Return to Auburn

On the weekend of June 25th, I took a trip to Auburn, AL to visit my good friend Jim. The initial reason for my visit was to help out with some server software that I had configured many moons ago. Well, as we came to the 25th, Jim mastered my mess and no longer needed my services. But, I had already scheduled to come down and did I mention Jim has two motorcycles. So, what else to do but go ride a bit.

I arrived at Jim's home late Friday night. We stayed up way too late bullshitting and catching up on all the events since our last visit (in November, 2003). We also had to compare notes on all the new toys we had each acquired over the past few months. On the list included a Canon Digital Rebel, a Canon S500, an Epson R800, and a host of other accessories to go with each. Around 1am or so, we finally called it quits so we could get at least *some* sleep.

Saturday morning, I couldn't wait to go ride. Jim had a general idea of where to go for some good off-roading; however, the weather wasn't looking great. We decided to go anyway; however, stay alittle closer to home. It turned out to be a fairly good plan.

Once off the paved road, I quickly realized that Auburn had seen quite a bit of rain in the past few weeks. If we weren't careful, a slight mistake would have gotten us into a sloppy mess in a hurry. While I was prancing (can't believe I used that word) along on Jim's DRZ, Jim was up front trying to tame the beast -- err his 1150 GS. Somewhere in the middle of BFE, we come across what appears to be nothing but a mud pit in the middle of the road with a nice sized brim around the edge. Jim decides to try to mush forward and drive over a brim. Well, he managed to make it over the brim and avoid the deep mud puddle. Unfortunately, some buried limbs and other mess from logging trucks hindered stability. Over Jim went at 0mph. Lesson 1, as demonstrated by Jim, when a BMW 1150 GS decides to fall over, get out of the way!

With the GS back on it's feet, we decided that the sounds of logging equipment were a bit too close and we should move along (private property???). Off for more exploring we go. After a bit, we found a little off-shoot. It turned out to be a dead-end; however, the road proved to be "DRZ worthy". With a slight covering of pine needles with hard-packed sand underneath, it made for some fun skids and slides on the DRZ. Just as I was getting more comfortable with the DRZ, it started to rain. With that, we gathered our things and continued on. Here is a shot of Jim showing how to really sling the DRZ around the bend in the road.

We get back to the main road and decide to continue exploring -- even though the rain was picking up a bit. We continued on for what seemed like quite a bit. With each mile, the rain got slightly harder. While our spirits were still good, we decided it would be best to head for the house and save more exploring for another day. With water dripping off our viors, we started on a more direct path for home. About twenty minutes later, we were back at Jim's house -- raining fairly hard on the way in.

Everyone can guess what happened next. Yup, it stopped raining shortly after we got back to Jim's house. Oh well. We still managed to rack up roughly 60miles or so on the bikes and got to see some places we had never seen before. This also put us back in Auburn early enough to visit some friends and help with a power outage at my old workplace. I was so happy that we got some mud on the bikes and come back unhurt (unlike our last attempt -- see November,2003).

As always, Jim was a great host. I don't know too many people that will put a roof over your head, let you ride their motorcycle through the mud, and offer you a cold Corona after making such a mess. I look forward to returning the favor to Jim in August when I just might be able to get him to Huntsville, AL for a weekend! Hopefully, I will have my FJR by then and can show him some of the twisty roads around the area.

Pictures HERE