Going Home

Day 8 & 9

Breakfast at 7:30 and pulled out at 8 with plans to make it to Romney WV about 330 miles and stop for the night at Koolwink, a little motel we have visited several times.  The weather was calling for 80% chance of rain so when we pulled out we were delighted to have cloudy but dry skies.  We rode hard for the first couple of hours and then had to stop for gas; still no rain thank goodness.  Then just before noon we needed gas again and lunch and the sky was getting really dark and the rain started.  Getting from the gas pumps across the parking lot to the restaurant we were soaked.  We only had about 130 miles to go but 100 of those miles were on route 50 which was up; over and around mountains which slowed us down considerable costing us at least an extra hour.   Arriving in the little town of Romney we saw people – normally there are very few people on the streets in this small, sleepy town. There was a festival in town and the Koolwink was full with several Warlock gang members but we were assured they come into town every year and never cause any problems.  Don kept warning me to stay away from their bikes.  

Four in our group decided to leave at 7 Sunday morning while the remaining 8 had breakfast at 7 and on the road by 8 heading for home.  We covered 220 miles in 4 hours with one stop for gas after 160 miles.  Sun was shining and the temps were in the mid 60s when we pulled out; perfect for riding.  We arrived home by noon, quick lunch at Hardees where we met a very nice man and woman who ride and we shared stories for a few minutes and invited them to a UTR meeting and then home to unpack and do laundry.  Work tomorrow.

A Great Day with a Great Group

Day 7

Today was going to be a short ride today but it started out bad.  Roger’s bike wouldn’t start seems the battery is dead and every time we stopped we had to jump it; then two bikes picked up a screw some place and got flat tires.  One bike they fixed in the parking lot of the Mountain Homeplace and Mike decided to ride his to the closest shop and have it fixed.   None of the “points of interest” in eastern Kentucky are listed in the GPS and none have addresses.  It is always some number on KY route and a 4 digit road number.  Now 3 and 4 digit roads (3224 or 1478) are great riding but that is not an address.  So we headed out to find the Mountain Homeplace, an 18^th century farm which was not where the internet said it was.  After turning around twice, making a wrong turn and riding through a graveyard we finally found it.  It was well worth the trouble. 

Then we set out to find the Black Barn a produce market and this one was right where the internet said but leaving there we headed for River to find the “plastic bridge” and never did see it.   Some in the group headed back for the hotel while Don and I and Dale headed out to Van Lear to find Loretta Lynn’s homeplace; Butcher Holler which is way back in the mountains.  But we found it and had a nice visit with Harmon, Loretta’s brother who showed us around the house and explained everything to us.  Very nice man and loves to visit.  Back to the hotel and packing starts for the early leave in the morning. 

A new twist was added to the banquet this year; everyone was to wear a funny hat.  We had such a variety including a free range chicken; the little piggy;   a court jester; a charming woman with pink hair and even the Blues Brothers.   We were laughing so hard and so loud that waitresses from the other room were coming in to see what was going on.  We had to go to the restaurant to get our food and everyone stopped eating to watch this parade of people wearing bright florescent yellow T-Shirts with crazy hats on march right up to the buffet.  One lady said we certainly seemed to have a lot of fun and she would like to join our group.  We ate; we laughed; we told stories; we played games; Kathy and Sandra gave out gag gifts based on screw-ups during the week and we exchanged door prizes.  I thanked everyone for their cooperation and shared fun and now the 2012 UTR rally is over. 

Front Porch Pickin (and grinning)

Day 6

Ken led the ride today and while we had nothing specific to see or visit we had a great day of riding some wonderful back roads.  We traveled up and over mountains, around mountains, past jagged rocks, passed fields of wild flowers and pastures of various farm animals.  The roads today required me to be alert and rock and roll with the beat of the road.  There are a lot of tobacco barns in this area many filled with tobacco hanging to dry.  I was not aware that many workers suffer with nicotine poisoning after cutting, spearing and hanging the tobacco.   Dinner was at Wilma’s a little restaurant downtown that was filled to capacity with our 21 people and the food was great home cooking.  Price was right at $5.95 for the buffet.   Then off we went to “Front Porch Pickin” which was great entertainment for a buck.  About 5 local groups played Bluegrass music while the locals danced their hearts out.  Reminded me of the country line dancing at the Moose on Friday nights I attended a few years back.  Everyone knew everyone, sold 50/50 tickets, and danced line dances, clogging and some 2 step.  Some with cowboy boots, some with sneakers and some with taps on their shoes for the clogging.  Some were very good and others were not but they didn’t care everyone was smiling.  It was great fun – just had a little trouble understanding their strong southern accent.   Bernie seemed to understand because he was singing right along with them.   Kathy and I tried our hand at the twist but I quickly found out my sandals stick to the floor with their rubber soles and you cannot do much glued to the floor.  But it gave a few others the courage to get up and dance which I guess is my role as president of this group – lead by example.  LOL

