Mich to Tennessee Oct 2024
Posted: Thu Oct 10, 2024 12:24 pm
My Canadian Harley buddy called and wanted to set up a trip for Smoky Mountain Bike Week out of Maryville Tennessee. We ended up with 5 Canadians on four Harley's and one Indian, with me the solo American on the Goldwing.....so we were all on foreign bikes (they hate it when I say that). The guy in the long beard I used to work with. He's an engineer. He grows his hair long and then cuts it all off for wigs for kids with cancer. All of them are older than I am and all are nice (hey, they're Canadian eh?). I left work at 11 am on Wednesday, and the 5 hour ride went well except for Cincinnati, which seems to be worse than I remember. We met up in Verona KY at an AirBnb. Place was in the country in an upscale neighborhood. The house was excellent and much larger and nicer than this picture shows with the back being two stories tall. Lots of BMW's and Tesla's going by checking out the new neighbors.
Thursday we headed out for our next AirBnb in Lenoir City TN. About 4 hours away, we took the long way and made a day of it. We arrived at our "barn/house", unpacked and went out for groceries. This rental has 3 horse stalls in part of the garage, with living quarters upstairs. Very in the country, we had a ton of privacy and the scenery was beautiful.
Friday one of our friends that lives 10 minutes away took us on a 7 hour ride. This was just days after the hurricane and so much damage to the East had been reported. So we went West.
We stopped for lunch at the Bell Buckle Cafe. It was very good.
We had great weather, but still had this when we got back to the rental house. I told my wife I'm the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. I don't think she bought it.
We then fired up the charcoal grill and grilled steaks with some sides.
Saturday I left for Andy's Tech Day. The guys were staying another night but I missed SEO and then EOM, and I missed my FJR buddies. Cincinnati was a mess (I-75 was closed) and I followed Waze all over with plenty of stop and go. Ugh, I love Kentucky but I hate Cincinnati. Arrived at Andy/Sooze's after the work was done (thought they would leave a valve check for me and my double sided screwdriver to work on darn it), but got plenty of hugs and was really great to see everybody. Tim and Ray got into a "Dad joke" routine going back and forth and I'm proud to say I've ruined a lot of peoples day with the lego and earth rotation jokes since then. Andy kept me up late drinking and listening to old rock songs with the sound on level 10 in the garage. Sunday I followed Tim and Wayne back to Michigan on a beautiful country ride. I put on 1600 miles over 4 days and had no rain and the weather was about perfect. Was an amazing stress reliever, but my liver light was on and it was good to get home. And yes, the bike got washed that afternoon. Now looking for the next one before Winter gets here.
Thursday we headed out for our next AirBnb in Lenoir City TN. About 4 hours away, we took the long way and made a day of it. We arrived at our "barn/house", unpacked and went out for groceries. This rental has 3 horse stalls in part of the garage, with living quarters upstairs. Very in the country, we had a ton of privacy and the scenery was beautiful.
Friday one of our friends that lives 10 minutes away took us on a 7 hour ride. This was just days after the hurricane and so much damage to the East had been reported. So we went West.
We stopped for lunch at the Bell Buckle Cafe. It was very good.
We had great weather, but still had this when we got back to the rental house. I told my wife I'm the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. I don't think she bought it.
We then fired up the charcoal grill and grilled steaks with some sides.
Saturday I left for Andy's Tech Day. The guys were staying another night but I missed SEO and then EOM, and I missed my FJR buddies. Cincinnati was a mess (I-75 was closed) and I followed Waze all over with plenty of stop and go. Ugh, I love Kentucky but I hate Cincinnati. Arrived at Andy/Sooze's after the work was done (thought they would leave a valve check for me and my double sided screwdriver to work on darn it), but got plenty of hugs and was really great to see everybody. Tim and Ray got into a "Dad joke" routine going back and forth and I'm proud to say I've ruined a lot of peoples day with the lego and earth rotation jokes since then. Andy kept me up late drinking and listening to old rock songs with the sound on level 10 in the garage. Sunday I followed Tim and Wayne back to Michigan on a beautiful country ride. I put on 1600 miles over 4 days and had no rain and the weather was about perfect. Was an amazing stress reliever, but my liver light was on and it was good to get home. And yes, the bike got washed that afternoon. Now looking for the next one before Winter gets here.
