Wide Highway or Narrow Road?

Earlier this summer, Mr. H and I went on a trip to Birmingham.  It was my first road trip riding my own bike instead of just riding behind him on his bike.  One of the first things I wanted was a map.  Yes, I was following Mr. H, but what if we got separated just before a critical turn?  I wanted to know what road I needed to be on to get where I needed to go.

Because here’s the deal:  If you don’t care where you end up, it doesn't matter what road you’re on.  But if you have a destination in mind, you need to be on a road that will get you to that place.

Matthew 7:13-14    “You can enter God’s Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hell is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose that way. But the gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it.

Let’s look at a map.

You see Lucedale over on the Mississippi side and Mobile is at the bottom of the yellow line.  Birmingham is in that knot of yellow up at the top.  Looking at this map, you’d think the best way to get where I want to go is to get on I-65 and just keep going until I get there. Or maybe over to I-59 and then I-20 over to Birmingham.  But that’s about it. 

Those big fat yellow lines look so inviting.  They go right where I want to go, right?  The fatter the line, the more lanes on the highway.  Don’t have to worry about missing turns.  The speed limit is usually higher so you can go faster without breaking the law.

But what about real life?  I mean, it’s not really a big fat yellow line painted on the ground.  It’s a highway.

It’s a broad highway!

Wow!  Look how easy it is to get around.

Think about the speed you’re traveling.

Could I take that exit if I needed to?  How would I get over there?

Looks like I’m going right where I need to be going!  This is actually I-65. Several years ago we were headed north toward Birmingham and saw this backup on the southbound side.

Remember verse 13:  'its gate is wide for the many who choose that way.'  Looks like the entire world chose that way.  And they are going nowhere fast! 

The world is like that.  People see everyone else on a big expensive road and think all those guys know where they’re going.  But, really, they’re just following the guy in front of them, who’s following the guy in front of him.  Some are just going around in circles and don’t even know it. 

Let’s go back and look closer at the map. 

These little roads didn’t even show up on that first map!  We had to go looking for them.

You can miss so much when you don’t look closely.  Yes, these roads are smaller, fewer lanes, but there are other advantages.  What do you get to see from the broad highway?  Not much!! 

The smaller roads seem winding, but sometimes they are avoiding obstacles. 

 

Sometimes they are respecting other people’s property lines.

There is usually something interesting to see along the way.

Or a great place to stop and rest.

Or maybe just the view is breathtaking.

It’s the same way on the road to God’s Kingdom.

There’s that broad highway that most people think leads to where they want to go.  It’s filled with people going around in circles and getting nowhere fast.  That is the road to Hell.

 

Then there’s that narrow road.  It’s the road that Jesus blazed for us.  Sometimes it seems winding – it’s leading us around obstacles.  It is respecting the boundaries of others.  It leads us to the things He wants us to see, to the people he wants us to meet, it causes us to use skills that He wants us to practice.

We would miss all those things on that noisy, wide highway to nowhere. 

But there they are, on a narrow, rough road that leads directly to Him.

So which road will you choose?

Road Trip on the Fizzer

Tuesday morning when I woke up, I was ready to do something that I've never done before:  ride my own bike on a long distance road trip.  When something big is on the horizon, I usually don't sleep well the night before.  I've learned that I can completely ignore the upcoming event and manage to catch some Zzzz.

Here are the bikes as we're loading them up.

Notice that my bike has MY STUFF packed on it.  I don't have any side bags so all my clothes were in a nifty dry sack that Mr. H got at Bass Pro several months back.  The cargo net is a wonderful thing.

We got started about 8:30, a full half hour earlier than Mr. H's planned departure :)

Since it was my first REAL outing, we planned for no interstate highways between George County and Birmingham.  I wasn't ready for I-65!!  We traveled up US 43 until as few miles north of Thomasville, AL.  Then turned right onto what I think is now one of my favorite roads:  Alabama Highway 5.  It's a great road for new riders: not much twisty stuff, nice scenery, trees close enough to the roadway to make shade, not much traffic. . .  just about perfect.

