This morning, Damon starts googling on his phone and comes up with an idea from a forum about what might be wrong with his bike causing the catalytic converter to overheat, and sure enough that’s the problem (throttle cable on one cylinder was sitting on its shoulder instead of down in its seat).
We push started him and he rode for 30 minutes with no problem, so he decided he’d ride up about 45 minutes to Memphis to a BMW dealer there, get a new battery, then ride back home to Georgia and call it quits for his part of the trip. I was sad to see him go, but he’d dealt with a lot of frustration and was missing his family, so I didn’t blame him for leaving. I was really glad to have him with me for a week after it being so long since seeing each other. Gary and I left Holly Springs, MS a little after lunch and got back on the trail. There were a few sections of dirt, but nothing too crazy. We did get to ride on top of some river levees, which gave a good view. We passed by the Isle of Capri Casino, and I can still remember their advertising jingle from when I was a kid, so that was kind of funny. Immediately after that, we crossed the Mississippi River into Arkansas. The first town in Arkansas is Helena, so we stopped for gas, did some laundry at a Laundromat, then ate some Mexican food before setting up camp just before dark at the Storm Creek Lake campground (http://www.arkansas.com/places-to-go/lakes-rivers/lake.aspx?id=56) in the St. Francis National Forest.
Ohhhhh I love, oh I love, the Isle of Capri Casinooo….I gotcha man.