HANG ON WE'RE GOIN DOWN, DOWN SOUTH THAT IS!

Time to get Down South

Kickstand Lodge to Eagle Pass

Listening to  Rain on the Scarecrow  John Mellencamp
Still got this on record...must get the turntable working when I get home...hmmm

U.S. Space and Rocket Centre Huntsville.

I leave the Kickstand lodge and head to Huntsville Alabama. In the original plan I'd hoped to have a look at the The Kennedy Space Centre in Florida but I'd wandered a bit more west than planned. Whilst chatting with Al and Mike they mentioned the U.S. Space and Rocket Centre in Huntsville might be a great alternative. I checked the map and perfect! It's almost on the way to the border so Tuesday morning I point the KLR south and head off. I configured the GPS to stay  off the interstates and the ride through backwoods Georgia and Alabama is a winner. The rain stays away but it gets seriously hot by early afternoon. I grab a cheapy motel and the next morning I go have a look.

 Wow... as I approach the centre...erm...that's a Saturn V on the horizon.

 Man those are huge. I'll let the pictures tell the rest but it's kinda weird wandering about the plethora of dead rockets and missiles on display. What each one must have cost and how many engineering boundaries were pushed is staggering to contemplate. Just for erm...well ...cos we can? I know there is far more to it but much of the aim was first to the moon. Tick. The most staggering thing though was

...the size of the Saturn V...wow, it's a monster.

This place is easy to find...just head to the rocket.

Until you've stood under these things, you just can't
 contemplate the sheer size...they are huge!

Only in America, a blackbird spy plane just layin around...
maybe put it on Craig's List!

You stand as close as you can, you look up.
Suddenly it's 1969 and your staring amazed
at what's happening on black and white telly..

No I'm not listening to  Rocket Man  Elton John

Come on that's too easy...or maybe I should...

OK unknown fact from Wiki, this song first 

appeared on the  1972 album Honky Chateau. 

Hmm never heard of that one.

When I was a kid I used to draw pictures of the lunar
module. I still find it fascinating. Almost seems a 
cobbled together shed project...with a bit of mum's tin foil. 

It's cold in here...no problem ma'am...
...IGNITION...10.9.8....
 ...BOOM!

That little yellow one there is a Nazi German V1. There's a fascinating story
about how the U.S secretly brought over a multiple German scientists and engineers to Huntsville after the war who had worked on the Nazi V1 V2 rocket program during the war. Their knowledge and enthusiasm led to finally putting a man on the moon. Special mention, Wernher von Braun...look it up.

I'm sorry fellas but after the Saturn V...well you guys are just garden furniture!

Just when you think you've seen it all they've got a Saturn V
set up inside, yep inside split up into it's stages....yeeeeh!

Throttlin South

I'm keepin sunrise on my left shoulder

'n sunset on my right

I'm throttlin south on my own again

never knowin where I'll spend the night

I'm tryin to soak it up 

I'm tryin to write it down

I can't possibly see it all

I can't possibly hang around

gotta keep

throttlin south on my own again

Dean

Blundering into Harvey.
I get out of Huntsville early Thursday morning and have the ride of the trip. I follow secondary highways across Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas and Louisiana. I somehow find myself on the Natchez Trace parkway and follow it through Mississippi. Its a magnificent ride and when it finishes it I zoom through wide open flatland crop growing regions of lower Mississippi and Arkansas. I just keep riding till it's almost dark and it begins to rain again. There are no campgrounds to be found so it's another motel.
I'm right on schedule to cross the Mexican border
but I'm about to come unstuck...big time!

Um...ever feel you've forgotten something,
or someone's following you?

Marianne loves taking shots of state lines and borders...I dunno.
Stop the car!!!...Backup...What?...It's a border...Oh...Wonderful....

Yeh yeh yeh. Just a crappy river shot....but it is the Mississippi.
 (I just wanted to spell that)

Hurricane Harvey
The motel guy in Pineville tells me that most of lower Texas, Louisiana and adjacent Mexico is about to be hit by Hurricane Harvey...wonderful. Predictions are it will take a week to clear and may be the worst for many years with severe flooding rain for days. Evacuation of some areas has already started. Aaaargh, this is completely between where I am and where I wanna go...!