At some point Hwy 5 joins with AL Hwy 25 and then 25 splits off.  We followed 25 all the way up to Leeds, which is east of Birmingham.  Yes, it was out of the way, but it kept me off interstates and introduced me to some twisty roads, too.

From Leeds, we took Hwy 78 to Hwy 280 and that's where we stayed.  There's a Joe's Crab Shack just next door to the hotel and an IHOP across the highway.  We were hot and tired, but we got there safely and that's the main thing.

The next morning, we set off for the Skyway Motorway in the Talladega National Forest.  It runs by the Cheaha State Park.  We stopped at the first overlook and Mr. H took this photo.

We rode to the end and then came back and went into the state park.  Inside the park, you can have access to the highest point in Alabama.  I will never forget it!

Making the left turn into the driveway, I thought I was going wide and stopped.  That was a mistake as the driveway was on a steep uphill grade.  After stalling the motor 4 times in an attempt to get going uphill, on the 5th try, the bike assumed it natural posture (horizontal on its side!)  On its way over, the last inch of the clutch lever snapped off as well as the entire foot peg on that side.  I was not happy with myself for several reasons, but the most maddening of all was that I couldn't stand my bike up without assistance from Mr. H.   He came back down the hill and we got her upright again.  Then he rode up to the lookout tower without a foot peg on the shifter side. 

Let me just say right now that I am married to a most amazing man.  He is my hero, my knight in shining armor, my genius roadside engineer/mechanic.  He didn't fuss at me or laugh at me as some men might do.  He touched the pillion foot peg (the one for the passenger) and calculated that it would probably be transplantable.  There is a small bag of tools under the seat of my bike from which he pulled a pair of pliers and set to work.  (Soon that pair of pliers will be replaced with a better pair, but it got the job done!) 

We sat in the breezy shade at the top of Alabama and I waited for myself to calm down a bit.  I wasn't scared, but I was angry with myself on several counts.  After a bit, we went up in the lookout tower and enjoyed the view.  The picture below is of the repaired Fizzer, waiting to be ridden back down from the top of Alabama!

I am so thankful that I didn't do more damage than I did.  The foot peg is easily replaceable (as the spot fix that Mr. H so ably performed shows) as is the clutch lever.  I think everything can be remedied for less than $50.

Now I need to plug 2 pieces of gear that made the trip much more enjoyable.  One is called a Cramp Buster. It's a piece of plastic that wraps around the throttle and allows you to relax your grip while still keeping the throttle twisted.  It's not really a cruise control device because you don't set it and remove your hand.  You are still completely in control of the throttle, just more with your wrist instead of your fingers.

The next is something called Frogg Toggs.  I own the pink set.  It is very light and packs compactly, but is easy to put on when the rain starts (like it did this morning).  Mr. H has something called the Bull Frogg signature suit  in bright yellow which is a bit more waterproof and is made for biking.  When it stopped raining, we pulled off into a parking lot, rolled and stowed the rain gear, and were back on the road in no time.

And that's just about it for my first road trip!

Spanish Art

Today we spent much of the day at Castillo de St. Marcos in St. Augustine.  It was built by the Spanish from 1672 to 1695.

The Spanish turn everything into a work of art.

This sword hilt is beautiful.

 The towers in the corners of the bastions are so graceful to look at.  (Mr. H isn't bad, either, but he's not Spanish.)

 Look at the detail on this mortar.

 You wonder about putting this much creativity on something built for destruction.

They even have names engraved on them.

 In an otherwise uniform curtain wall, the entrance to the Chapel of St. Mark is very distinctive.

What a beautiful piece of history.

Just imagine if we put the same attention to detail into everything we did.  What if we tried to make everything we created a thing of beauty?  Something to strive for, isn't it?

Gear Is Good

Mr. H and I started off on our anniversary (31 years ago, we went on our first date) trip yesterday morning after we dropped the girls off at school.  After the, at times, torrential rains of Monday and Tuesday, the weather was gorgeous, but cold. If you know me at all, you know that I really do not like being cold.  There is a heater under my desk, a spare shawl in my office, and I'm the only one comfortable if the A/C goes out.

