A few rides in 2007

I'll start off with the ride in June. Theresa, Eva & Fred Champion and I made a trip to Lynchburg, Tn to a motorcycle rally. We met up in Greenwood at 7:00 the morning of June, 15th , headed east to the Natchez Trace, on to Tupelo for dinner, on to Florence, Al, east to Huntsville, then north to Fayetteville, Tn where we had rooms booked. The ride was pretty good going, kind of on the warm side as the day grew longer. You have to remember that northern Ms, Al., and Tn were at that time extremely dry and still below nornal rainfall . All the crops we saw at that time were pitiful.
We went over to Lynchburg the next morning to the rally. It was a little cool that morning going but it quickly warmed up. We took in everything at the rally, lots of vendors, cool drinks, but no alcohol in Moore County, and food. We toured the Jack Daniel's distillery in the dry county. You can now buy a commorative bottle in the visitor's building, we didn't to costly.
When we left there that evening we took hwy129 to see the country side. The roads were a delight to travel, just enough curves and shade to make enjoyable. We made it back to Fayetteville that evening and found a place up town to eat. It was called The Cahoot, it use to bee the old jail house and if you wanted to you could get a table in the cell. We declined that eating area. I can't remember what we ate but everyone was full when we left.
The next morning, Sunday, we headed back home vie the Trace. It was really hot coming home, we stopped several times to drink liquids. We made it to hwy82 and headed to Greenwood looking at some bad looking clouds. We made it to Stewart and the bottom fellout. We pulled over at one point and there were some bikers there that were heading to Dallas. They had been to ride the Dragon. The only lady in the group said she took her time going the I think 318 curves in 11 miles, I'm not sure about that but I saw a girl at the distillery wearing a t-shirt saying 318 in 11 miles, and said she would never do that again. Theresa and I had to stop several times on the way home because of heavy rain but when we got to within 1 mile of the house, the rain stop and we got dust on our bikes coming down the driveway.

The next trip was the 3rd week of July. We had 2 weeks of rain and I told Theresa pack your bags and get your motorcycle ready for a road trip.
We left out on July 21 and headed to Bryson City, N.C. We got there at dark, 562 miles, and was lucky to find a room because the Indians were having a Powwow and had all of Cherokee and the surrounding towns booked up. When we left home the temp was hot so we only packed light clothing, But I did put a couple long sleeveshirts in my saddlebags, lucky me. The next morning we ate breakfast, The temp was a little cool but not unbearable so we headed to the Blue Ridge Parkway. The higher we got the more shirts we put on because it's July and we didn't bring any coats. It was pertty cold at 6,000 feet up the mountain.
We got off the Parkway at Ashville, got on I-40, went to Statesville, turn north to Mount Airy, home of the Andy Griffin museum. Took the back roads into Virgina, going by the race track at Martinsville, spent the night at Danville and the next day hit hwy29 north.
Our first stop was the town of Appomattox. This town, which was formed after the War of Northern Aggression because the town folks didn't want the stigma of being the site of the surrender of Lea to Grant, is about 3 miles from Appomattox Court House. The house that the signing of the surrender was after the war taken apart and was to be shipped to Washington to be reassembled as an attraction but the cost of the war was so great they couldn't get the money to do it. Later on they put it back together at the original site with some of the bricks missing , people were needing them to rebuild other buildings. I think there are 8,000 of the original bricks in the house today. There are 2 vases and a couch original to the room on display. The chairs and table Lea and Grant used are at the Smithsonian.
We left there and headed to Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's home. We toured the gardens, cemetery, which is still a burial place for Jefferson's decendants, and the house. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside the house because of security reasons. They don't lock the doors at night and no guard on duty.
Up the road is James Madison's home, Montpelier. The Duponts had bought the house years ago and added wings and upper stories to some of the home. When The old lady died the house was left to a preservation group. Then some old guy, who was an admire of Madison, died and left $250,000 for a study of how to put the home back to the conditio it was when Madison was President. The study was done and the his estate gave the $25,000,000 toget to work with, and another $25,000,000 was added to that. We were able to see how the house was built, as the plaster was removed and the hand cut latice was expose as was all the wood work. The nails used in the house were made at Jefferson's Plantation, which is about 30 miles south of Madison's.
When Madison built the house it had 2 front doors and a wall down the middle, making it 2 houses under one roof. On on side he and his wife lived and the other side his mother lived. When additions were added to on side of the house , additions were added to the other . That was to keep both women happy.
After spending the night in Charlottesville, the next day we crossed the Skyline Drive ,which is the upper part of the Blue Ridge, and drove the Shenandoah Valley down to Lexington, turned west toward Beckley, West Virgina.
The next day we took the road north to Charleston. It was a beautiful ride, mountains on both sides, a river running the length along side the 4 lane highway. Sometimes it was enough room there would be a few house now and then. The sun was at our back when we entered Charleston and the dome of the Capital Building was shining like a polished gold bar. Ther was a lot of barges and railcars loading with coal.
We made it into Kentucky, scenery was pertty good to Lexington, but from there to Eddyville traveling the Blue Grass Parkway , it's nothing but road. Spent the night at Eddyville, next morning turned south and went through the Land Between the Lakes. It was nice scenery from there down through Tennessee on hwy79 to Memphis.
We got to Memphis, run in a light rain shower, I got home early evening, Theresa got to her house about a hour later. I called her the next morning and told her I checked my biker and the back tire was flat. I guess that little bell that I have on my bike that Theresa gave me to keep the gremlins away really worked this time.

I guess that's all for now. I'll tell you about my Trail of Tears ride and our New Year's day Key West trip later.