Day 2 - E&E's and Road Construction

Deal’s Gap, NC to Little Rock, AR (via TN and MS)

Daily milage: 590mi

Total mileage: 1085mi

State count: 5

What a wonderful night spent on the Dragon!  Such a special place for us it seems, and we were so happy that we could make it fit into the schedule.  Stickers were bought and put on the bike, along with a new pin for the “Adventure Box” (the top case that’s on Martinique’s bike, that represents all our adventures).

We started our day by heading into Knoxville from the Dragon.  HAD to find a Krystal since we’re deprived of them up North.

There was a group of old guys hanging out while we were there.  They were very interested in our stickers “Just Married” and where we were headed.  They provided some good tips (Hwy 70).  After a look at the storm that was coming in (that’d hit OK  City the night before) we decided that we wanted to try and head south (instead of the slightly upward trek I-40 has) and picked a route that wound it’s way down through Southern TN.  Our original plan for the first few days was to slab it out West so we could get there any enjoy ourselves, but now that just wasn’t seeming as fun.

We stopped for lunch at this place along the side of Hwy 64 called E&E’s Food and Spirits.  Place looked pretty sketch (we forgot to grab a photo) but there was a bunch of bikes, including two GS’s and an XR1200, so we turned around and pulled in.  Immediately, the guy on the XR1200 came out (a local) and starting chatting us up.  He said the pizza was amazing so we ended up getting that with everything they had (including cactus!). We were only able to eat half, so we had some for dinner, and breakfast the next more also! The owner of E&E’s was a Marine veteran F4 fighter pilot from Vietnam. VERY nice guy, and he made some killer pizza! Very much a hole in the wall, but a great stop!!

What was left of our pizza:

We donned our rain gear before leaving E&E’s with the thought that rain would hit us in an hour.  Not 20 minutes after rolling it started to come down.  Not at all close to the worst we’ve ever ridden in, but still pretty sketch when you’re trying to go 70mph.  But we faired all right with the super PR2’s and 3’s that Larkin hooked us up with.

We had opted for a more southern route after a “route suggestion” from Apple maps took us through MS for a ways.  Why not knock another state off the list!  So we dipped down, and picked up that state too.  We had though we could make it to West Memphis for the evening, but as we got closer, and there was still a lot of daylight, we tossed around the idea of continuing onto Little Rock for the evening.  When we pulled into the Red Rook Inn in West Memphis, we confirmed the idea to continue to Little Rock.  It was way to sketchy to leave our bikes outside overnight, and Yelp was showing one star for ratings, while Little Rock RRI had 4 stars.  So we jumped on I-40 ready to bang out the 120 extra miles.

And then we hit construction… Because we didn’t listen to the five signs before warning of massive road construction efforts between Memphis and Little Rock.  Added about an hour onto our trip to get to Little Rock, and we were ready for bed when we got there.  Martinique ended up having a fever by the end of the day.  Seems we’re both battling whatever it is.  We’ll pick up some drugs in the morning, and now with only ~850mil to Taos, NM for the next two days, the travel is much more manageable.  We’re gonna keep on keepin’ on!!