Nevertheless, I was game for the trip.  Last winter Mr. H got me a HiVis yellow riding jacket that has a thermal liner.  My riding pants have 2 liners: one is quilted, the other is water/wind proof.  So I layered-up:  an undershirt, a long-sleeved T-shirt, a turtleneck sweater, and a microfleece jacket under the riding jacket, then leggings and fleece pajama pants under the riding pants.  

Yes, I looked and felt like Ralphie's little brother.  Mr. H made a comment while I was getting dressed about how much he loved me because "a lot of women wouldn't wear all that stuff because they would be afraid it would make them look fat."  I smiled.  That's why I have him and they don't!

The temperature was in the 40's as we started off. (Mr. H's bike has a thermometer on the dash). It stayed around 47 for QUITE some time.  I had started off wearing a pair of Harley Davidson thermal liner gloves (my only Harley appearal) under my winter riding gloves.  They are rather like sweaters for your fingers.  When we made our first stop, I couldn't get my helmet off because my fingers were so cold.  They did seem to warm up as soon as I took my gloves off.  For the next leg of the trip, I left off the liners.  The winter gloves are really too big for me so I was able, occasionally to pull my fingers out of the fingers and make a fist in the palm part of the glove to warm them up, then slip them back into the finger spots.  I can't wear these gloves when I ride my own bike.  Loose gloves can be dangerous when operating the controls.  But they were fine with me riding pillion.

The highlight of my day came late in the day, about a half hour west of Jacksonville.  We pulled into a rest area so Mr. H could un-cramp his wrist before we got into rush hour traffic.  We nodded to a policeman walking back to his car and pulled into a parking place about 4 spaces from the police car.  I waited for Mr. H to shut off the engine, then unplugged the com cord.  I stood up on the pegs and swung my leg over....well, that was my intention anyway.  My foot caught on the back rest and I knew I was going down.

Two thoughts passed through my head almost at the same time.  1.  Catching that curb with the middle of my back is going to HURT! and 2.  I hope I don't drag Mr. H AND the bike down on top of me, because that would hurt even more.


Then I hit the pavement.

But I was wearing so much gear that I didn't even feel it!  I started laughing and Mr. H just looked at me wondering what was wrong.  I managed to open the visor so he could see my face and know I was okay.  However, remember I looked like Ralphie's little brother?  Do you remember the line from the movie?  "Randy lay there like a slug!"  I know exactly how Randy felt.  He couldn't move because he couldn't bend any limbs.  Mr. H had to give me a hand up.  And remember the policeman we saw on the way in?  He came over to see if all was well.  I know he must have thought I was intoxicated!  He inquired as to my wellbeing and then asked where we were headed.  Mr. H was quick to give him an answer and then asked the best way to get there, road conditions, traffic, that kind of stuff.  The officer was very helpful, telling us which lanes tend to back up and what to watch for.  Pretty soon we were back on the road and shortly arrived at our destination.

Today is a walking day, so I won't need any riding gear, but boy! am I glad I have it.

Reflections from the Journey

I had not actually been looking forward to my first road trip on my own bike.  I wasn't dreading it, I was simply ignoring it.  I knew that if I thought about it, I would scare myself.  So I put it out of mind until it was upon me.

I had several concerns about being on the road:  1.  Would I be able to maintain a cruising speed on that little bike?  2.  Would I remember to check mirrors for surrounding traffic as often as needed?

As it turns out, I needn't have worried.  Yes, the speed thing took some concentration, but that's because Hwy 98 has lots of hills and you have to actively 'speed up' to get up a hill and remember to 'slow down' as you're coming down the other side.  I was able to keep it between 65 and 70 without much trouble.  It was mainly the novelty of maintaining speed with my wrist/palm/fingers rather than my foot.  And I wasn't surprised by any vehicles moving past me on the road.  Well, once I looked in the mirror and didn't see Mr. H behind me, but a split second later I caught him out of the corner of my eye, moving to take the lead into Laurel.

