Day 06 - Huntsville to Leeds, AL and Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum

Today's destination would be Birmingham, Alabama, 116 miles from Huntsville, and directly to the Barber Motorsports Museum.

Last night's storm was much less intense than the weather channels predicted. We had a steady downpour and a few minutes of wind. When Rob went out to prep the bike in the morning, all was well. The ziplock bags we put on the handlebar controls worked great as did the protection of the fence. 

We got our Airbnb tidied up and packed up the bike. Michele mentioned to Rob that the rain cleaned all the pollen off the trailer, it was shiny and clean. He said he had just spent 30 minutes wiping it down, that's why! We got on the road at 9am under heavy gray skies and temps of 54F. 

At the intersection of I565 and I65 about 20 minutes down the road, traffic came to a standstill. Rob switched on the CB channel to hear about the issue ahead from the truck drivers. The bridge over the TN river was down to one lane due to construction that's been going on for two weeks, causing about a 5 mile backup. We figure we lost about 30 minutes. Once past that, we had easy traveling and not too much traffic. 

We arrived at the museum at 11:30. We bought our tickets and then drove back into town to get lunch since the museum does not have food onsite. While we were waiting for our food, a guy asked Rob if his bike actually had a reverse gear? He said he was talking to his wife on the phone when we pulled up and said, "I've never seen that in my life! A motorcycle that has a reverse gear!" He was really funny, we had a good laugh. 

We got back to the museum at 12:30pm and had until 5pm closing to see the 950 bikes on display. This museum is the world's largest motorcycle collection of over 1,600 bikes, collected from all over the world. There are a lot of racecars also, many from former champions, and a handful of Model Ts. George Barber was a Porsche racer in the 1960s and was encouraged to start a motorcycle collection since there were numerous car collections already. He was gifted a few rare bikes from a racer friend to start his collection. 

The place is incredible and in a very large building. The property spans many acres, that includes a race track, small lake, waterfall and other racing areas. The bikes are maintained to run and are cleverly displayed throughout 5+ floors. A striking feature is the columns of four vertical displays that hold 60 bikes surrounding the elevator shaft, 15 bikes per column. The ticket guy suggested we start at the top floor and work our way down. 

The bikes were mostly organized and grouped by era, with special sections for specific manufacturers. We learned about bike manufacturers we never heard of. The museum seems to specialize in rare bikes, with many on display that were small production. The displays included a write-up for nearly every bike on display including its specs and history. Here are just a few examples. 

The sidecar exhibit was really neat.

 

Check out how the sidecar rider leans off the platform to help counter balance the bike. Michele thought this would be fun for her to try. (Michele: Um, no.)

 

 

This one delivered "biscuits" in the early 1900s. It supposedly still has biscuits in it but we could not touch anything to confirm or deny.

Michele really liked this scooter with the cute coordinated trailer. 

 

 

 This one holds the quarter mile record for a V-twin.

 

 

A few were both functional and unusual.

 

Michele couldn't believe her eyes, a round motorcycle!

This one had directions written on paper that the rider rotated. Very clever to record the route of the off-road race course.

We admired the displays as much as the bikes.

The museum restores bikes and cars for its collection in the basement. Given the age of most of the bikes, including a lot of military ones from the major wars, they are in just pristine condition. Some from 1920 or 1950 looked brand new. The security guard chatted with us a bit and said they open the basement on weekends for the premium tour. There were a bunch of cool race cars and bikes down there that we could see from above. Next time we visit we'll be sure to pick a time when we can get this tour. 

This amazing sculpture was in front of the museum. It was commissioned for the museum.

 

We definitely will be back. This place is like no other museum we've ever been to. No expense was spared, everything is high end and thoughtfully displayed. This was a bucket list place for us and we're so happy to have experienced it today. 

We finished up around 4pm. We could have stayed longer but were a little tired from all the walking. On the way out, Michele told the docent that she noticed an oil leak on the 1920s Majestic, a beautiful white bike. A Lotus F1 car was displayed above it and was slowly dripping oil. We headed out and checked into our Hampton Inn nearby. We drove a short way down the road for dinner, then were done for the night.

Tomorrow is a long ride day westward through Mississippi and into Louisiana. 

Day 05 - U.S. Space & Rocket Center

 

We woke up at 7:15am this morning and had our breakfast. The temperature was a very comfy 60F. We were on the bike at 9:00am to make the short 10 minute ride over to the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, AL. The facility is right off of I-595. From the interstate you can see the Space Shuttle and the Saturn V rocket. We have ridden past this facility many times on our trips and always wanted to visit.

In addition to hosting Space Camp, the Huntsville facility is responsible for all of the science on board the International Space Station. They coordinate with the Houston facility on the ISS operations.

We found dedicated motorcycle parking up front, just three spots from the CEO’s reserved spot. The first building had a lot of the beginning history of space flight and the impacts the program had on the culture  of the country. They had examples of the flight suits through the program.

We walked through some mocked up modules of the ISS. The sleep quarters are about the size of a small single door pantry. Just enough room to sleep (vertically) and space for a laptop or two. A wall of velcro substitutes for a night stand. Just stick your stuff on the wall to keep it from floating around.

The operation of the bathroom was explained as was the environmental control system. The “gym” was on display as well. The treadmill was on the wall! When walking through the modules, it becomes obvious that there is no ceiling, floor, or wall. All can be used similarly in a micro-G environment.

