(CLICK ON ANY PICTURE BELOW AND THEN USE ARROWS TO NAVIGATE) Return On October 4th through 9th several of the Cruisers, and a couple of friends did a 1440 mile tour from Ellijay to Natchez, Mississippi and then up the Natchez Trace Parkway to Nashville, Tennessee and back home. Mike and Cartha Christopher, Wayne Hogue and Tom Porter from the club went. Jim Wilson, a friend from LA (Lower Alabama) also left from Ellijay. Brent and Patti Helms from Hernando, Fl met us in Natchez. The first day we spent a couple of hours at the Barber Motor Sports Museum in Leeds, Alabama. This is really a world class motorcycle/sports car race track with an unbelievable museum of motorcycle history. They have hundreds of bikes on display from the very earliest to the very latest. You can find that Whizzer, Cushman or Allstate that you rode as a teenager, all the English and Japanese bikes of the 60's and 70's to the very latest Harleys. This is a not to be missed experience for anyone interested in motorcycles. We rode on to Meridian for the first night, had a great dinner and stopped at the local Harley dealer the next morning. Mike and Wayne said something about replacing some things that fell off. The second day we traveled from Meridian to Laurel and on to Natchez where we toured the grounds of one of the many pre Civil War mansions in the area. Natchez was a very wealthy transportation center in the mid 1800's. We stayed at at really great hotel right on the Louisiana side of the Mississippi River. Just as we were getting really hungry for a late lunch, in the middle of rural Mississippi, we found an "all you can eat" catfish restaurant that was really good. The restaurant may not have profited from our visit. The third day we began the 440 mile ride up the Parkway. The Natchez Trace Parkway follows an Native American trail, later used by the white settlers, from the lower Mississippi area to central Tennessee. Much like the Blue Ridge Parkway, it is maintained by the National Park Service, has a 50 MPH speed limit and prohibits trucks. There was almost no traffic other that us. The Park Service had just about completed a fall tour clean-up and the entire route was just beautiful. We spent the third night half way up the Parkway in Starkville, MS. The fourth day we detoured off the Parkway in order to visit the Shilo Church National Battlefield just inside Tennessee. We found a local BBQ restaurant that got our seal of approval. That was a long day because of the detour to Shilo and we arrived in Nashville (Franklin) a little tired and just in time for a late dinner at the Cracker Barrel. This final section of the Parkway was getting back into the hills of Tennessee and provided some really great riding and the first of the leaf color. The final day we were less than 200 miles from home and managed to turn it into a 10 hour ride. We took all the scenic back roads, stopped at the Jack Daniel's Distillery and the Cloudland Canyon State Park and arrived back in Ellijay just before dark. The five day tour suggest two overnight rides from Ellijay. The first is a return to the Barber Sports Museum for many more of the Club members. The second is a return to Mussel Shoals, Alabama and up the Trace to complete the section we missed on the detour to Shilo. That might be a 3 day, 2 night ride. The northern end of the Trace was the best part and worthy of a return visit. (CLICK ON ANY PICTURE BELOW AND THEN USE ARROWS TO NAVIGATE) Return