Guy
Boutin's Motorcycle Touring and Travel Pages
Adventures in Sport
Touring with the Honda ST 1100, 1300 and the BMW 1200RT
Exploring North America...One Road
at a Time
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Guy
Boutin's Motorcycle Touring and Travel Pages
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Day 2 I slept really late today, enjoying the fact I really didn't have to be anywhere. After a summer of 5 am in the morning you learn to enjoy sleeping in. I didn't get up till 10:30. (like most teenagers, it was easy to sleep long and often. Now days, I seldom sleep more 6-7 hours a night, on tour or at home.) After a short stroll to turn the key in, I was ready to go. The Honda fired right up and I found the signs for SR 52 and went out the west side of Dothan heading for Evergreen. I was due to meet a old friend from Hickory Lane tonight. Harding grew up across the street from me, but his family moved to Evergreen last summer, and he left for college at the University of Alabama. He lost his father in a auto incident 8 months ago. I took that kind of hard, because I was as good a friend with his dad as I was with him. We've been mailing (no such thing as email, we used the old fashioned kind, and long distance calling was too expensive) about my trip. I wrote I'd be coming through on this date. He was on a family outing to the beach but would cut it short to meet me in Evergreen. The last post card I got from him was 10 days ago, he said he'd be looking for me. Before getting on the road proper I went to a Texaco station for gas. I wasn't on reserve yet but "I gotta be close." (there was no gas gauges on bikes in this era. You had a thing called a petcock, when the bike starting sputtering you reached down and twisted it over, that meant you were on reserve). After gassing up I headed west out of town on 52. The highway took me past more farmland and fields. The 350 Four hummed along and all was good. I passed a old pickup pulling a long trailer with hay bales. He had a trail of straw flying behind for half mile. By the time I arrived in Geneva the lunch crowd was beginning to form in the small family run cafe I stopped in. I took seat at a table in the middle of the dining room and had the blue plate special. Meat, 2 vegetables, roll and tea for 1.65. The lady that took my order looked twice my age in her mid 30s. She wore the kind of waitress shoes that felt good on your feet. The whole scene reminded me of my folk's place back in Montgomery. I had the pork chop, mashed potato and corn.
Even though I was only a half day's ride from home, all this was new to me. I'd never been this area of Alabama before, so I might as we have been 2,000 miles from home. (to this day, despite all my miles, I've never been back on SR 52 Dothan to Evergreen) When lunch was over I took a walk across the street to 7-11 kind of store for some candy. (these kind of stores are still around, but the mega con store, latte shop, anything you need, is still far away) A bell tinged on the door to let the clerk know someone had just come in, but that wasn't necessary she was looking right at me when I opened the door. "Hey m'am how ya doin?" "ok, didja have a good lunch? I saw ya leave the cafe across the street." "yeah, it was pretty good." The lady was middle aged with a slow, almost pointed, southern twang. I picked out some juicy fruit, but skipped the candy bar. I got back on the road and went through town, and proceeded on to Evergreen. (My first was my only visit to Geneva, since then not even a occasion to pass through. I wonder if that cafe is still there.) A few miles from Geneva the skies grew dark, but I pushed on. Then it grew really dark and I had to find a safe place to get my rain gear out. No doubt about rain was up ahead. "Probably just a isolated thunderstorm, but it will still get me wet." I found a quiet farm driveway and got my stuff out. My rain suit was just one of the cheap kind you buy at Sears. But it would serve the purpose. I didn't have anything for my feet. Soon a stinging rain pelted me (the 350 had no fairing or other wind protection) and my speed dropped to 45 mph, but in just a few miles, I escaped out the other side back into partly cloudy skies. In Samson, Alaga-Whitfield had a grading station. I thought about that when I came through, and wondered where it might be, but didn't care enough to actively search for it. East of Andalusia I stopped at old country store because the place looked interesting. A 63 Mercury Comet with the hood up was off to the side. I switched the four off and could hear wrenches clanging from the car. "I'll talk to them after I get something to drink." The drink case was next to the cash register and I pulled a bottle Coke out. It was 10 cents. I went over to the Comet to see what was going on, and found a young man, in his 20s, working feverishly. I took a spot on the opposite side of the car, and peered under the hood. Then said- "what's goin on?" "awww this thing won't crank" "really?' "yeah, if I didn't know better I'd say it's outta gas" "well is it?" "NO!" And just like the Yamaha back in Snowdoun, it was probably some kind of points or ignition problem. (no such thing as electronic ignition in 73. Almost everything had points and a condenser. Keeping them in tune was finicky and not fun. Even properly tuned that wouldn't stay way long.) "You kin to the man inside?" "yeah that's my dad, jump in and turn it for me." I did, and sure enough, you'd think it was out of gas. I told him I had to get back on the road, roads to ride and places to be. I need to get on West, and see what was in the next town. Andalusia is one of the more populated places in this part of Alabama. I had a route change to U.S. 84 leaving the city. The last 25 miles to Evergreen were quiet. I mostly had the road to myself and enjoyed being in the wind. Evergreen is a very old South town. U.S. 84 took me past the town cemetery so I stopped to pay my respects to Harding's dad. His grave was still dirt, because not enough time for grass to take over yet. The old Antebellum home of the Birkhead's was within walking distance of the town's business district. I didn't have any problem finding it. It was 3pm and when I came in the driveway.
