The Museum of Wonder

In the beginning of last year, I wrote down 10 rides that I wanted to accomplish in 2011. This was both to prevent the night before dilemma of where to go and to encourage further exploration of Georgia and Alabama. In the end I was not able to cross off one of those rides. It was not a banner year for hogging any miles.

A new year brings the same goal, as well as a GPS to aid in navigating these trips. The weather was excellent this week and allowed me to cross off my first trip of 2012. Terence was home on leave, so he joined me on the experience.


I found our destination on Roadside America, which is one of the best places to locate those truly unique locations. I entered the address in the GPS for The Museum of Wonders in Seale Alabama. The default settings avoid all highways so we were able to cruise down the back roads and small towns of Alabama as we made our way South. It was so nice having the GPS and not having to worry about finding the next turn. I was able to relax and enjoy the ride - even when we hit a detour that sent us down forgotten roads.

When we got there we saw a mailbox and a long driveway that led somewhere way off the road. I stopped there and someone pulled up in a pick-up truck and asked if we needed anything. We mentioned the museum and he told us to follow him down the driveway. The person in the pickup was Butch, the curator of the museum. After we parked the bike, Butch unlocked a wooden structure designated as the museum. We went in to explore and he continued to work around his place.

The sun was right over the building and made for a rough picture

The museum far exceeded the high expectations that I had set after my Internet searches on the location. The building was packed, but not too crowded, with treasures. You could tell that he had spent a great deal of time on this labor of love. This place was truly awesome and had an atmosphere that was creepy, beautiful and comical.

Here are some of the shots I took there and later manipulated on the computer.

Upon leaving, I noticed that I had left my headlights one, which resulted in a dead battery. Butch pushed me down the hill and I was able to pop the clutch to get it going again. I had never done this before, so it was nice to learn a new trick.

I decided to take the main roads and interstate on the way home. The temperature had reached the low 70's and we thoroughly enjoyed some extraordinary January weather in Georgia.

Little River Canyon, Fort Payne Alabama

I slept in a bit and missed my 7:00 departure time, but was able to get the kick stand up by 7:30 and reach Alabama by 6:30. It was a little colder than I expected on the ride up – not cold enough to get a deep chill but still enough that you were looking out for that next sunny patch of road.




Early this Spring I decided to make a list of ten Summer destinations. I was tired of spending the day before a trip trying to figure out where to go and figured a little early planning might help this tiresome routine. The last trip to The Big House was on the list and this trip to the Little River Canyon in Fort Payne was also on the list. I ended up riding up 431 in Alabama past Cheaha, which I found difficult to pass without motoring through the mountainous roads or enjoying the many hikes and views. I followed 431 until I hit 9, which took me through a very large lake region as I continued North. Although beautiful, the overcast morning would have made for poor pictures – so I throttled on until I reached the falls at the beginning of route 176.




I parked the big in the open parking lot that also contained a few cars, left the leather on, and headed down the walkway to the falls. The falls area was open and you could walk out on the rocks or sit on a ledge, which I did while I enjoyed a snack and peaceful scene. Other than a couple other people wandering in and out, I had the area to myself. After a period of rest I donned the helmet and took off down 176.





Route 176 hugs the canyon and has about ten scenic stops along the way. The first gave a nice view back at the falls and the river running along the bottom of the canyon. The road was full of dips, hills and twists and turns. I wasn’t familiar with the road so I took my time and enjoyed a stretch of pavement devoid of all other vehicles. I did see a few more cars later in the day but for the most part I had the part to myself. Each stop showcased a deep canyon created by a running river and surrounded by lush trees and high cliffs. There were birds soaring over the canyon and I was able to get pretty close to a vulture perched on the railing of the overlook. After reaching the final stop, I turned around and went back to the falls. There was one stop along the way that had an unnatural gathering of rocks that looked completely alien to the rest of the setting. One of the rocks was left in the middle of the road and parted the lanes.





My longest trips have been around 250 miles round trip. I have discovered that at this point my body is tired and my riding is compromised. When I purchased my Fat Bob, I bought a removable windshield. I rode the bike home with the windshield and found the turbulence of the wind wobbled my helmet in continuous manner, much like a paint mixing machine, that was hard to ignore. So, I got home and put the windshield in the closet. I’ve been told that I could ride farther with a windshield so I decided to try it out again on this ride. I hiked it up as high as it would go hoping that this would help with the turbulence. The shake didn’t seem too bad during the trip, but it was still there, but my visibility suffered as I was looking through a slightly reflective sheet of plastic that would occasionally fog up as I drove through the high humidity of the Deep South. In the end, I did ride for almost 300 miles and the fatigue wasn’t there the way it had been in the past.



Many people ride while listening to an iPod. I have avoided this because I enjoy the peaceful sounds of the Harley tooling down the road. This time around I decided to try the iPod so I put on The Zac Brown Band and hit genius mix – the iPod will then automatically create a mixed playlist based on the original songs style. I ended up with a mix of older country type songs and couldn’t hear the songs while riding. I tried kicking up selection by throwing in a mix of harder rock songs. The effect was pretty much the same. I could barely make out what was playing while riding and it was too loud when I stopped. After about an hour of this annoyance (86 miles to be more precise), I removed the iPod and embraced the music of the big twin cruising through Alabama. The iPod has gone back into retirement while riding.




