I was working on my bike in my pool room, in the a/c and away from the skeeters

Daniel's bike "old roy" naked, he was making a few last minute mods

roll chart for Oklahoma taped together was about 20 feet long

We have been doing a lot of prep work. Cutting and taping roll charts, more on those later, highlighting map copies and trying to figure out what gear to take and what to leave.

The red dots are roughly the route of non-paved roads that we will be riding across the United States. From Florida to Tennessee we will ride up I75, because we are in a bit of a hurry to get the adventure started.

for more information about the trail see Sam's site: transamtrail.com

and advrider.com use their search tab and enter trans-america trail

Dirt Roads

By Lee Pitts, as read by Paul Harvey

What's mainly wrong with society today is that too many dirt roads have been paved.

There's not a problem in America today, crime, drugs, education, divorce, delinquency that

wouldn't be remedied, if we just had more dirt roads, because dirt roads give character.

People that live at the end of dirt roads learn early on that life is a bumpy ride. That it can

jar you right down to your teeth sometimes, but it's worth it, if at the end is home...a loving

spouse, happy children and a dog. We wouldn't have near the trouble with our educational

system if our children got their exercise walking a dirt road with other children from

whom they learn how to get along.

There was less crime in our streets before they were paved. Criminals didn't walk two

dusty miles to rob or rape, if they knew they'd be welcomed by five barking dogs and a

double barrel shotgun. And there were no drive-by shootings.

Our values were better when our roads were worse! People did not worship their

cars more than their children, and motorists were more courteous, they didn't tailgate by

riding the bumper or the guy in front would choke you with dust and bust your windshield

with rocks.

Dirt roads taught patience. Dirt roads were environmentally friendly, you didn't hop

in you car for a quart of milk you walked to the barn for your milk. For your mail, you

walked to the mailbox. What if it rained and the dirt road got washed out? That was the

best part, and then you stayed home and had some family time, roasted marshmallows and

popped popcorn and pony road on Daddy's shoulders and learned how to make prettier

quilts than anybody.

At the end of dirt roads, you soon learned that bad words tasted like soap. Most paved

roads lead to trouble, dirt roads more likely lead to a fishing creek or a swimming hole.

At the end of a dirt road, the only time we even locked our car was in August, because

if we didn't some neighbor would fill it with too much zucchini. At the end of a dirt road,

there was always extra springtime income, from when city dudes would get stuck, you'd

have to hitch up a team and pull them out. Usually you got a dollar...always you got a new

friend...at the end of a dirt road.