A new (personal) county challenge

[Guidedawg]

I've given myself and others enough challenges for riding around the state, but darned if I haven't accepted another.  Dixie ABATE had a state park challenge last year but I did not participate.  I hoped it would be repeated this year to give me an excuse to visit as many as I could in a calendar year.

Nope.

This year they decided to issue a Courthouse Challenge with the idea being to see which members can visit the most courthouses in Alabama through November taking a photo with their bike.  The photo is supposed to include this sign



So old finds do not count.

As you know, I created a county challenge here (with no time limit)

https://www.motorcyclealabama.com/rides/index.php?topic=4075.0

I don't ride often and rarely out of my immediate area so I've tried to pick up several counties when traveling through.  I specifically created the challenge to be any recognizable site in a county rather than courthouses (as had been done on our older site) so that riders did not necessarily have to travel to a county seat.

Oh well, it looks like I may have to return to some counties I have already visited in my ultimate quest to cover the state.  Of course, it's highly unlikely a casual rider like me will do that in a year, but it's nice to have an excuse to ride.

I decided to start with a ride in my more immediate area that should only eat a few hours.  I mapped out my route and off I went





My first stop was just up the road in Wetumpka.



It was still early in the morning with cool temps, so I traded out my normal gloves for more gauntlet types.  Combined with my ear cover strip (for my half helmet), jacket instead of vest, and long johns under the jeans, I was about as prepared for cold weather riding as I get.

I appreciated the improved Wetumpka downtown and was glad to see construction completed as I went through the roundabout and back to 231 where I went north into Rockford in Coosa County.



Had I only been visiting counties, I would have gone east on Hwy 22 but I like to get as many games/challenges accomplished as I can on a trip and I wasn't far from where Chuck had left the Tag back in October.  I continued north on 231 and stopped just south of Sylacauga for this photo.



Once upon a time those did not sit very long so I'll try to place one in a convenient location rather than deep in Tuskegee as I originally considered.

I took county road 150 to go across to Hwy 280 and heading through Alexander City.  However, I did pull over for one stop to grab a geocache – a hobby I have seriously ignored over the past few years.  It's not convenient to do on a motorcycle, but this particular one had a lot of favorite points, so I made plans to stop.  Unfortunately, the sign by the road which gave this cache its name is no longer there, but you can see what it was.



I went through Alex City and into Dadeville to the courthouse.



If you've read my reports in the past, you know my habit is to pick a county and criss-cross it to find those sites on the National Register of Historic Places.  It looks like that may be pushed aside (though all of you are more than welcome to contribute!) for more direct routes to courthouses this year.  Nevertheless, I knew the courthouse was in the middle of a district, so I took a few pics to add to that section of our site.

https://www.motorcyclealabama.com/rides/index.php?topic=2078.0

It wasn't long before I was in Camp Hill and stopped to see the new signage at what most will still recall as Lyman Ward Military Academy.



From there, I went to Chambers County where I went by a conveniently located site on the historic register

https://www.motorcyclealabama.com/rides/index.php?topic=2131.0

And then on to the courthouse





I grabbed another cache across the street and was grateful no one called the cops on the biker sneaking around in the bushes.

It was almost a year ago that I made a previous visit out here when getting pics of county visits

https://www.motorcyclealabama.com/rides/index.php?topic=4158.0

But this time I continued south and went into Opelika



I noticed a nice mural very close to the courthouse, so I took some pics to add to that portion of our site as well.  Don't forget about it when you are riding!



https://www.motorcyclealabama.com/rides/index.php?topic=4271.0

Although I mapped a route taking me south and along backroads into Tuskegee, I wanted to be home by lunch and time was running out.  I jumped on the Interstate on a very windy day and went into downtown.







I took a different route to the Interstate and my low fuel light came on along the way.  I knew if it was south of Shorter I could be in trouble, but fortunately there was a station at the Interstate exit (north of Shorter, btw) where at least 2 other motorcycles pulled up while I was there.  It was a good day to be out.

It wasn't my normal type ride in that I used Interstate and went from place to place on the most direct roads, but it was still leisurely country driving and I was still able to contribute to the County Historical Register pics, a mural pic, and add 2 counties that I had not yet visited to our own county challenge while making my first entry in the ABATE challenge..all that and 2 geocaches made for a great day out.