The F750GS has been struggling of late each morning before we set out on our trip. The battery doesn’t have enough juice to start the bike, so each morning for the past few days we ‘bump started’ the bike. No problem. After this initial ‘push’, the bike was fine for the rest of the day. (e.g. each time it was stopped for fueling it turned over). However THIS morning not so lucky. After several ‘bump starts’ it was necessary to pull out the emergency charger. After being connected for some time we got it started, and went in search of a motorcycle dealership to get a new battery.
We were successful at Doug Reynolds Suzuki. With new battery on board we hit the road around 10 am. Starting out on I-40 east we dodged an endless number of FedEx trucks heading towards their main hub in Memphis. We continued southeast towards Clarendon and picked up US-49 towards the Mississippi. We crossed over into Mississippi just east of Helena West Helena and made a quick stop at the Isle of Capri Casino Hotel Lula to get a photo of the bridge. We bypassed a security gate to access a good view but were quickly chased out by a security agent. So had to settle for a shot of the bridge through trees and foliage.
Continuing on to Clarksdale where we joined up with the Blues Highway, which is a route that passes through the American heartland where the Blues flourished. As this is a viewed as a famous route on par with Route 66 we hoped it would be a good motorcycle road as well.
The ‘landmarks’ along this stretch of the Blues Highway included the Ground Zero Blues Club in Clarksdale, the Highway 61 Blues Museum in Leland and the BB King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center in Indianola. These may be exciting for Blues aficionados but the roads connecting them are as long and dull as any we’ve seen on this trip. Enough to leave us more than a little ‘blue’ about the roads in Mississippi.
After a somewhat arduous ride we arrived in Clinton, in anticipation of visiting the Capitol the next day.