This is a note to say thanks to all the wonderful people in Iuka that helped us during an unexpected stay in the Iuka Walmart parking lot on October 11th.

A father/son motorcycle trip turned into a motorcycle adventure when a radiator hose connector going to the water pump got punctured.  

My son came up from northwest South Carolina to my home in the Upper Cumberland Region of Middle Tennessee. We left Monday morning heading to west Nashville to get on the Natchez Trace at its terminus in Bellevue. We headed south on the trace with Tupelo being our destination for the day. We went ahead and booked and paid for a room in Tupelo. Everything was fine until the puncture happened about 15 miles north of Collinwood, Tennessee. It was getting close to dark and with no cell service we had no choice but to keep riding. With a little bit of aluminum foil and a couple of zip ties, we made a McGyver patch to get us to Collinwood. There we were able to beat an auto parts store closing time by ten minutes and get a hose clamp. We also fueled the bikes and got several bottles of water. 

We continued our journey with stops every 10-15 miles to add water since the hose clamp repair only helped to reduce the loss of fluid. With the Trace detour, we probably covered 65-75 miles before the bike finally came to a halt in the McDonalds’ parking lot in Iuka. We got something to eat and spent some time considering options. It was too late to get a rental truck so my son rode his bike out to see if he could find a motel....no luck there. The next option was to figure out a way to get to Corinth to get a motel room for the night. No luck there either...no Uber driver available. The only thing left to do was book a truck for Tuesday morning and spend the night with the bikes. In scouting for a motel my son had seen the Walmart just a short distance from where we were. We felt like that would be the best place to stay. He helped me push my large touring bike out into the road. I turned on the flashers and coasted to the Subway. He followed me on his smaller dual sport.  At the Subway, we pushed my bike to the Walmart entry and coasted down to the bottom of the drive. There we spent the night. 

Thanks to Walmart management for allowing us to stay and to all the friendly employees. Y’all were great. A special thanks to the two hospital employees that helped us load the bikes into the U-Haul truck and to the fire department for checking on us. We also want to thank all the many people that stopped and offered to help us along the Trace when we would stop for a bike cooling and water refill.

The very best to all of you

Dempsey & Chip