Thanks for the invite Dave .  

I'm not sure I can join in with ya.   Marcia had an idea to take a ride down the Natchez Trace for our next getaway.   I'm having doubts about that even panning out.  That would be a mild putt ,putt ride down the Trace the big half-way for day one , then on to Natchez for an afternoon walk-a-bout day two , then day three going up the Trace and getting back home day four .    There are some nice days in November , and the color show might still be going on too ?  

Every day when I get up there is something needs doing next door at Anders and Ella's house.  They are enjoying our spare room for now , and that's good .   Its like Anders went out and brought me home another daughter.  

I still do manage to get some kind of a short ride in most days .  If there's not somewhere I have to go , then  I use the excuse of "I need to go to Planet Fitness and tighten my gut a little."   It's working too , I've only lost 10 pounds but have gone down 2" in pants size.   (no Stew - I'm not getting SHORTER  ).  Now if I can slow down the habit of eating so fast and so much then my ridding years could go on into the 2050's  

LANCER wrote on 10/11/23 at 19:12:00:



Which one of you got there in 90 minutes......and waited 30 minutes for the other to show up?

Our guidance system told us the museum was 86 miles away, which should take about 90 minutes, but with many road construction zones along the way it was about 2 hours.  Weather was great for riding, only a long sleeved t-shirt needed.

 It is close enough that leaving at 5 AM should get us on the road riding by 11AM

?

So , ya'll taking the truck with the bikes in the back ?

.........

How-ever , I hope the weather is good for ya !  

I'm in the same boat there ,  the after church ride is looking chilly !  

Sometimes we just have to take what we can get ... still hope for the best for both of us .  

We had a good Friday ride.  We left home at 5AM as planned, and arrived at the Best Western in Wise, VA around 10AM.  We got our room reserved and unloaded the bikes and were on the road as quickly as possible.  The roads were really nice and some were very much like the Tail of the Dragon.  The pavement was in good shape, traffic was incredibly light, the town were small and quick to get through.  The weather was absolutely perfect with cloudless blue skies, no wind and temperatures starting out at 60 and up to 75....the temps would change 10 degrees as you went from the valleys to the mountain tops and you could get near 80 when you were in the towns.  The leaves were turning colors and they a few were falling onto the roadway - the Walnut trees scattered a few nuts onto the roadway and they were generally easy to see and steer around.  We rode until dark to get as much riding in as possible.

Saturday morning was a misty rain, and the weather radar showed that when this rain stopped there would be a few hours of dry weather and then another band of showers would come through.  We elected not to ride and headed home.....the wet leaves on the pavement would have made the riding slow and a bit scary.  

We went through Lynch, Kentucky on the way home - it was a coal mining town until the mines closed down in 1963.  This was the kind of place where everything in town was owned and operated by the mine.....company store, company theater, company police, company hospital.  It turns out the mine was owned/operated by International Harvester.....the refrigerators in the museum that were sold in the company store had International Harvester name badges on them!  The mine buildings were made from limestone and they were really cool buildings.  We tried to take the mine tour - however it was sold out until 3 hours later and we didn't want to wait that long and headed home.

The trip to the area was a bit slow driving for us, as there just aren't any big highways that connect the the civilized world!  The roads were a pleasant drive and it was relaxing - it just wasn't quick.

It is certainly and area worth going to when you want to ride and explore for a few days.  The scenery is really good - you do have to accept that there are a lot of run down or abandoned houses and business buildings............the area is poor and what mining and logging exists are not enough to keep everyone gainfully employed.  There are some small mines that are still digging coal and limestone, and you will see logging trucks on the roads occasionally.  The lumber is generally White Oak that will be made into barrels for Whiskey/Bourbon production.

There may be a few random warm days to go riding this year - but the onset of fall weather has begun and we will not get above 60 for a week or so in this area.

It's hard for me to picture a lot of Coal under all those nice looking rolling green hills !   It looks like a nice place for a ride !