Coffee Bean Corral (10/23/23 Mon)

Up once the sun started heating my tent. Drank my folgers tea bag of coffee while packing up. Quick ride to CBC, arriving near 0900. Rang the local pickup door bell and I was in. One dog happily took affection, the other only gave me the suspecious eye. The worker who answered the door went to get the financial person to give me a tour of the place. Everyone else was busy filling orders.

They don't really import, just order from various importers. Coffee arrives on pallets in large sacks holding upto 150 lbs. They empty a sacks into barrels that hold a specific bean or blend. Printouts of ordered sizes are then fofilled from the barrels and shipped out to happy customers like me. They toss a coffee sack into fill shipping box space, like the one I received with my roaster and sample bean order. They have two boxes of sacks, that we dug through to find the grower that I like. I talked with my guide about other beans like my favorite and then the taster/blender to find out what blends I might like. I then selected 3 sample packs to purchase. After which I was told they are giving them to me, along with my sack, and some pins. Then the blender tossed in another blend he thought I would like. I expected to pay for my green beans, so this was a shock. Certainly an amazing way to lock in a customer. How could I buy anywhere else now?

Back on the Natchez Trace Parkway I continued my route NE in blisful calm. Speed limit is 50 mph. At 53 my mike purs along getting 54mpg. Never getting passed or catching up to other cars heading my way. Every 5-10 minutes another vehicle and I joust without poles. Every 5th or 6th one is another motorcycle.

The NTP is a wonderful way to ride. There's nothing extra spectacular along it, but you can appreciate all variety of trees. Most of which we have in the Northeast. The Cyprus is new to me. It has fuzy leaves, that look delicately furn like. In normal soil it seems to grow normally, but when it's standing in water it gets a swollen stump. Very exagerated swollen. I saw evidence of a stump regrowing a tree. So perhaps the stumps are just very old and the tree rising from them is relatively new grown. Either way they look like what you would expect of a wheeble tree. As in Wheebles woble but they don't fall down. Younger readers can google Wheelbes. Think egg shaped, weighted bottom fisherprice sized people toys.

Planning to take the NTP as far as it goes north. I know it goes into TN, and I believe passing through the NW tip of AL. Luckily the chinese food buffet I got off for was closed. After refueling I tried to find a NTP sticker at an information building. They sold no stickers, but told me where I might find one further north. Also noting a great place to eat in French Camp, and let me know of a section of NTP closed for construction ahead. The Council House restaurant in French Camp had great BLT and MS Mud Pie. Very happy I didn't settle for some chain.

A remote Scenic Byway might not be the best place to debug fuel problems, but that didn't stop me from doing it. I let the tank run down at 80F to a range around 34 miles without any issue. My spare key was in the fuel cap, ready for a test that never occured. Another glass half full, that's how I'm taking it. Typing in a restaurant is nice. When your glass actually gets to the half full mark, a nice waitress offers to refill it. Next up: empty my glass, then me, and continue north on NTP for another tank of gas. Not even I know if this will be night 3 in MS.

Whomever bet this odd ball would land on AL won. It really was hard to tell where I would end up because the GPS was convinced much of Nachez Trace Parkway was closed. There was a lengthy closed section (~40miles), but the gps thought it was 3 or 4 times longer than it really was.

Once I realized I would be in AL I checked how far from Muscle Shoals I landed. About 20 minutes from the old ferry crossing site (free camping) on the NTP. Sent text to my neiphew a asking if his half sister would like to go to dinner or breakfast. I believe she lives in Muscle Shoals. Currently in a holding pattern near the gps dot that is Muscle Shoals while she sorts out timing. What is at the city center dot you ask? My favorite: McDonalds and McCoffee. Well one out of two aint bad. I will need coffee for my 25 minute deer dodging ride back to my park in the dark. Wanting to only play at the beginner level I plan to give myself more time at lower speeds.

Met Josh and Jenny for dinner at Los Arcos. It's across the street from McD. Nice dinner catching up then back to the ferry to camp. Only wildlife on route was an opossum. Nobody else camping but me, tucked off in a corner of the lot. Hopefully no visitors.