Day 7,8,9:

We broke loose of the houston mad house and rolled north blindly following the GPS. We were all whipped from a week of heat and more heat. Michigan seemed like it was forever away and the whirlwind pace was showing on us.

The plan was to slide north and get a room near Little Rock for the night before sliding into my brother's near Effingham Ill. We made it to Benton Arkansas and called it a night. The gang was tired and we were close to our target so all was good.

We blasted out the next morning and headed for Missouri. The day started to get interesting right at the Mo. line when a car load of people cut across three lanes of traffic locking up their tires to skid to a stop on the shoulder of the road. There they all jumped out dressed in their best bright green, orange and red sunday church clothes like a bunch of parrots and ran up to pose for a picture in front of the "Welcome to Missouri" billboard.

We skipped across my old home state in no time and finally found our way to Effingham. The Best Western with the naked guy in the parking lot we stayed in on the way down was all booked up so we found refuge at the Motel 6. After dumping our bags in the room we rolled for the cook out already in progress at my Brother Allen's compound.

The ribs had been cooking for some 7 hours or so, all 7 slabs. The guys worked on the feast since morning and we were rolling in around 7 o'clock. Shawn tended the grill all day I'm told. I've known shawn for a lot of years and it was good to see him again. We tore a hole into the side of Detroit one weekend years ago that has become a thing of legend.

The neighborhood gang assembled for the feast in the back yard. All the outlaw off road toys were present including my brothers classic old jeep with an new motor just dropped in that afternoon. Being far from street legal didn't stop us from taking it out and rattling the people's windows up and down the road for miles with the straight pipes and custom built V-8. The raw wind in our face from the windshield being folded down added to the excitement. It made me miss my jeep I sold years ago.

We sat down and talked bikes for a while as the last touches were put on dinner. Bill's classic 82 Goldwing with the original Vetters was a cool bike along with my Brother's classic XS 1100 yamaha. That bike was the biggest badest fastest bike money could buy back in the day. I use to fantasize about owning one of those in my younger days.

Dinner was incredible! We had enough ribs to make Wall street's Hog Futures take a spike the next day. Allen did each of the rack o' ribs with a different rub making for a great time trying each one out. The smoked jalapeno's stuffed with little smokies sausages and cream cheese then wrapped in thick bacon was to die for. In fact I may have shortened my life expectancy by eating way too many of those. The spicy baked beans rocked. My little Navigator couldn't get enough of the corn bread in the cast iron skillet. She ate till she hurt and wants to go back and do it again.

Eventually we filled up and went to work packing a big ass Smoker into the already loaded up van. This thing is big and ugly! Made out of a 55 gallon drum stood on end it is a work of art. Allen built three of these things and it is an engineering marvel. We all agreed that we should meet for breakfast in the morning and that I should pay for it before I loaded the girls into the ZiggyMobile and headed back into the world that is actually on a road map to find our hotel.

The next morning came way to fast but the good thing was that the Dennys we were meeting at was right outside our hotel room door. Shawn and Stick wheeled in with a pickup load of another Brinkman Smoker and a buttload of apple wood. We shoe horned it all into the already full van and headed next door for a pile o' big slams.

The only thing worth ordering at a Dennys is their big slam breakfasts. I was a cook at the Dennys in Enfield Connecticut in the late 70's and speak from experience. We called ahead and reserved a table for 7 so we were seated shortly after walking in. Then after ordering our food we waited an hour and a half to be served....

All worked out in the end and we once again were back on our trek home. We kicked down Detroit's door around 9 PM leaving Jane and the little one another 3 hours to travel on their own up to Ziggyland North in their car that was left at the marina.

The trip was a whirlwind of adventure! We are looking forward to another trip to the cabin next year but plan on making it a two week run so we can settle in more and spread our wings.