Tiger Tales: Highways

Wednesday, 28 November 2007 19:34

First of all, God bless President Dwight David Eisenhower for the American Interstate Expressway System.  Secondly, damn Ike for those same interstate highways. 

Awhile back I got a letter from an old friend, Dulcimer George, from up in Vermont.  He asked how many miles a day I was riding now that I was old and had a full-time good woman up behind me.  That got me to pondering and reminiscing. I recalled a few thousand mile days back in the early seventies when there was still cheap gas and good two-lane highways and friendlier cops and way less traffic.  Hell, I remembered one ride when about the only other traffic I saw all day was a couple cops,and they waved as I went by.  I remembered Miami to Detroit in just over twenty-one hours one time.  Those were all solo rides when I was a young man.  Then I got to recollecting more current times and rides.

Back in May, I rode three thousand miles.  Never set tire to interstate highway the entire time other than about forty miles, and they forced me into that with detours and such.  Just recent here I did another three thousand, nearly all of it on expressways. Well, not all of it.  I just couldn't do no more interstates and got off on the two lanes for the last few hundred miles.

That ride back in May, that was a real fine run.  There were six of us on three bikes.  We probably averaged three hundred miles a day or so.  Because we were in an especially pretty area, we took our time, rode slow and stopped often.  We enjoyed the landscape, took advantage of the scenic overlooks and the picturesque beauty of the country, slowed down to savor the road.  Because we each of us had a woman with us, we stopped more frequently and longer.  We ate better and more often.  We also took more pictures, shopped,dawdled, and probably appreciated everything more.

This last one, the one almost entirely on interstate highways, that was just me and The Tall Girl.  We averaged around five hundred miles a day, did one just a little over six.  We didn't take our time or ride slow or stop often.  No, we rode hard, far, and long. We even blew through some pretty country at seventy miles an hour.  Last summer, we rode out to the far coast.  We did five hard five hundred mile days to California and nearly all of it was on the interstates.  Years ago, when I was young and alone, I made that same run in three days. 

If you're in a hurry, the interstate highways are faster.  And they afford you more in the way of places to eat and stay and get gas and places to get out of the weather for awhile.  They also provide you with way more to read.  There is more information per mile on the interstate highways than there is in the Yellow Pages.  Between the orientation signs and the advertising, you can near go blind and confused with all the information on signs.  And I ain't even got into reading the trucks.

The trucks are, of course, the reason for the interstate system, They are also the reason these roads are crowded and the surfaces are beat all to hell.  And I guess they are much of the reason for the impossibly long traffic snarls and delays on interstate highways for construction and such.

But the problem is, I didn't get a motorcycle so I could be in a hurry.  If I'd been in a rush, I'd have got me an airplane.  And the interstate highways detract from what having a motorcycle is all about, at least if you're doing it right.

Dr. Mark Tiger Edmonds is a retired St. Leo's University professor and has logged more than a million miles on his motorcycle journeys.  He is the author of the Ghosts of Scootertrash Past and Longrider, an eclectic collection of stories about his experiences and encounters on the road.  You can hear Tiger on Cycle Rider Radio Sunday Mornings from 8am to 10am on 740am The Game or worldwide on the web at www.cycleriderradio.com.  For more information about Tiger or to purchase his books and cds visit www.drmarktigeredmonds.com.