Hell in a hand basket

10/04 Saturday

Coffee lakeside, then a 30-minute ride to Buc-ee's. What is Buc-ee's? A ridiculously large gas station. There are so many gas pumps and motorcycles. Inside, it's just as huge. A breakfast kitchen making sandwiches non-stop and sliding them out of a circular cooking area in all directions. We talked with many bikers outside while eating breakfast. A very efficient gas and food stop handling an enormous crowd.

Just up the road was the Barber Museum entrance. We passed a long line of '"ticket holders" in one lane to reach the buying pits. Not really a pits just run like it. They pulled a dozen bikes to one side, and then they processed all those ticket purchases in parallel. Releasing us all to parking at once. Unfortunately we followed the wrong crowd to remote parking, then asked someone who said we should be able to park bikes close. We then migrated back to park trackside near the vendors.

Barber Motorsports Park is much larger than the museum. A half dozen trolley cars (two trailers full of seating towed by pickup trucks) took laps around the park. We rolled past many trolley stops and track viewpoints. The entire swap meet, motocross area, camping, test rides, and more vendors. We jumped off at a hilltop track viewpoint to watch some racers defy gravity through a set of turns. Four full trolleys later, we found enough empty seats and completed our journey to the museum.

The Barber Museum is completely overwhelming. Simply because there are so many things to look at. We got split up multiple times. Spent the afternoon snapping photos of cars, bikes, artwork, races, and views of the majestic grounds. Eventually buying our t-shirts and catching a trolley back to our bikes.

We talked with others awhile before suiting up to ride. It was then Nate found his Cardo was no longer on his helmet. I was parked next to him, but mine was untouched. Ouch, no communication gear for the next week of riding, unless he can buy a new one. But most motorcycle shops are closed now until Tuesday morning.

Our first attempt at dinner was only a bar. The second try wasn't too bad until the karaoke started. All sang poorly and loud. We really wanted to put our earplugs in, but didn't want to insult a bar full of "singers".

Moments after arriving back to camp, my phone rang. The campground owner returned my call. He was at the motocross waiver station at Barber today. At some point, he had left an envelope on my tent. He charged us $10/tent/night, so our two night stay was $60. I thanked him and dropped off the cash in his mailbox.

Before retiring to our tents, we made plans to pass through Chattanooga again tomorrow. As much as we hated it Friday, we believe it to be our best chance to find a new Cardo to replace the one stolen from Nate. Hopefully Nate has a new one before noon tomorrow. We will move our traveling show to North Carolina tomorrow.