TAT Day 9

Day 9
Friday 14th Aug

Well we didn’t get very far today, in fact we only did about 45 miles in the wrong direction so Ed could go ‘walking in Memphis’! We had a late start due to a late night, as we couldn’t find anywhere to camp. Everywhere had posted and private property signs, and when we knocked on someone’s door to see if they knew anywhere we could camp (ie. can we please camp in your yard) we spent 10 minutes talking to a guy that wouldn’t listen and kept repeating useless information to us over and over again until we finally managed to ride off. That’s 10 minutes of our lives that were never going to get back. We eventually found a campsite about 15 miles away, and it was worth every cent for the shower that I had that night and the following morning. I was absolutely covered in dust, and the thought of getting in to a sleeping bag all grimey and dusty wasn’t very appealing.

 

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I also thoroughly enjoyed the cold air that was being blasted out from outside the shower block.

 

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After a leisurely start to the morning we rode to a local town to pick up a new helmet for Ed, and I also got a replacement visor. I’ve been riding with what can only be described as privacy glass for the last 5 months, and apart from making all the colours seem dull, I’ve discovered that it’s a nightmare when riding off-road later in the day when the sun is low, you can’t see a thing! And because of all the dust you can’t open it either, unless you want your mouth and eyes full of dust, which results in the same net result of not being able to see.

 

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We also gave the chains a good clean and oil, as they were looking on the rather dry and dusty side.

 

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It was a direct route up to Memphis, and we only rode as far as the city limits. Ed was happy with that, despite me saying that it really had to be walking the streets of Memphis, not just behind the sign of the city limits.

 

 

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We were only there for around five minutes or so, before we headed back down south to pick up the TAT again.

 

 

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As the sun was setting we decided to find somewhere to camp, and discovered that you could camp for free in the car park of a casino about 25 miles away in Tunica. It was really weird arriving there, there were so many bright lights and illuminated signs for multiple casinos and gaming halls, we’d never seen anything quite like it.

After a quick bite to eat we followed the camping sign and set up our tent on some grass at the back, and fell asleep as soon as our heads hit the pillow.

 

 

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It was around 2am when we were woken up by the security supervisor, who told us that we couldn’t camp there; it was for RV’s only, no tents, despite there not being a single sign to tell us so. After saying that we had to pack up immediately she drove off, and Ed decided to follow her to see if we could at least wait until sunrise. No chance. Despite his best efforts there wasn’t a hope in hell that they were going to let us stay. Ed said that the security supervisor was actually really nice and friendly, but it was her manager that had instructed her to remove us. And their excuse as to why we couldn’t camp in a tent? Skunks and racoons. Yes that’s right, the skunks and racoons are too dangerous. Ed pointed out that we’d wild camped in Alaska where there are bears and moose but it didn’t make a difference. So there we were at 2.45am, half asleep and homeless.

 

 

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Thankfully we managed to convince the RV park over the road to let us stay, and as it was now 3am the lady very kindly did it for half the price.

One thought on “TAT Day 9

  1. TG

    Great stuff. Am enjoying the ride.

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