Your three heroes bravely ignored the dark, threatening skies over middle Tennessee and set out determined to blaze a trail through west Tennessee and into Missouri.Nashville, Tennessee, to Winona, Missouri
325 Miles

Day 1 of this magnificent journey is done.

Your three heroes bravely ignored the dark, threatening skies over middle Tennessee and set out determined to blaze a trail through west Tennessee and into Missouri.

Dark Skies Didn't Stop Us

The day began at 9:00 am in Cleve's driveway. Fueled on coffee and manly bravado, we cranked up our steeds and the journey began.

We followed our planned route to the letter. West Tennessee was dispensed with quickly and we cut into Kentucky. In Hickman, Kentucky, we boarded the Dorena ferry and crossed the Mississippi. A fellow ferry passenger, Alison, soon to begin her sophomore year in high school, told Nelson that his bike was "the best looking motorcycle I've ever seen." With the pride that only a Harley rider can experience, Nelson let the young lady take a seat on his Harley Heritage Softtail while her grandmother photographed the memory.

Alison and her grandmother pose with the late Chopper

Once in Missouri, we traveled north through the flat Mississippi River delta farmland. We then headed west on Highway 60, through more farmland. The farmland soon gave way to the Ozarks, and we enjoyed a leisurely ride by the Mark Twain National Forest. Although the skies were ugly all day long, we avoided rain and arrived in Winona, Missouri, safe and sound.

Prior to arriving in Winona, we stopped in Van Buren, Missouri, in search of a place to stay. While looking unsuccessfully for a motel that might possibly pass a health department inspection, Bo developed a strong sense of deja vu. We pulled into a parking lot in downtown Van Buren to discuss the lack of adequate lodging. Bo then realized that he and his friend Bill Thompson had pulled into the same parking lot last year during their western trip to discuss the lack of lodging in Van Buren.

Anyway, we left Van Buren and soon found the Rusty Nail Motel in downtown Winona. By then our standards had lowered considerably. It's an overused comparison, but think of the Bates Motel in the movie Psycho.

Nelson and Cleve prepare for our post-lunch ride

Day 1 did have a moment of deep tragedy. Nelson's traveling mascot, a stuffed orange orangutan named Chopper, was lashed to the back of his sissy bar. While careening down Highway 60 late in the day Cleve urgently radioed Nelson to give him the bad news: Chopper was blown off the bike directly into the path of oncoming traffic. Deeply affected by this tragic turn, Nelson did what he had to do by replacing Chopper with a stuffed swine he named Mao.

Mao, though concerned about Chopper's fate, is now lashed securely to Nelson's bike.