Nobody was home. " I don't reckon Harding made it back from the beach yet." I unloaded the Four on the patio, and just hung out. A few minutes later the cream 70 Ford Ranchero pulled in. "Hey now! What's goin on?" I called out. "Hey!" It was the first time I'd seen him since the funeral last January. We gathered my stuff and went inside. We had the house to ourselves, his mother and sisters had remained on the coast. "I feel bad for ya coming back from the beach to entertain me." "don't worry about it, I'd rather be here." "if you say so." Harding and I grew up on Hickory Lane, we had a lot to talk about. "You know I never thought y'all would leave Prattville." "It was my mother's idea, she wanted wanted to come home and help take care of her mother, and as you can see, plenty of room for all of us." "Yeah but Evergreen?" Although Prattville wasn't that much bigger, It was growing and progressive while Evergreen was in a time warp. (that is still true today. Evergreen is roughly the same size it was back in 73, very little has changed there) When we finished chatting I took a shower, and we got in Harding's Ranchero and went for something to eat. He took me to a small cafe, that I failed to get the name of, we sat at a table near the windows. It was a family run place, (No Applebee's O'Charely's etc back then. But that is still true in Evergreen today. The building is still there, but no longer a cafe.) I glimpsed to him, "so where are all the women in this town?" "good question." I had the fried chicken and it was good. After supper we went back to his house. The evening was warm and humid, and we sat out on the porch in the growing twilight. Then we played 2 games of chess. It was one of favorite past times. A couple of nights of week, I walked across the street and played. He usually won, but it was fun. Back then Harding and I were opposites. I was on the football team, lots of friends and activities, he was more reserved, but he had always been that way. He was a year older then me, and had just completed his freshman year of college. I'm proud to say I had a life outside of Hickory Lane, but I still took time to play chess with my friend in between ballgames and girls. You sometimes change friends when you reach high school, as you expand your reach beyond your neighborhood. We might have had different agendas on Saturday nights, but I was not going to forget him. "So what ya doin this fall?" He asked. "Going to Jr college, but I'm not sure what I want to study." At this stage of my life, next month was a long way off. I lived in the here and now. We played 2 games of chess, I won both. I guess Harding had lost his touch. Then we watched to "To Kill a Mockingbird," on broadcast (VHS was still 2-3 years away). Ironic because the movies is based in Monroeville, just down the road from Evergreen (the courthouse for the movie is a major attraction). It was a good evening. I recall looking outside from my second story window thinking the night seemed really dark. I was thinking I needed to call De De to make sure we were still hooking up on Friday, and I also needed to touch base with Kathleen in Gadsden. No exclusive relationship for me in 3 years. I enjoyed being unattached and playing the field. A steady girlfriend right now would definitely tie me down. Kathleen lived next door to my sister. We enjoyed each others company but she lived 2 hours away, and was still in high school. Not cool for a college boy to date a high school girl, but what happens in Gadsden stays in Gadsden I say. I was on the way to Mobile in the morning. My total miles for the trip so far was 275 miles. On my modern sport touring bikes, something I do before lunch. But this was different. I was on my first long ride, and 200 or so miles a day was good day on the 350. Next- Mobile Bay and the beach The last time I saw Harding was 1980. He stopped by Hickory Lane on a day I was just happening to be visiting my mother. He now lives in the Raleigh-Durhum area. I plan to see him next time I'm up that way.
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