Civil War Battlefield Ride 2020

[Dahveed]

3 weeks ago, Aaron mentioned to me that he wanted to ride east and visit a few Civil War battlefields that he hasn't yet been too. I was in. So was @Tim Scholz, but he would have to join us on the road a few days into the trip.

The ride had 3 main goals: Perryville Battlefield State Historic Site, Mill Springs Battlefield National Monument, and Fort Donelson National Battlefield. Aaron had attempted this ride in years prior, but forecasts of serious rain had caused him to change plans. This year, the forecast was looking promising and the ride started as planned.

Day 1 - Friday October 16
We met for Breakfast at the Vickery Cafe in Fort Worth, I had installed a new horn just the week before and as we were getting ready to leave, I pressed the button to get Aaron to hurry. Hmmm, no horn. Oh well, I had ridden the bike for 4 years now with the stock horn which was incredibly quiet, so having no horn wasn't that big a deal. Aaron needed gas, so I was tp lead us to the gas station. As I roll away from the restaurant to the gas station I see Aaron get off his bike and mess with his luggage. I thought he was ready? He got back on and we rode the short distance to the gas station. When we get there, Aaron opens his top box and gives me my horn. "It fell out of your bike right as you started moving away." The rest of the trip was filled with "just honk if you need to stop..." sort of comments.

The first rest stop

I had just that morning declared that I only ate Mexican food in 3 places: Texas, Mexico, and Nee Mexico. Mexican food outside that zone was usually disappointing. So of course the handiest restaurant for lunch was a Mexican food place in Arkansas. That meal confirmed my earlier declaration. Pretty bland.

We rode to Memphis, TN this day. All on the interstate. I-40 is probably one of the worst roads I have ever ridden. It’s simply more traffic than the road can handle. About 1/2 of it trucks. Absolutely no fun, but we needed to get where we were going. We didn't have the time to backroad it all the way there.

 

[Elder Rogue]

Sorry I missed the trip. Sounds like a honking good time..............

 

[Dahveed]

Day 2 - Memphis, TN to Somerset, KY

We woke and packed up.

Aaron has one of those fancy electric Teneres. Here he is charging it up.

We headed to breakfast. Aaron likes (loves maybe is more accurate) Cracker Barrel and there was one 3 miles away. We ride there and they were packed. There was a Waffle House across the street so we headed there. Parked and walked in and there was a 40 minute wait there, so we headed down the road towards Jackson, TN. And yes, we're still on I-40 and not liking it. Aaron pulls off and we head towards the town of Brownsville, TN. We eat at this restaurant called the Mindfield Grill. It's next to a large exterior art display called the Mindfield. The food was very good and the art was interesting.

We finally got off the interstate and ran into Glen Comeaux.

He’s riding the new T700 and it’s got nearly every gizmo you can get it on. Nicely done!

Aaron’s food must have been bad because he displayed rare behavior for him. His next bike might be a Harley.

We rolled into Somerset, KY at dusk. As we rode around looking for a hotel room, we encountered closed roads in the downtown area. Huh, a fall arts fest was happening there. Life is getting back to normal in small town Kentucky.

That night's beer at the hotel. And yes I left the rest of them behind in the hotel frig.

 

[Boulder Ed]

But what is Aaron carrying all that load for while staying in hotels? At least ya keep them bikes clean from the dust on I-40 I'm
proud of ya, and yes, always envious of a good ride with good company.

 

[Dahveed]

But what is Aaron carrying all that load for while staying in hotels? At least ya keep them bikes clean from the dust on I-40 I'm
proud of ya, and yes, always envious of a good ride with good company.

Aaron keeps his bike loaded up like that for every trip. We did a quick weekend down to the coast in September and it was loaded fairly similarly.


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[Crew Chief]

You were going to honk to hurry Aaron up!!?? I was sorry I missed this, but then I saw a picture of strange ritual where you make the bike wet. I don't quite know what to think about that.

 

[Tim Scholz]

You were going to honk to hurry Aaron up!!?? I was sorry I missed this, but then I saw a picture of strange ritual where you make the bike wet. I don't quite know what to think about that.

There was a lot of this while i headed up there to catch up with them in Kentucky. 886 miles, left the house at 4 am and got there at 7pm.

 

[Dahveed]

Day 3 (Sunday):

We woke in Somerset, KY and grabbed breakfast at the hotel. This hotel had hot sausage biscuits and country ham biscuits. We packed up and headed to the first battlefield of the trip: Mill Springs. We met Glen there.

From Mill Springs, we rode to Annville, KY. and visited the grave of one of Aaron's ancestors.

