• Georgia
    Leaving Georgia, I travel through farm country. Atlanta is the home of Coca-Cola and my employer for several decades.
  • Traveling through Mississippi, I enjoy the coastal areas.

I took my first EPIC motorcycle trip in 2017. I traveled first to the Gulf Coast and westward to New Orleans. Heading north along the Great River Road, I joined Route 66 for my journey to California. The Grand Canyon was a memorable stop along my journey through Utah and Colorado. The loneliest road (Route 50) to Kentucky and Tennessee brought me home to Atlanta.

For planning my route, I used motorcycle roads recommended in Rever (https://rever.co) and other miscellaneous sources. Rever features Butler Motorcycle Maps, BDR Routes, RoadRUNNER, and other Motorcycle Route sources.  Within Rever (a userid is required), you are able to see planned routes as well as the actual tracked routes from my rides.   The Google Map featured on this page was created by exporting the tracking data from Rever and importing to Google (using the GPX full route format).  

Note:  I eliminated tracking points for some of the side trips and filled in a few gaps where I didn’t have Rever actively tracking my route.  The GPX format is XML formatted data which can be combined and edited. 

Alabama to Mississippi

The journey to the Great River Road begins in Atlanta.  I stopped by our cabin in Whitesburg, GA as this was my planned starting point. It was very nice to see my friend, Bruce.  

Bruce suggested a more scenic road to Alabama, which I mostly followed.  Google Maps kept trying to re-route me to a faster way.  Google Maps is now used only when I am lost and need turn by turn directions.  Rever.co is my preferred map solution for motorcycling.  I particularly like the integrated Butler Motorcycle Maps which was one of my most trusted sources for the trip.  

I usually plan a route using a PC and navigate with my Moto z-Play cell phone (known for long battery life).  My cell phone is mounted on the handlebars (connected to the bike’s power) and sometimes put away in the luggage (with an Anker High Capacity Battery).  As Rever does not provide voice navigation, I put the phone in the luggage when I want music and route tracking only.  

The Great River Road

While the route along the Mississippi was interesting, there are not very many views of The Great River. There are dikes constructed to prevent flooding (a bit obvious, but not anticipated). While there is a dirt maintenance road on top of the dike, there are signs that it is not for general public use. I did see a number of UTVs riding the path.