It's difficult to explain exactly what it's like to be out on the road like that.  I tried to think of other things than the ride itself, but couldn't do it!  Not that I really WANTED to think of anything else, just to see if I could.  There is so much to experience.

You know when you pass through a grove of mimosa trees.

You are certain there is honeysuckle growing on that fence.

You don't need to see any buzzards to know something dead is in that ditch!

We got off 98 onto 15 and went through Richton up to Laurel.  We went through town in Laurel rather than take the interstate around it.  I'm not quite ready for interstate travel.  Mr. H wanted to try Hwy 501 and it was a beautiful ride.  We were looking for 481 that we discovered last weekend.  At one point we got to an intersection on Marathon-Morton Road and I pulled up beside Mr. H.  He lifted his visor and said, "I have no idea where we are."  I just laughed.  If he didn't, I CERTAINLY didn't.  But generally a road with two place names in it will take you to those places.  And that was the case this time, too.

As I was riding along, it hit me suddenly what I was doing.  Have you ever had one of those moments that seemed to surprise you by your being there?  I remember having this feeling several times in my life.  The first time was the moment I realized I could read music.  I remember the exact moment the light bulb came on and all those dots became a language I could read.  (It was the introduction to "The Stars and Stripes Forever" and I was in the 7th grade.)  Another time it happened was when I was on the field in a halftime show with the Maroon Band.  I was standing in my place and the announcer was announcing something and the crowd was cheering and the thought ran through my head, "Wow!  How did I manage to get HERE?!"

It happened on this trip, that feeling of "Wow!  Look at me!  I NEVER thought I'd be here doing this!" That thought was immediately followed by a prayer of thanksgiving for the man who seems to have such incredible expectations for my abilities.  In fact, I was in the middle of talking to my Lord, when Mr. H suddenly made a right turn onto another road that I wasn't expecting.

"Heavenly Father, thank You so much for this man who loves me so much and wants me to do so many......Oh,Man!Hejustturnedoffrightthereandexpectsmetobeabletofollowwithoutanypreparation.......

And I was able to do that, too!

It occurred to me on this trip how much joy we steal from those we love by not letting them do things and call it "protecting" them.  If someone is prepared for an undertaking, has been trained what to expect, what to look out for, will have supervision (at least in the initial stages), don't deny them the joy of the adventure.

Take the Scenic Route

What a great day today is!! By tonight, all my children will be home. The eldest made it about 2:00 this afternoon. The traveling missionaries will be later, probably around 9 or 10. When the eldest arrived at the house, however, Mr. H and I weren't there. We were at marker E on the map below. (if you'd rather be able to see lots of detail about the roads, click this link)

That's where Penn's Catfish in Petal is located.

Today I took my first road trip on my own bike. Mr. H and I headed out on a scenic trip to Hattiesburg. We actually didn't have any reason for that particular destination other than the distance it was from our house. Usually when headed to Hattiesburg from George County, you just get on Hwy 98 and go 'til you get there. I wasn't too sure about traveling that road today. Surely it would be busy with Easter travelers. So Mr. H mapped out a road less traveled for us.

From Hwy 63, we went west on Sally Parker Road and several others. We eventually ended up on Hwy 29. What a beautiful road! It leads to New Augusta, which is on Hwy 98. All I had to do was cross over 98 without actually having to travel along it.

Just across 98, we didn't stay on 29 for very long. Old River Road runs west just north of New Augusta. It's a great road, too. It leads to Petal. From there we went on Hwy 11 to Hattiesburg. Hattiesburg Cycle is just south of the junction of Hwy 11 and US Hwy 49 (on the frontage road, so I didn't have to drive on 49, either)

We really didn't need anything from Hattiesburg Cycle. It does have a lot of bikes and helmets, so we mainly just looked around. It was more of a leg stretching stop than any thing else. We were hungry by that time, so we headed out to get some lunch.

If there really was a "destination" for this trip, it was our next stop: Penn's. They have some of the best catfish there. Since it was after 2 when we arrived, it wasn't crowded at all.