On longer runs, I find that the middle of my back gets very sore. This usually occurs a little over midway through the trip, but this time it started to hurt at beginning of the run. I think it had more to do with my posture than anything else. I’d like to get some ape bars in the future and have been told that they will ease the pressure on the back and make for a more comfortable ride. This will probably not happen until next year, if then.



When I got back to the falls, I shed the leather and grabbed the lunch my lovely wife, Elizabeth, packed for me. After calling Elizabeth and enjoying the sound of falling water, I once again hit the pavement. Instead of taking the same route home, I decided to cut over into Georgia and head down 100. After traveling down this road for a pace, it became evident that this was a road that was well utilized by the truckers. I have utmost respect for those driving the big rigs and enjoyed sharing the road with them as I made my way back toward LaGrange.




It is about a week later and I have since removed the windshield from my bike. The difference was night and day once I got back on the road. The windshield was nice in that I didn’t get as tired and I wasn’t hit in the face once with debris or by flying bugs, but I also found it confining and a visual obstruction. I will probably put it on for trips in excess of 200 miles but it will stay in the closet for anything else.

I did end up running on fumes at the end and almost ran out of gas again, but I’m not going to talk about that. The next run will be in June and, weather permitting, T (my oldest) and I will be heading to Charleston SC for the weekend.

Cave Creek Trail in Cheaha State Park

After dropping Jessie Ann off at school, Elizabeth and I hopped on the Harley and headed North West toward Cheaha State Park. It is about 75 miles away and the roads are beautiful. I did have to zip by a tracker trailer because it was kickin' up dust and I felt like my face was being sandblasted away - so much for my youthful appearance.


This trail wins the award for best entrance. The stones had impressions of leaves and footprints that you can probably see if you click on the picture, thus making it larger. I chose this trail because its length of 3.3 miles seemed reasonable. When we looked at the sign we realized that it was 3.3 miles one way. It has been a long time since we've done a hike over 5 miles but here was an opportunity.


The trail was close to the top of the mountain and had lots of gnarled dead trees that I found really cool to look at but hard to properly capture in a picture. They were very Burtonesque - if that could be a word.


We came across this fungus along the trail and it speaks for itself. Honestly, look at this stuff. I did a google search for coral fungus and wasn't surprised to find that is its name. Who would think that fungus could be so beautiful.


The path was very easy. It was pretty much clear and relatively level. It made the distance very doable. I don't even remember there being many roots or rocks on the path.


We were on top of a mountain but there were very few views available to us. We did find one spot where could climb out on a rock and see into the distance. Unfortunately the view was still greatly hampered by trees and didn't make for a good picture.

We did stop for a snack and designated it as our location for lunch on the return trip.

The trail was called 'Cave Creek' because of the creek, or creeks, that we often crossed along the way. There aren't any caves and I read why it was still given that name, but I forget the reason.


I have found it very difficult to take a good picture of a mushroom. Because they are small, I use macro but that makes it very impossible to bring the whole thing into focus. I took a few pictures; each with a different part being in focus. I chose this one because of the intricate edges of the top of the mushroom. It reminded me of homemade paper.


We didn't know how long it would take us to hike 6.6 miles, so we decided to turn around after an hour and a half if we didn't reach the end by that point - it took us an hour and 25 minutes. The return went quickly and we were anxiously awaiting peanut butter and jelly on the rock (it was all we hoped it would be).


I love snakes. I am fascinated by venomous snakes. My favorite is the copperhead. My first hike in Georgia was on September 16th 2005 and Elizabeth and I found a copperhead hanging out across the path. I was in glee and Elizabeth was ready to say goodbye to the trails. I was mournfully commenting on how we haven't seen a venomous snake in the woods since that first encounter.


We were anxious to get back to the bike and were cruising along at a pretty good pace. About 5 minutes from the end of the journey, I stopped quickly, back pedaled with Elizabeth behind me at the site of a gorgeous copperhead chilling out across our path.


I'm going to geek out here. The colors were beautiful on this critter. I saw no scars and it's eyes were bright yellow with that vertical slit. I assume it had shed in the not so distance past. I've read that copperheads will freeze if they encounter danger and will only bite as a last resort. This one froze and didn't move the whole time we were there. I took advantage of the lack of movement and took lots of pictures and got closer than I probably should have.




I've included about half of the pictures I took. Isn't she beautiful. I have often wanted to keep one in the house, but the more sensible occupants do not share my enthusiasm.

This one was about 4 feet long, which is a good size considering the average size is about 3.5 feet.

We also saw a little ringed neck snake on the way out (non-venomous). They are very tiny and Elizabeth was the one who spotted this one. The ringed neck snake does not freeze at danger and did not result in any good pictures. They are black with a orange underside and an orange ring around their neck.

Before heading back home we stopped at the lake at the base of the mountain for the facilities and a photo opportunity.

The ride back was beautiful. The sun had come out and it was just perfect. I did catch a rock in the forehead by the mowers on the side of the road - no blood but that'll wake you up. The total trip was 148 miles on the road and 6.6 miles on the trail. We were spent and were looking forward to sitting on the porch with our mugs of coffee - which was as wonderful as expected.