Thursday

Ok  so what happened on Thursday.

Lets see....   we got into Lake Cumberland, KY about on time, around 5.   We went to dinner and Bill said he was thinking about stopping by Knoxville, TN to see his son.

This is not unusual and therefore a change for Bill like this was not unexpected.   We looked at the weather and the route we were going to take on Thursday.   We have been on most of those roads more than two or three times so,, with the weather being iffy we replotted the Thursday route.  The idea was to take a route that would get Bill near I-40 and let him get to meet his son at 1230.

We also looked a the weather forecast for Thursday.  Here is what Thursday route was suppose to be like.

Instead of going down TN 127 we followed it for awhile and then shifted to TN 62 and then TN 162 to I-40.  Bill headed East on I-40 and we headed south of the Interstate.  TN 162 becomes I-140 for a few miles and then turns back into TN 162.

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In general the idea was to go far enough south that we could miss the rain that was to the east of us and allow it to dissipate.

So we had no rain after the morning rain on the walk to breakfast.   And we had no rain until about 3:00 in the afternoon.

We took some interesting local roads and ended up on I-40 near Wilsonville, TN and took I-40 and I-26 the rest of the way home.  It rained for just a few minutes when we were on I-26.

 And we had lunch at Partons Smoking Butts BBQ.   A nice place the BBQ was ok.

http://partons-bbq.com


The interstate ride was uneventful except for getting on I-26 East form I-40 east.  Its sort of like our I-20 - I-26 interchange but worse.   The ramp was backed up for over a mile.

We just went to the next exit and the GPS re-routed us back to I-26 past the backup.

No further issues.

Got home about 7 or so.

I have been looking at some of the videos from Tuesday and Wednesday to see if there was more stuff to post.

On Tuesday we found a golf course in the middle of nowhere.  I will up load the videos tomorrow to dropbox and I will upload some other videos here.

Golf Course Video below.   The golf course is o the left.  You can see at least one fairway.  It must have been at least 5 or six miles down this narrow paved road.

Just some curves on Monday .

Wednesday

Getting a little ahead.  Here is Wednesday's route.

A good day today. No rain, nice roads and moderate temperatures.

Breakfast Waffle House.  And you may wonder why I mention that.   Just because I want to .  No really part of traveling is finding investing places to eat and sometimes it is hard.  And sometimes you just want a place that is familiar....

Lunch.... Amish Bakery and Grill in Hazard KY.   Nice place run by a couple from IL and KY.   So why is it named the Amish Bakery and Grill?  Because they get some meat from the local Amish and that was part of the deal (to use Amish in the name).  I had a Reuben.   Good, not as spicy as some I have had.  But I do believe it was "hand made" and made to order.

Speaking of that, they had a computerized order system.  Take the order via a small tablet and automatically communicate it to the kitchen.  Service was very fast.

A picture of the Bill at the table,   Not very clear but....

We had dinner at the Black Stallion Steakhouse in Monticello, KY   Number 1 of 20 in the area.  We all had salads.  We were still full from breakfast and lunch and me for yesterday at Texas Roadhouse. I did have the ribs.  First time in long time

Now for some videos

Videos also added to drop box.

Tuesday

Tuesday, a very interesting day.  Lots of stuff.   Lots of stuff

Here is the route we took (more or less).

We spent some time in Ohio and ended up in Kentucky.   Lots of nice roads both West Virginia and Ohio and not to much in Kentucky.  

Sun all day.   :)  

Day started out well, breakfast in walking distance (Bob Evans).  I know a chain not on the list but, it was good and close

Got on the road by 9.  first 20 miles or so on Interstate and then off to the secondary roads.  We had a few glitches with the route be we got it sorted out

I am sitting here in the motel room and thinking, what happened between the time we left the motel and the time we got to Ripley is not clear.  We did not have any real issues.  We did have some nice roads but not the same as yesterday.

What did happen, for sure, that we went into Ohio to make sure Bill could cross if off his list.  Here are some photos of that trip.  (Later we actually went into Ohio for 30 miles or so.)

We drove past a very large First Energy fossil plant.

The route problem was solved by going directly to Ripley, WV from the spot we found ourselves in on the route (I don't know what happened but I have had a circular route before because I routed myself on the wrong side of the highway (east vs west and the GPS knows the differences as does the mapping program).