No worries, I'll fire up the KLR and go round the outside...although if I
go straight through we'll both get a free wash.

Listening to  Texas Flood   Stevie Ray Vaughan
OK no brainer...perfect song and perfect fit here!

Hmm new plan...back up and around. 
So I mull it over all night. Plan A through to Z (known as Zee in the USA). Even if if turns out wrong I'm happier moving so I figure if I go back up through Dallas and Abilene and do a sheep dog, go round behind, at least I'll be having a go. So northwest I go. I drone up interstates 49 and onto 20 west through Dallas and towards Abilene. It's a horrid ride. The usual wall to wall semis, head winds, a plague of bayou bugs, mid nineties heat in the Dallas traffic and finally a deluge somewhere between Dallas and Abilene. Another five hundred plus K's today but it's done...I can almost smell the border...or maybe this isn't a non smoking motel room. Yech.
 Tonight I'll sleep anywhere!

This is a kind of little cowboy motel I stayed at between Dallas and
Abilene. It was absolutely pouring and getting dark when I stopped so it was
 here or drown! It was actually pretty cool with all sorts of Texas stuff and the Texan
lady running the show had that lovely Texas drawl.

This is in Winters Texas. It's nice to see some towns not ravaged by a godzillion franchises.
Not sure Deano there's ever gonna sell out to Maccas, hopefully not.

Yep read it and weep. The 129 is the speed limit on this South Texas highway.

The Kimble Business and Professional Women's Club
erected this in 1961. Those are all deer antlers...don't mess
with them there Kimble ladies you hear.

The next two days I head south again trying to skirt  Hurricane Harvey. I get drenched for a day and a half and the last two hundred K into Eagle Pass the wind blows me all over the road. But I make it...to the border
...Mexico is just over the bridge. 
I seem to have forgotten every word and phrase I, well, I guess I didn't learn at the WEA course. I hurriedly try to brush up and drag out any paperwork I'll need. Monday morning I ride over the Rio Grande straight into Mexico. Huh. No one checks me out of the USA and the Mexican Customs station is 60k down the road into Mexico so no one even looks at me as I cross the border. I stop as soon as I clear the bridge...did I miss something? But nope it seems the US doesn't worry about who's leaving,  just who's coming. Little did I know that two hours later I would find out about reentering the USA...

So I crossed over into Mexico and...nothing. Huh?

Lo siento. No podemos dejar que su vehiculo 
entre en Mexico
Basically...ya can't bring the bike in...
The Mexican customs lady behind the glass frowns and shows my paperwork to her colleague next to her. Oh oh something's not right. She doesn't speak English so she points to the expired rego date on my South Aussie rego papers. It had expired just as I left so I still had the old renewal. This had never mattered in my travels anywhere else in the world as South Aussie rego is not a requirement anywhere else except home...buuut in Mexico to them this looks like your ownership or title has run out...apparently. I beg, I explain, I speak to the boss lady but there is no way I'm going into Mexico any further today...!@#$. 
So back into the US I go.
Aaargh...problem solve time again!

And coming back into the USA saw a huge line up over the Rio Grande in the heat.
 Great!

Gettin back up

I'm getting back up again

having another go

round after round

wearing blow after blow

 But each hit leaves it's mark

like a sticky note scar

sayin don't go there again

sayin your pushin it to far

Dean

Reality Check No.6
I gotta keep my chin up. Jeez it's tough on your own sometimes. As I stared at the just expired date on the rego form, standing on my own, in a Mexican customs office, in the middle of nowhere, it showed me yet again how something so small and insignificant can bring the whole show and moral down. During the 60k ride back to the border I swung between new route plans, chucking it in, how to get a new rego paper (it has to be the original as well...and they'll be checking!) and figuring at least I'll have time to service the bike...aaah crap.

Next Blog
Am I going to Mexico or a new plan? 
I'm waiting to find out as well!
Give me a yell on comments
...I've got reading time!
Cheers Dean