 

Horse Farms and Keeneland Race Track

Day 5

Today 13 of us pulled out of the parking lot at 8:30 heading 115 miles to Lexington KY to tour several horse farms in the area.   We arrived at 11 allowing us time to eat at the Embassy Suites, a beautiful hotel which was our pick-up location.  The first stop was a stud farm and we met “songandapray” who’s owners get paid $6500 per “event” and he can service 3 mares a day during breeding season.   We learned a stud can “do his thing” for 20 years or more and they are treated like royalty.  The barn and breeding room was air conditioned and very clean.  A vet is on hand to help through the process certainly not what I had expected; just turn two horses out in the pasture and let nature take its course.  No this is a major operation.  We were told we could feed him carrots and peppermint candy but he would bite if you tried to pet him.  And if anyone had sandals on there was a cat who loved to bite toes.  Well everyone had sneakers on but as soon as we stepped out of the van here comes the cat on a run and he went to each person and checked out their feet.  It was the funniest thing I’d ever seen; my cat was weird but not that weird.   Then they even have “birthing farms” where owners can take their mares just before they foul and there are vets on hand all the time to assist in the birthing. 

Then back in the bus and we headed for a farm to tour the “training” barns.  These colts were yearlings and scheduled to be sold in November and they needed to be trained to walk on a lead, stand still and in general behave themselves.   The barn was spotless, each stall had a fan for the horse, they are showered every day and turned out to exercise in the pastures after the sun goes down because they don’t want the color of their coats to fade in the bright sunshine.   Of course, these horses bring hundreds of thousands of dollars and the owners are hoping they will become Kentucky Derby winners or even a good stud will net millions over the course of time.   

Next stop – Keeneland Thoroughbred Race Track a beautiful track which has been around since 1935 and is a national historic site which is visited often by the Queen of England when she has her horses shipped over to the USA to race.  The history was fascinating.  After leaving Keeneland we traveled through several other horse farms and various locations where movies have been filmed.  Farms selling for millions and requiring millions to maintain them.

After a 3 and a half hour tour we saddled our steeds and headed back 115 miles to Paintsville on the Kentucky Parkway which is a great road, no stop signs or lights and cruising speeds of 65 and 70 with purple and yellow wild flowers blooming and the sycamore trees all turning golden.  Lexington, located in the middle of Kentucky is more rolling hills while heading back to Paintsville we had the Appalachian mountains in our sights with cut away sections of the mountains beside the highway displaying the vast amount of coal buried beneath the soil.  It was a pleasant day and dry – until the last 5 miles – then the skies opened up and soaked us.  Oh well – it is what it is.  

 

Up Up we go but what goes up must come down.

Standing at the top of the world; Natural Bridge KY

Nada Tunnel Entrance

Day 4

My turn to lead the ride and we were heading for Red River Gorge which would not be fun to ride if it rained so I was praying all night for clear skies.  Saddled up at 9 and had to put on the rain suits because it was just beginning to spit.  Never did rain and in about an hour we were turning onto highway 715 going into the gorge.  We snaked our way over a blacktop path barely wide enough for one vehicle.  It was so quiet, and the smell of damp earth and rotting old trees was tantalizing.  Signs telling us to watch for bears were posted but we didn’t see any.  Not sure how many miles we traveled through the gorge up hill, down gullies around curves and hairpin turns making a few stops for picture opportunities.  Then we approached the Nada Tunnel, I had been looking forward to riding through this tunnel for months.  The tunnel was blasted and dug by hand to transport logs from the gorge in the early 19^th century.  The tunnel is only large enough for one vehicle but yet it is a two way tunnel.  When we pulled up to the tunnel I was a bit surprised because it looked like a small cave I was about to enter.  I was going to ride through first and then make sure no vehicles would enter from the other end so the rest of the group could come through.  As I entered this gaping mouth it was suddenly black as midnight; the walls of the tunnel seemed to be so close you could touch them and I couldn’t see if the road had any ruts, did it go all the way to the walls or did it have a drop off, were there critters in this cave; there was no light at the end of the tunnel just pitch black even with my bike headlight on high beam!  What had I entered?  My GPS said “satellite signal lost”. I kept creeping forward and finally I could see a light indicating the exit for me.  I pulled out into the sunshine and called an all clear to the group.  They told me later they couldn’t hear me because the mountain was blocking the radio signals for our CB’s.