After a great lunch, we got back on the bikes and headed east on Hwy 42. We followed 42 to Richton and from there to Hwy 63. I travel parts of 63 every week, but hadn't been on that part. It runs down through Sand Hill and Leakesville, where I have been before.

The weather today was just gorgeous. It is such a nice change from the endlessly cold weather we've had this winter. I think everything has bloomed in the last week. Wisteria is everywhere in south Mississippi.

Trip to Birmingham

We dropped the girls off at church early Saturday morning for their mission trip. Then Mr. H and I were off on a trip of our own.

We left the house about 7 a.m. and headed north. The trip up I-65 was mostly uneventful. There were 2 moments that stand out. As we were passing through Prattville, Mr. H thinks he saw one of his heros: BamaRider. The man we saw was not on a bike, but the face through the driver's side window looked a lot like Mr. Boutin. There are some tasks that require even the most avid rider to take alternate transportation.

The 2nd stand-out event was memorable for different reasons. We were solid traffic somewhere between Jemison and Calera, I think. Mr. H was in the left lane because we were coming up on some slower moving cars. A red car came up on the right side behind the slower car and acted like he was going to pull in front of us. He wasn't quite quick enough and lost his opportunity. We moved on past the car at the back of the line and the next thing you know, that red car is passing us on the left WITH 2 WHEELS IN THE GRASS AND THE OTHER 2 IN OUR LANE!!! WHAT AN IDIOT!!! I couldn't believe what he was doing. Someone with less experience (translate that 'me', if I'd been riding my bike) might have lost control and been seriously, if not fatally, injured! It still makes my blood boil. What was he thinking?!Well, it took a bit for my blood pressure to go back down, but eventually I calmed down. We made it to Birmingham without further incident or celebrity sighting and headed to the BMW dealership. Bogart's Motorsports sells BMW, Ducati, Triumph, and KTM motorcycles as well as Vespa scooters. They had 2 BMW bikes with the lowered seat position and lowered suspension: a 2010 F650GS and a 2009 G650GS, both of which allowed me to put both feet on the ground (just toes, however.) The salesman tried really hard to get us to take one home that day, but I KNOW I'm not ready for that yet. Our objective was to see if it fit, and both of those did. My objective now is to get ready for the day I CAN take one of those (or something similar) home.

After a quick lunch, we headed to the Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum. What a cool place! The approach to the museum itself is a twisty driveway about 3/4 of a mile long. As we drove in, we passed 3 red Corvettes, as well as one black one, going out. There was a Corvette club meeting there that day. As it turned out, they had the 5th floor reserved for a banquet, so we didn't get to look at the displays up there. But the other 4 floors were enough to keep us occupied for the rest of the afternoon.

I found a bike I absolutely love. It's a 1969 BMW R60 U.S. Beautiful...
Hey! If we'd been outfitted like the bike below, the guy in the red car would have thought twice before trying to cut us off in traffic!

My favorite display was the 'round world bike record set by Jim Rogers (Investment Biker) and Tabitha Estabrook. This is Tabitha's bike. You can see the headlight and windscreen of Jim's right behind hers.This case has a copy of Jim's book, "Investment Biker", their international driver's licenses and a post card with a map of the route.

As I was looking, Mr. H came up beside me and said, "You know, it's crazy, but if I asked you to do something like that with me, I believe you'd do it." He's right.

Ozarks Trip 2

Yes, I know.

It's been a week and still no follow up on our trip.

Not to worry. Here it is.

On our way up to Harrison, we stopped off in Hot Springs (the childhood home of Bill Clinton)

The springs really are hot coming out of the ground. Mr. H read an exhibit that explained that the source of heat isn't volcanic but natural radiation. You can see the steam coming off the water in the picture above.

I have no idea why this giant grenade is outside the Ozark Bath House. But it's ... interesting.

There is a whole row of old bath houses along one street in Hot Springs. The Fordyce House is open for tours.
This looks more like a torture chamber than a place for a relaxing experience.

These are the controls for the above shower enclosure. Frightening!

Ozark Trip 1

Monday morning we realized that the bike trip wasn't happening.

