November/December 2020
The Great Spyder Caper
We close out the year on a bit of a high note
It was on the Friday before Thanksgiving, which happened to be Rick’s birthday, that we pulled up stakes here in Summerdale, Alabama, taking the Tiger out for a little exercise. We traveled straight north up I-65, which would take us through Montgomery and then on up to Birmingham. It was an early start to Thanksgiving week here in the U.S and we were on a socially distanced Road Trip. Going north was quite nice, with the last of the turning leaves adding a touch of color to the fading green of the grasses along the road. We were headed for Pelham, a town on the south side of Birmingham, and Big Tex Trailers, an Aluma dealer who had a flatbed trailer we were purchasing.
Uh Oh, you might say with good reason, what are they doing getting another trailer? Welllllll… it seems that after a full year back in the US we had decided we needed to get another motorcycle. Something to wander on, to do more exploring of the areas we were camping in, to put just a tinge of adventure back into our happy but perhaps slightly stodgy lives. Something fun. We’d had a really good summer in the Bighorn Mountains of Wyoming, but with a bike to cruise around on we thought it could have been even better.
Our plan was to pick up the trailer in Birmingham and then head down into Florida to look at some Can-Am Spyders Rick was interested in. The Spyder is a three-wheeled Trike, still identified as a motorcycle, but with two wheels up front and one in the back. Many of the same familiar virtues as a motorcycle but a lot less likely to tip over at a stop.
Rick had been perusing the national ads for used Spyders for several weeks and had gotten a pretty good feel for units that were available at a price we thought affordable. They were scattered all over the country but some were in Florida so we thought we’d grab the trailer (at the only dealer where we could find the right size) and then head down for a look see.
As such things go, however, a change of direction was about to take place — best laid plans and all that. We got the trailer taken care of in the early afternoon and then started south toward Florida. We made a hundred miles or so before stopping in Prattville for the night.
Rick went on line to check Cycletrader and lo and behold there it was — a brand new listing for a 2009 Spyder that had just the right mix of equipment he’d been searching for; saddlebags, handlebar risers, upgraded seat, low miles and even a good color; just about perfect really and at a very good price as well. Only one problem to be overcome; it was located in Ames, Iowa… over a thousand miles away… in the wrong direction — a very cold direction. Oh well, what could we do? After calling the dealer and making a deposit, we reversed course and headed north the following morning. Our fate was sealed.
Naturally, the trip was all part of the adventure. We retraced our steps back up through Pelham, waving at the trailer dealer as we passed. Tennessee is the next state north so we crossed the border and drove on. We negotiated Nashville’s spaghetti road system, and moved on into Kentucky, where we angled north west and headed for Paducah in the far western corner of the state; almost into Illinois to the north and Missouri to the west.
Just west of Paducah is Cairo (Kay-ro to the uninitiated), home of a pair of the world’s most interesting bridges. From Cairo you drive on to this narrow, old, creaky bridge going north to cross the Ohio River; you enter Illinois for about 15 seconds, then hang a sharp left to head west as you cross the Mississippi River, come down off that equally narrow, creaky, old bridge, and enter Missouri. Be sure to watch out for the semis as you make that turn. These bridges were first completed in 1937 and are narrow enough to be pretty scary when you encounter a large truck coming the other direction.
We continued on for a few more hours and crossed the Missouri/Iowa state line, stopping just about at the Des Moines River. It got down to 28 degrees that night. The next day we drove on into Des Moines and that night it started to snow. The last time we’d been in Des Moines it had been raining like hell. Fate! Probably the first time ever we kept the Tiger’s heater going all day long. We actually stopped in Des Moines at another Aluma dealer so we could add a spare tire to the trailer. This is the largest Aluma dealer anywhere and if we’d had any fore knowledge of coming to Iowa to pick up our Spyder we could have saved some money by getting the trailer here. Oddly enough, this is the dealer where we had bought our first Aluma back in 2009. Small world.
To get here we’d traveled in 5 different states: Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri and Iowa — oh, plus that little corner of Illinois. Coming home, now trailering a new (to us) motorcycle, we added Arkansas and Mississippi to the list having chosen a slightly different route for the return trip. Mostly we wanted to head due south as quickly as we could to find some warmer weather before heading east toward home.
We were gone 8 days, and covered 2500 miles. Along the way we saw signs for the Jesse Owens Museum, near Cullman, AL; the National Quilt Museum in Paducah, KY; US Grant Farm Historic Site west of St Louis, MO; and the National Sprint Car Museum in Knoxville, Iowa.
You go north for awhile and you forget about all the downed, ruined trees in southern Alabama (from Hurricane Sally in September). Iowa doesn’t seem to have trees at all, almost. But crossing southeastern Mississippi, and then entering Alabama near Mobile, it all comes back again, as the recent memories of snow covering our windshield retreat into history.
Down here the azaleas are finishing their bloom, but the magnolias will be along soon; the squirrels are getting fat off the cones from the fallen pine trees. The local convenience store has worms and crickets for sale. Home, southern style. We’ve spent a pleasant two months here in Alabama, but soon it will be time to hit the road and get moving again.
As we finally put an end to 2020, hoping for brighter skies and more smiles in the year ahead, we wish you well.
Rick and Kathy, and the rest of the wheels