 

Next stop was the Natural Bridge State Park where we had lunch in the lodge and then took the skylift a half mile up to the top of the mountain.  The view was awesome as long as I didn’t look down!  At the top we hiked to the very top of the mountain and walked along the sandstone arch that forms the natural bridge.  Getting back down required another skylift ride this time I had to really try to keep my eyes focused on the trees which were slightly below me and not on the gorge which was  very deep below me.  Don said one thing we could be sure of – if we fall we won’t suffer because we’ll die quickly.  Great – husband – real comfort. 

Heading back to the hotel we took a couple more back mountain roads before settling in to the rhythm of the Kentucky parkway for an hour or more.  Never had a drop of rain but the roads were wet in Paintsville.  Dinner in the bar and then some played corn-hole others cards and some enjoyed the hot tub.

A Little Damp But Not Bad

Day 3

Raining when we got up so a leisurely breakfast was the order of the day then at 10 we pulled on our rain suites and followed Glenn south on highway 23 to Pikesville to visit a railroad museum.   Everything was great until the last left which immediately turned into a “Glenn road” meaning very narrow, tight hairpin turns, and uphill and down.  Then the road, if you could call it that, split and half the group was too far back to see that we went right.  They stopped and we heard Ken say “we have a little problem; we don’t know which way you went.”  I heard someone say left and then someone corrected that and said we went right.  Well 3 came right and the other 3 went left; we waited and laughed and waited until finally the last 3 bikes showed up.   The road to the left was just as bad as the one we were on but it was a dead-end so they were forced to come back our way.   Thank goodness no one dropped their bike.  Ok down off this mountain road right in town and we stop for lunch at Hardees and then head out to find some back roads and head back to Paintsville to find the Country Music Highway Museum.  The weather called for 80% chance of rain but all morning the skies were sunny and clear however, they suddenly turned dark and the rain started but within an hour or so the sky cleared again.  Hope tomorrow is clear because we will be riding the Red River Gorge.  Dinner at 5:15 and then 2 and a half hours in the hot tub and the pool round out the day.

What a Welcome

Day 1 & 2

It was a surprise to see Lucy roll into the parking lot of the Hardee’s Saturday morning.  Like Renee, she came to see us off.   Saturday’s ride was some secondary roads and some major highways totaling 340 miles as we pulled into the Econo Lodge at 5:15 p.m.  The plan was to meet another group of UTR members there for the night and then we would all ride together on Sunday into Paintsville.  They arrived at 5:30 just in time for dinner.   The weather was hot with just a few sprinkles of rain not enough to even get the bikes wet.  

 

Breakfast at 7 and then we pulled out at 8:10 traveling some really great roads through VA, WVA and then KY; route 460 is a great road, mostly dual with sweepers that can easily be taken at 55 and 60 mph.   The morning started out cool with fog hanging low over the fields then the sun came out and the world heated up.   Just before our planned stop for lunch around 12:30 some dark clouds began moving overhead and suddenly the sky opened up and buckets of water poured over us.  Thank goodness we were within a mile or two of a McDonalds but the rain didn’t last long and by the time we finished our lunch the sky was bright and the roads had even dried.  240 miles brought us to Paintsville by 3:10 p.m.  and as we pulled into the hotel’s parking lot and rolled up to the front door out comes a man with a TV camera.  As we enter the lobby there is a large poster with our logo and a welcome sign with a table set up with representatives from the local Tourism office giving us gift bags and the mayor is on hand to welcome us to Paintsville.   Everyone is kind of stunned to be receiving this type of welcome; after signing the guest book; receiving our gift bag and registering we head outside to unpack.  I was surprised to have the TV man stop me and ask for an interview for the local TV station.   It’s been a long day and we head for dinner at 5:45 and again get caught in a downpour and thunderstorm as we leave the restaurant.