Phew.. Its hot weather channel say’s 99 and feels like 105 and in Sturgis MS, it was 100 and felt like 200 the heat index had it at 115 my wife said it was hot.. No.. it was hell hot.

We started out Saturday morning and just loading my wife’s stuff I was dripping sweat.
So off to Mini Sturgis, Sturgis MS. We took I20 to Natchez Trace and headed North. I had checked to see if they had finished the Trace around Jackson and it was completed May 2005 so smooth sailing. Well I thought smooth, a bridge was being rebuilt so a few miles of detour and off again.

The Trace was nice with lots of shade and it took the edge off the blast furnace of a ride. Booger ran great but I’m still getting the engine light on decel at 50 mph and 2k rpm. The speed limit on the Trace is 50 mph so we ran 60 most of the way unless I needed to pass, so a slow stroll through the country. Around Jackson there is nice reservoir to ride around, I think that stretch is most scenic.

I had looked at the map and saw a small town called French Camp, it looked like it had more the 4 streets so I thought we’d find a place to eat there if we pulled off the Trace. The only problem I have with riding the Trace is you never know where you are.. not a sign anywhere, other then a Hospital informational or state road crossing so if you ride it make sure you know your mileage.

When we came to French Camp it was great, Nothing there but an old molasses farm and school house log cabin Welcome center, which had been turned in to a very small restaurant the famous “Big Willie BLT” is the house special. Get 2 they are great! The Cabins dated back to 1808, all taken apart and rebuilt cabin by cabin.
Well as luck would have it, this “Camp” was a special place, a school for kids that for whatever reason needed to be removed from their homes. It works totally on donations and what they sell in Molasses. A Bed and Breakfast in rebuilt log cabins all from the 1800’s. They all had air conditioning and in door plumbing <grin>. We stayed there, our cell phones didn’t work there so the owners let us borrow their land lines to call home and make sure the kids were okay.

After an hour of air conditioning we rode in to Sturgis. God lets talk hot. I mean HOT.
We got stuck in the traffic entering town and I found an old gas station to park the bike on the street and walk up. I picked the station it was covered and had a bench were we could sit and get some ice water. I’ve never seen my wife drip sweat.. I sweat like a stuck pig so I was used to it, but a heat index of 119 yesterday and today was 115. It was almost cruel.
We walked up the main drag and I forgot the camera on the bike so sorry no pictures. The number being tossed about was 45k bikes. It was pretty cool some fun looking bikes.. some ugly bikes and some bad *** bikes. I think the biggest attention getter was a V8 trike that was about length of a stretch limo. And I guy cruising up and down with bullhorns on his helmet, his girlfriend had smaller horns on her, it was a hoot. It was so hot the city was handing out ice water in the middle of town. We sat for a while and watched the procession of bikes then looked at the vendors.

The fun part was talking to everyone, and everyone bitched about the heat. Well after a few hours of that, we rode back to French Camp.

Man I can’t say enough about that place. Super clean, great air conditioners. And super friendly people. Okay so my wife and I look like road trash .. no, Sweaty Wet road trash and road hard. When the lady that got us in the cabin handed me the keys. I asked don’t you want an imprint of my credit card?
“No we’ll take care of that after breakfast, I fix breakfast at 8am”. When was the last time you heard that?
Breakfast was great, home cooked, home made biscuits? Fresh bacon,, cheese eggs.. coffee.. I’m moving in! And all served family style so we ate with 3 other groups from

 

sounds like a great trip, i think this week end is the hottest ive seen yet and there was absolutly no escape at any speed!!