We had lunch at the Downtowner in Ripley across from the Jackson County Court Hosue.

Hours are 7 to 2 and breakfast is served all day.  When you ask for bacon they ask you how you want it cooked.  A reuben is $5.95 including drink and chips

I had an omelet.

Across from the restaurant is the court house.

With a commemorative plaque out front

They have a few logistical problems.  Notice the handicap symbol in the picture below

Unlike other municipalities, they paint the symbols so that they are only read correctly from the sidewalk.   To each his own,  If you don't see the irony in this,    ....

And then one more trip into Ohio  and on to Kentucky

I have load all the videos in a folder in my drop box file.  I will annotate them here and provide individual links here.  The dropbox app seems to do a better job of rendering in down load

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ze9iz0f7o2eue7c/AAAap8EPTAr6OxpsqKboEh3ka?dl=0

Oh the accident was not us, we just happened upon it as they were pulling the truck out of the ditch.  

Monday

Ahh the second day on the road.   Breakfast at Cracker Barrel, sunny skies, temperature in the mid 50s.   That's how Monday on the road started.   After breakfast we went back to the rooms to finish packing up and hit the road, figuring we would be on the road by 9:00.

Wrong!   The Harley had a problem.   It seemed, from our uninformed inspection of the bike, some feeling and comparing the sounds to some sounds on a you tube video that Bill found that the bike had a head gasket leak.  So Henry called his cousin who owns a wrecker server and operates out of the Columbia area.  He left South Carolina around 10 or so and last time Bill checked Henry and the bike were on the some where near Statesville, NC

Ok.   We left about 1030 or so.   Some Wonderfull roads today.   I will post some of the pics later if not tonight.

Here is Monday's Route

But first I said we try not to stop at "chain" places to eat with noted exceptions.   Here is where we had lunch somewhere about 35 miles from Elkin, WV (it may have been near Snow Show but...)

The only sign on the place was Restaurant and Lodging.  I had a BBQ sandwich (left the bread) and a bowl of chili.   it was good.  The place is located in this small town right on the river.  Or on a river.

The picture above is what I thought was downtown.

Here is a partial video from the trip.  I will have to figure out where it actually was by the time stamp on the camera file.

Some Still Images

MoreVideos

Sunday

Started the day with breakfast at Waffle House :)

Left around 8:00 AM and headed out on SC 34 to SC 200 and then onto North Carolina and Virginia. Nice roads, no major highways (except for a short stretch in I-77).

Weather was good until the last 20 miles or so which had a couple of heavy showers.  That would have been ok but we were to travel the last 10 miles on I-77 and there was some kind of major traffic tie up.  The interstate was backed up for miles.  So we made the GPS do an alternate route and that road was ok for a few miles until we got into Princeton and it was backed up.

So we took a couple of side street and finally got to the motel around 6:30 or so.  Probably 45 minutes later then expected.

One of the roads we took today was called the "Back of the Dragon" seen here.

http://www.virginia.org/Listings/OutdoorsAndSports/BackoftheDragon/

In North Carolina and TN there is the "Tail of the Dragon" or Deals Gap.   On days like today, that road is covered with bikers and cars. And you can get your photo taken by a one of the several professional photographers who man some corners taking pictures of the cars, bikes, ect.

http://www.killboy.com

Deals Gap os about 11 miles.  The Back of the Dragon in VA is about 32 miles.   And it has more turns and better turns than Deals Gap.   Here are some pictures

Note in some of the pictures you can see Bill and Henry in my bikes side rear view mirrors.  Also not the presence of guard rails in some places and the lack of them in others.

 Note Bill and Henry in the rear view mirror and the map on the GPS

 Nice Sweeping hairpin turn.  There were three of four like this, some tighter.

 In some places the rock is right up next to the road.

 Noe the lack of the guardrail here as well

 Other bikers on the road.

 Weather - rain

Today 350 miles.  Tomorrow about 280 or so.   Cool but no rain

Food - Lunch at a mom and pop wings place somewhere in NC.   Not many non-chain place open on Sunday.   It was nice, pleasant but a little noisy sort of like a Buffalo Wings place but not a chain.

Dinner, had to eat at Chillies because it was within walking distance and the roads to the other places were blocked due to the traffic.  I mean they even had a detour through the local Lowes Parking Lot.