Friday, May 27, 2011

2 Days Before Departure

The plan was to leave today with our friends Doug and Patsi Hendrickson from Utah. We would be going to see our friend's in Missouri Tom and Vicki Mooney. But Doug and Patsi were delayed and now our departure day is Sunday. Naturally that day is scheduled to have very high winds in New Mexico. Normally the winds will come from the west which would give us a tailwind but my guess is that they will shift against us just for spite. Across the Texas panhandle they will probably be from the south causing us to ride at an exaggerated lean angle just to go straight. At Oklahoma City we want to go northeast so we naturally expect winds from the north at that time. You may call this pessimism, I call it experience! After visiting Tom and Vicki I hope to go to Memphis and ride south on the Blues Highway http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Route_61 to Natchez, Mississippi and then ride the Natchez Trace to Nashville, TN. http://www.nps.gov/natr/index.htm However there have been many tornadoes this year and if the weather is conducive to tornado formation our plans will change immediately. And from this comes the blog name "Tornadoes or the Mississippi Blues". We will do the Mississipi Blues unless there is a chance of Tornadoes. I will be planning alternate routes today and tomorrow just in case. We also plan on camping on this trip so it makes sense? to leave on a holiday weekend when all of the campgrounds will probably be full. As you can see this trip will be full of opportunities for us to practice our ability to adapt.