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.