Then we rode out to Garrard, KY to visit more ancestral graves. We rode around Garrard for a while and couldn't find the cemetery. So we stopped at a local cafe to eat lunch and started chatting with the locals (everyone else in the cafe) and they all knew of his ancestors. One of said they would show us the cemetery. It was a good thing they did because we would have never found it.

They mentioned that it hadn't been maintained lately due to Covid. Apparently Covid struck here about 5 years ago. The whole place was overgrown with kudzu and a tree had fallen and knocked over several markers. But we scored and found Aaron's kin.

After finding his family, we headed north and visited the Richmond Battlefield Park outside of Richmond, KY.

From there we rode to Danville, KY and met up with @Tim Scholz that evening in the hotel.

 

[Dahveed]

Day 4 (aka Monday)

We awoke from a good night's sleep to bad news. @Tim Scholz had not only ridden through rain to get here, he also brought it with him. It was cloudy and rain was in the area. Well, we spent the morning at Cracker Barrel eating our food and studying weather maps. We checked out and headed northwest to Perryville and the battlefield.

While at the battlefield, Aaron asked "Have y'all been to Chickamauga?" We hadn't and it was dry that way (south). So new plan, head to Chickamauga, GA on the back roads of course.

I didn't get many photos from the road, but here is an example of KY-Mex food. It wasn't amazing...

Lookout Hill in Chattanooga, TN.

 

[Tim Scholz]

Day 4 (aka Monday)

We awoke from a good night's sleep to bad news. @Tim Scholz had not only ridden through rain to get here, he also brought it with him. It was cloudy and rain was in the area. Well, we spent the morning at Cracker Barrel eating our food and studying weather maps. We checked out and headed northwest to Perryville and the battlefield.

While at the battlefield, Aaron asked "Have y'all been to Chickamauga?" We hadn't and it was dry that way (south). So new plan, head to Chickamauga, GA on the back roads of course.

I didn't get many photos from the road, but here is an example of KY-Mex food. It wasn't amazing...

Lookout Hill in Chattanooga, TN.

 

[Dahveed]

Day 5 (Tuesday):

We started early eating at the Huddle House next to the hotel, then a short ride into Chickamauga & Chattanooga National Military Park. There are monuments everywhere inside this park dedicated to various regiments that fought here.

This is a monument to General Wilder's unit. This unit went out and purchased their own repeating rifles and ammunition. As you can expect, these weapons were very effective against troops with muzzle loaders.

Canyon are everywhere in these battlefields. Most or all of them could be replicas.

After spending the morning at Chickamauga & Chattanooga NMP, we headed south and visited Kennewsaw Mountain National Battlefield Park. At Cheatham hill in that park we toured the gun emplacements. The confederates had 2-3 weeks to dig in and they dug approximately 11 miles of trenches.

Here are dug in cannons.

Those same cannons from the attacker's viewpoint.

The attack by the Union forces didn't go well for them. Many died in an attempt to take the hill. Here is a monument to the soldiers from Illinois.

We then headed to Dallas, GA and found the mass grave (how many soldiers were buried back then) his in law was buried in. He was killed in the battle of New Hope Church. Here is the marker.

From there we rode to Oxford, AL and ate at an amazing buffet with the absolute best service for an inexpensive buffet. The food was pretty good too.

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[c_m_shooter]

The next time you think you need to take I40 across TN, change course up to Union City and take the Bluegrass PKWY across KY instead. It ain't really any further and is much more peaceful.

 

[Tim Scholz]

The next time you think you need to take I40 across TN, change course up to Union City and take the Bluegrass PKWY across KY instead. It ain't really any further and is much more peaceful.

I 40 was horrible with all the truck traffic and a stupid idea of having the trucks posted speed slower than cars. Being stuck behind lines of trucks going 20 mph slower than posted speeds in rain and turbulent air was brutal.

 

[Dahveed]

I-40 is simply too small. They should make it 6 lanes (3 in each direction coast to coast) and ban trucks and RVs over a certain size from the left lane in its entirety.

Having 2 different speeds guarantees a traffic problem on such a busy road.


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[Dahveed]

The next time you think you need to take I40 across TN, change course up to Union City and take the Bluegrass PKWY across KY instead. It ain't really any further and is much more peaceful.

We spent some time on the Cumberland parkway. The roads in Kentucky were amazing.


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[c_m_shooter]

I 40 was horrible with all the truck traffic and a stupid idea of having the trucks posted speed slower than cars. Being stuck behind lines of trucks going 20 mph slower than posted speeds in rain and turbulent air was brutal.

Its been that way for 20 years that I know of. 65 north out of Nashville ain't any better. Now you know why Ricky Skaggs had the Highway 40 Blues...