It started raining on us Monday in Jackson about noon and we didn't see the sun again until a few hours ago (Friday).

Our plan was to visit some friends in Camden, AR, (which we did and had a great time!) and then to continue up Scenic Hwy 7 to Harrison, AR.

After a detour Tuesday morning to get to an unflooded part of Hwy 7, this was the scenery:

This is the wake sent up by the car as we drove over roads that were VERY wet.

The sign below shows you what we went on the trip for: twisty roads and changing colors.
For the first part of the trip it was just rain: sometimes light, sometimes heavy.

When the rain stopped, this is what we were driving in:
Actually, I've discovered that the camera sees through fog better than eyes do. We couldn't actually see that far down the road. We saw a sign that said we were passing by the Grand Canyon of the Ozarks, but we could barely see the sign and have no idea what the view was like.

On Wednesday, we took a trip to some of the local sights. Early on, we were driving in the clouds again, but eventually we were able to see the road. At one point we were almost run off the road by a large black bull running toward us in our lane. That made me glad that we were in the car and not on the bike! No pictures of the bovine - he was there and gone too quickly.

More Vacation pictures

El doesn't really have a outlet for her pictures: no facebook account yet! So I always save her pictures into a folder with her name on it, so she'll know which ones she took (or at least were taken with her camera!)

I don't think she realized that we were going to the mountains until we got there. This is her first trip (that she remembers) that involves mountains.

Here's her first glimpse of white water.

We took a side trip to Fontana Dam. This is the view from the top of the spillway.

Mr. H took this picture of all the girls. We appear to be posing for some other camera, but really the sun was in our eyes, so we decided to look off in another direction. (Our eldest has been taller than me since she was in the fifth grade. I'm hoping that Em and El grow a bit more because I'm still a little taller than both of them.)

I imagine that if a troll lives under this bridge, this is his front door.
This is an island on the lake side of the dam. When we were here 2 years ago, the water level was quite a bit lower. At that time, this island rose a lot higher from the surface of the water and had a wide edge of red mud around it.
Here's Mr. H sporting his Famous Maroon Alumni Band shirt.
I rather like this picture of the girls.

Whitewater Vacation

After a 19 year break, we took the family camping again. Honestly, I think the eldest was 18 months old the last time we had a family camp out. We decided early this summer that it was time. We bought Mr. H a tent for Father's Day to prove we were serious. The location was pretty self-evident. Em went white water rafting on the church youth camp trip this summer and the rest of us wanted to do it, too. Mr. H and I had been in this area a few years ago when we went on our first bike trip. We knew we'd eventually bring the girls back here.

The Nantahala at Patton's Run.

The temperature of this water is about 54 degrees! Brrrr!

I found links to a couple of pictures of us on the river: guided and unguided. (Okay, I've discovered that these links change randomly. But I think they take you to the correct pages. Look for img #915 for our guided ride on 8/3/09 and img #444 for the unguided ride on 8/4/09.)

Em, The Eldest, Mr. H, and El

Turkey Creek right beside our campsite.

Our home for the next 3 nights. (no shoes allowed inside)

We were about 3/4 of a mile from Fontana Lake. The trail to the lake was through the woods and took us right above our campsite.

We had the lakefront all to ourselves. It was great. And not nearly as cold as the Nantahala!

I'm glad the girls had the time to spend together.

comfort zones

There is something about being able to see this much of the world at one time that makes me uncomfortable. It seems endless and exposed. This is so different from my usual view of the world, which is full of trees. In my world the trees play footsie with the road and sometimes hold hands over the road. My girls call that a tree tunnel. It feels almost like a tree blanket wrapped around you.

This location also is out of my comfort zone. Look at the size of that rock face! It is huge! All those buildings are snuggled up next to feet of the wall.

This place is incredible. It is the Painted Desert in Arizona. We were there very late in the day, so the shadows played a big part in the view we had. I think what took me out of my comfort zone here was the color. My world is usually green. Even in winter, the pines, live oaks, and magnolias are green. There is not much red in my world.

Traveling is a wonderful thing, but it makes arriving home all the sweeter.