Apr 30, 0700 and the Missouri contingent with Gibby and Gordo (OH & Canada) are ready to ride. Actually, everyone is in the parking lot putting on rain gear, for the expected rain. Gear must have scared off the rain. We only had a few sprinkles and could have made the ride without rain suits. Five local bikes, Gibby and Gordy pulled out about 0710, headed south on I-55 for Memphis. We had one couple in their 4-wheeler with us riding (driving?) drag. At Sikeston, we picked up the other 3 bikes for a total of 10 bikes and one cage. We made a pit stop at the MO/AR line for a comfort stop and again at East Memphis for gas. We usually gas up just south of Memphis but with the road construction and the radio talking about traffic backups, an early gas stop seemed the prudent thing to do. At Senatobia, MS we exited the interstate for two lanes. The first stretch was on MS 4 then south on MS 3 to US49W and on in to Vicksburg, arriving about 4pm. Everyone checked in, unpacked and regrouped at 6pm for a quick dinner ride. A few people had arrived early so the dinner ride included about 24 people headed over to Goldies BBQ - you can see the place from the motel parking lot. We also had a couple of firsts this year. Number one was that this MACH really was a family Crawfish Run. One couple from Texas, Greg and Marcy Beckett brought their daughter Theresa (10 yrs old) and Bob Carr brought his grandson Tyler, 15 yrs old. I'll tell you about number two farther down.

A quick note about the weather. We got some sprinkles on the way down Thursday. Friday and Saturday were beautiful days, mostly sunny and warm. Any bad weather in the area passed above or below Vicksburg. At least until Sunday. I think everyone left Vicksburg in or rode into rain. It is 430 mile from the motel to my driveway. It rained 400 of them.

Friday morning I wanted to pre-ride the planned route for Saturday. An alternate ride to the ghost town of Rodney was discussed and with Rodney Road and MS552 being the route there, (both excellent roads) what the heck, Rodney it is. Not sure how many bikes went with us, but we had a crowd. We made it back to the motel around 3pm to watch the rest of the riders coming in. We made sure each arrival knew we were headed for dinner at 6pm. We had some Harley riders from Lafayette, LA show up. I found out they had heard about the ride from my brother and decided to join us. Sounds like they will be back next year and bring a few of their friends.

Friday night is the annual crawfish feed, and since our favorite restaurant of years past is closed, we have moved to Toney's, our new, favorite Friday night place. Forty seven (47) hungry people walked in about 6:15. It was pure chaos for awhile. People were taking pictures, others bouncing chair to chair talking with old friends. Staff was trying to take orders, serve drinks and get the crawfish feed started. We had two warming bins full of fresh boiled crawfish and Toney's kept them full. We had a few people order off the menu and while most of us pigged out on mudbugs, they eventually go their meal. No one knows how many thousands of crawfish were consumed that night, but a couple people (Lee Barnett being one) ate more than a few pounds. Tyler, the 15 year old, didn't do too bad either. Some people might even suggest that I got my share, plus. And now, for 1st number two, mentioned above. I announced at dinner that we were doing a pot-luck feed for Saturday night. The motel let us use the breakfast dining room, everyone brought a dish to share and we all chowed down. BTW, when you are 400 or more miles from home, haven't been told what we are doing and your transport is a bike, a pot luck gets interesting. I wasn't sure how this would turn out, but afterwards when some ladies told me they were already planning next year’s dish, I knew we had something. If you don't know how a pot-luck works, here it is. Bring food, set it out to share, eat everybody else's food. Someone always brings something better than what you brought. Now on to the Saturday ride. I usually spend a couple weeks with a Gazetteer, Rand McNally and the computer planning a route. In years past we had attended a melodrama play after dinner on Saturday – “Gold in the Hills” - the longest running melodrama in North America. A couple years back Art Hazel suggested we add an “attraction” into the ride. Our first was the McRaven Mansion tour, then the Angola Prison Museum and Windsor Ruins and this year we added the Mississippi Petrified Forest. The forest is just north of Jackson, MS, on the west side of Flora. I wasn't sure what to expect but I think most people enjoyed the tour. To get there we headed east out of Vicksburg on I-20 to the Edwards exit and MS 22 north/west. Since I had not pre-ridden the route, I was not sure this would be a ride or a bust. MS 22 is a good ride, sweepers, hills, lots of trees and not much traffic. The next two legs were just roads. US49 north to Yazoo City is four-lane and almost like riding the slab. We soon turned west on MS 16 and things got better, flatter too though, but no traffic. Also, no gas, no food and more importantly, NO restrooms. We finally found a gas station, and desperately needed restroom, at Rolling Fork, MS where we also turned west on MS 14. MS 14 is like MS 16 with even less traffic. It eventually joins MS 1 and we followed MS 1 south and east to MS 465. Here things got interesting. 465 is a narrow, unmarked paved road for several miles, then I saw gravel. Which turned out to only be a few yards as the road climbed to the top of a very high levee. Up there, the road was one lane with two way traffic, and not much of that, but we did meet a few cars. Pavement was good with very rough cattle guards about every half mile. On our left we had farm land, corn, beans, wheat, fresh plowed fields and a couple pecan groves. On the right it was swamp. I think everyone fully expected to see alligators at any time. We made it back to the motel about 4pm, which left only two hours for everyone to shop for and or prepare their pot-luck contribution. This really turned out great. Give people a challenge and they will surprise you with their ingenuity. This meal was as good as any church dinner where people had weeks to prepare.

This year I just got lucky on the ride route for Saturday. It looked good on the computer and it turned out to be that good for real. The Petrified Forest was not the Americana tourist trap I kind of expected. It was a cool, leisurely walk through the woods and seeing these huge petrified logs sticking out through the dirt was worth the stop. The crawfish were good, the friendship even better. Come ride and eat with us next year, May 7 and 8, 2010. See the web site for more info and a slide show of this year’s pictures.