They also discussed Robonaut which was aboard the ISS from 2011 to 2018 as a prototype of eventually using robots to perform tasks in a microgravity environment as an aid to human spaceflight. 

We walked outside to the Space Shuttle exhibit. The shuttle (named Pathfinder) was removed from atop the external fuel tank in 2021 and is being examined for restoration. Its frame is on the ground to the left. The center hopes to also restore the tank and the two solid rocket boosters (SRBs).

We made our way over to the Saturn 5 building. They have both a Saturn 1B and a Saturn V rocket standing vertically on the grounds. You have to really crane your neck to see the top when standing next to them!

 

Inside the Saturn V building, there is a full size Saturn V rocket laying horizontally. The size of the five F-1 rocket motors on the first stage of the rocket are mind blowingly large. They are to-date the most powerful rocket motor developed and operated. The produce about 1.5M lbs of thrust each. That means that just one F-1 engine produces more than 3 Space Shuttle engines. The engines pumped 670 gallons of fuel and oxidizer per second!

It was really interesting to see all the very delicate tubing structures on the nozzles used to cool the motors. How do you keep a motor producing 5800F heat from melting? The short answer is you use the -425F hydrogen you use as fuel to first pump through the motor before you burn it. Pretty amazing engineering. 

 

There are lots of displays that discuss the history of the race to the moon and the multiple hurdles that had to be overcome. Michele liked the hand calculations for the booster stages, pre computers. One of the few women on staff was a mathematician and physicist and was critical in figuring all that out. 

Here is the 2nd stage of the Saturn V and the five J2 rockets it had to propel it. The J2 rocket motors were the first rocket motor that could shut down and then reignite later in space. 

The “brains” of the Saturn V were built into a ring that was between the stages. Here is an example of one.

And here is the third stage of the Saturn V with a single J2 motor.

On top of the rocket was the Command Module where the astronauts sat. The pointy tower was part of the emergency ejection system. If something went wrong, the tower (which is actually a solid rocket booster) would ignite and pull the command module away from the rocket.

  

At the far end of the building two lunar rovers and a lunar lander were on display. Of course all of this hardware are either models or extras that never flew. The only part of the Saturn V that ever returned to Earth intact was the command module with the astronauts inside. The recovered command module from Apollo 12 (the 2nd mission to the moon) is on display along with one of it’s parachutes. You can see how the ablative heat shield was used up more in some places than others as it wore off during re-entry.

 

 

 

There was also a moon rock on display that is labeled as priceless in value.

Outside in the rocket garden, there were a few other pieces of Army hardware. Michele likes the mobile rocket launcher.

They also had a tiny submarine that the Army built. It was used to aid in the recovery of rocket debris during testing. The sub could go deeper and carry more debris than scuba divers.

We finished up walking through all the exhibits at around 1pm. We took a short ride to a nearby restaurant square called Stovehouse. It is several restaurants around a common square where there were tables to sit down and eat. They had a stage for music and areas for kids to play. We ate pork BBQ that was really good. We also picked up mediterranean food for dinner tonight.

 Severe thunderstorms are expected tonight so we plan to stay indoors, do laundry and pack. Since wind is forecasted, we zip tied ziplock bags onto the bike’s handlebars to protect the most important switches from rain. We are parked next to a high wooden fence and hedge and are hoping that is enough to protect it. 

Tomorrow we head south to Birmingham.

Day 04 - Lookout Mountain Scenic Ride

Today we planned a scenic ride up to Lookout Mountain in Tennessee. We got up at 7am and were backing the bike out of the driveway at 8:30am. The temperature this morning was 50F making it the warmest of our trip to date. Temperatures would steadily climb throughout the day to the mid-70s. Very nice!

We headed east out of Huntsville on US72 into Scottsboro where we jumped onto CR35 into Rainsville. 

After crossing I59 we headed south on US11 for a few miles. We then headed east on CR176 which took us into the Little River Canyon National Preserve. We slowly made our way along the canyon rim parkway occasionally getting glimpses of the shear cliff walls. The park road had been recently tar and chipped so 25 mph was as fast as we could comfortably go. The overlooks were all gravelly so Michele tried to get pictures through the trees as we rode by. 

We exited the preserve at the northern point and then headed north-west on CR35 for a few miles before turning north onto the Desoto Parkway (CR89). The park had ziplines and a neat spiral staircase up to swinging bridges.

We followed 89 into Georgia until it turned into CR157. We turned north and followed CR157 all the way to Lookout Mountain just inside the Tennessee state line. Michele liked this sign of signs.

We rode past Point Park and then headed down into Chattanooga for lunch. 

We shared a sandwich and cookie from Subway and made our way back south following I-24 west and then US72 west into Huntsville. We arrived back at our Airbnb at 3pm. Today’s scenic ride clocked in at 275 miles.

We rested a bit then walked to dinner at Jack Brown’s Beer and Burger Joint. We had the Greg Brady burger, which is mac and cheese and chips on the burger. Good combination of flavors! We thought the disco ball decorations were funny. We ordered their fried oreos for dessert. It is a soft oreo surrounded by a donut covered in powdered sugar. Yum.

After dinner we walked back to the house. As we passed by the owner's house, Yogi and Lucy were out front and barked ferociously at us from behind their invisible fence. Michele was offended that they didn't recognize us given how much attention she gave them yesterday.

Tomorrow we see rockets!