winds off of you at all speeds.  Taking the roads less traveled added a couple of hours of ride time and turned a 5 hour trip into a 7 hour trip....another 1.5 hours was added by the 2 stops for fuel and rest and 1 stop to eat lunch.

I learned a few things about traveling:

1)  The back roads can pass through a lot of cities/towns, and most of them have 35mph speed limits, traffic and lots of traffic lights or STOP signs.  The old towns are fun to ride through - the modern strip centers and mall areas are not much fun.  Riding through downtown Lexington, KY was very tedious.....on the way home we took the bypass and it was much less tiresome.
2)  Packing up the bags seemed pretty easy - but it turned out the bags got pretty heavy.  The clothing was not so bad, and it seems the small things are what created a lot of weight.  I packed a 4 outlet USB charger, a  spray can of plastic visor/windshield cleaner, a small bottle of wash soap and a sponge in case I needed to wash the bike, a large tube of toothpaste, a large deodorant stick, and a small toolkit with a tire plugger and a 3/8" drive breaker bar, and the Extra Large cover to keep the rain/dew off the bike - and it all added up to a lot of weight (even my Keen sandals turned out to be pretty heavy).  The two saddlebags weighed 26 pounds loaded, the top box weighed 23 pounds.....about half the weight was contents and half the weight was the boxes.  These loaded boxes made the bike feel very heavy to pull off the sidestand....and very heavy to hold up when getting the bike parked.  Next time I will definitely work to cut back on the weight of the small items.....a smaller USB charger, less toothpaste, less soap, a lighter toolkit, a thinner and lighter cover for the bike.
3)I don't understand why motorcycle seats are so danged hard.  The seat on the BMW is like a wooden bench - there is almost no give to the padding.  The first day it was tolerable - by the 5th day while riding home my bottom was just plain tired and we had to stop several times just to stand up and give our fannies a rest.  I may have to try some sheepskin or  one of those Airhawk cushions for long trips.
4)  Going someplace on a motorcycle rather than the car seems to be far more relaxing in some ways.  Although I worry more about traffic and watching for drivers doing stupid things - it seems easier to enjoy the trip to/from the destination and we were not in a hurry to get the traveling part done...we could enjoy the traveling far more.

I am not sure when we will take our next long trip on a motorcycle - but we sure enjoyed this trip and the weather turned out to be perfect for the entire 5 days (maybe a bit hot a couple of days as the temps were over 90).  At the end of this month we will be going to the Ozarks and taking a motorcycle - but we will trailer the bike down and do day rides.....and use the car if rains shows up any of the days. I do need to get back to the gym on a regular basis......I need to keep my leg strength up so I can keep riding this big/heavy bike as long as possible.
   

I've used an Airhawk, the cheap one, for several years and I belive it does help, I've forgotten what it's like to ride without it.

We will work on reducing the weight for our next trip......I think we can go with a bit less.

1st long trip with my husband was from northern PA to Dover Delware. Our honeymoon.
Heres a tip I wish I had known then. Souvenirs can be mailed back, dirty clothes can be too. Pack them in a box at the closest PO and you don't have to haul it.
I had so much stuff on our 1st trip on way home the kick stand was having trouble holding.
Mail it. For a few bucks you can save yourself a lot of work and it's delivered back home nice and easy.

Serowbot wrote on 09/05/19 at 10:48:51:

The dog is smart, it hides till they leave.

We did not go to the Loveless Cafe' - we did go to Marcy Jo's and also to Pucketts Store.

Our visit to Puckett's was unusual...I know they do better than this as I had been there with Stewmills a couple years ago and it was fine.  On this visit I tried to get gas, and the Premium pump would not work.  So I went back in and got her to turn on the regular pump......it didn't work either.  She said the hot sun sometimes vapor locks the pumps -she told us there was another gas station 4 miles up the road.  When we ordered food my wife ordered the Pimento Cheese sandwich and I tried to get lettuce on my burger...they were out of lettuce.  It took them a long time to get us our food....seemed a bit weird as it was 2PM and there were only a few of us in the store.  When the food finally arrived it was a different waitress and she only had my burger....she apologized that they were out of Pimento Cheese and for some reason the previous waitress didn't tell anybody.....Deb ordered a Vegy burger to replace the other order (no gas, no lettuce, no Pimento cheese).  When I bit into my burger I was shocked to see it was bright red inside.....I thought 20 minutes would have allowed it to cook fully!  I sent the burger back and they made us a new one.....we ate the cold fries while we waited.  When the new food arrived it included hot fries - and the waitress refunded our money and apologized for the poor service.  It seems we arrived at the time they were changing shifts and our food order suffered as a result.

The General Lee was a bit disappointing - it has not held up well sitting out in the sun all the time.  The flag on the roof is faded, the tires were nearly flat......it was parked in a driveway across the street from Pucketts - not down in the grassy field along  the highway.

Deb and I rode south on the Natchez Trace Parkway for about 20 miles.  The road is in good shape, the grass along the road is nicely manicured - it just seems to be a bit boring in this section as every mile looks the same and you don't get any views of anything but grass and the tree line.