RayW
Well-known member
It’s way over due, but I guess it’s finally time for me to post up a little ride report.
I’ve mostly been a lurker here for a number of years, but now, after getting my personal life a bit more in order, I think it’s finally time to contribute a bit more to the festivities.
First though, some introductions are probably in order since this is my first real ride report. (I won’t count the Harley ride report I did a while back. https://www.fjrforum.com/forum//index.php?showtopic=105623 )
This is me…Ray. (Seems to be several of us on this forum. Great name!! )
And for this ride, I was joined by my Angel.
“My” Angel is the one in back wearing the black top. As you can see by this next pic, she has wings too!
The plan was simple. Since we live 700 miles apart and hadn’t seen each other since Memorial Day, we would meet half way, around the Mammoth Cave area of Kentucky on Friday night. We’d have a nice bike ride on Saturday, and then head home on Sunday.
Since Angel had only had her motorcycle endorsement for a short time and had no long trip experience, and no trailer hitch on her car, she just drove down from the north in the cage leaving her 2006 Honda Shadow 750 at home. And, (this is my excuse and I’m sticking to it!) since I had recently gotten a puncture in my rear bike tire and it still had a very slow leak, I didn’t want to trust it to six hours of freeway riding. So my 2003 FJR made the trip in the back of my pickup truck.
They say that all things happen for a reason, and when they involve an angel, that is even more true. Because of the slow leak in my bike tire, I brought my fully charged portable air tank with me. When we went to leave Sunday, Angel’s car ended up with a flat front tire. I put her spare on it so she could make it to the Wal-Mart in Glasgow, but found it only had 15 pounds of air in it. I had exactly enough air in the portable tank to top off the spare for her! Even bad things happen for good reasons when you’re around an angel.
Ok…now that I’ve introduced us, it’s time to get to the good stuff…the RIDE!
We settled on a motel in Munfordville, KY. The Super 8 there was clean, comfortable, and (with the AARP discount) affordable. The angel statue at the entrance was a good omen! I dug through my collection of “RoadRUNNER” magazines and found one of their “Shamrock Tours” that covered that same area. Since we only had one day of riding planned, this one leaf of the Shamrock would fit the bill nicely. The tank bag map they included in the magazine turned out to be very easy to follow, even for me. Although I did miss a couple turns and slightly modified the route in a couple places.
Leaving the motel we headed south on 31W until we met up with the map at 88 and headed east. I gave Angel instructions to keep the camera handy and just snap as many pics as she wanted.
We soon discovered the first crisis. The camera’s batteries were low. Oh well, a quick stop at a convenience store and we’d be all set, except, there aren’t many convenience stores along Kentucky back roads! Angel was able to get a few shots off before the batteries went completely, though.
It just doesn’t get much better than this! A perfect day, an FJR, great roads, beautiful scenery, and an angel riding behind you!
We finally spotted this little combination store/diner just before the turn off for 869. Being a farming community, there was the stereotypical group of guys sitting around in front of the store, just watching the world go by and swapping tall tales.
These guys said they were the “Shady Grove Liars Club”. Not only that, the three guys facing the camera in the first shot claimed to be the “board of directors”. The one on the far right is also a WW II veteran. We were sure to thank him for his service. I was having so much fun listening to them chat with Angel that I didn’t even think about asking for any details from his time fighting for our country. I would like to have known if he had been anywhere near any of my three uncles that had also served. Angel has that effect on me though. One look at her and my brain turns to mush.
After the first pic the “board of directors” was joined by this younger guy in the highlighter green shirt.
He said he was a “manager-in-training” for the club.
One thing you need to get used to when in the company of an angel, is that good things happen. We needed two AA batteries for the camera. It just so happened that the girl in the store had just ordered two packs of the exact battery we needed. She hadn’t really expected to even sell them! She said no one ever came in there asking for batteries like that, but had just ordered them on a whim!
And then there was the “Liars Club”. They ended up being anything but. For some reason, I decided to double check our route to make sure I was still on track and following the map correctly. I asked them if we were going the right way to catch 869. It turns out that I would have completely missed making a required right turn there at the store if I hadn’t asked them! They also laughingly warned us that 869 was REALLY twisty, and towards the end was a very steep drop and if we weren’t careful it would be easy to miss the end of the road and end up in a real bad way. It sounded perfect to us!
In spite of claiming to be liars, they gave us some really good directions! Thanks fellas!!
869 was indeed the twistiest road of the trip. There were enough tight curves and roller coaster-like elevation changes to put big grins on both our faces! After a right turn onto 70, followed a very short time later by a left turn onto 640, we were on a highway named for a group of guys you might have heard of.
The next pic shows the most common resident of this area. We didn’t see any sheep though.
Knob Lick still had a bit of Independence Day decorations up. (Really only included this pic so I could mention “Knob Lick” <snicker>
Like I said…plenty of cows on this ride.
It’s interesting how a lot of even the newer barns sport these decorations. If I remember my old grade school lessons from northern Ohio, I think they are supposed to be for good luck or something.
Any amateur botanists know what kind of tree this is?
Of course, being farm country, there was an abundance of old weathered barns to be seen.
Again I ask, can it get any better than this?!?
Hay!
More good luck??
Maybe you need lots of luck if you go to church in Cyclone!
Yep…the sign says Cyclone Church of Christ. At least it was a brick building!
More of that wonderful scenery…
…a couple minor obstacles from time to time…
Even out in the country, folks like nice landscaping!
This looked like a nice spot to cool your feet on a hot day.
And with a little more good luck….
We turned south on 31E from 87, got through a construction zone without too much of a wait, and found Paradise just when we were really wanting to take a lunch break! (Paradise Point, that is.) It’s a fun little hot dog place with lots of quirky artwork and antiques for sale.
Did I mention “Quirky”?
And then there was this guy who was basically saying, “EAT ME!”
I never knew this about coffee….
And don’t forget Hank. You can pet him…just don’t feed him…no matter how much he gives you the “starving puppy dog” look.
OK… This is where one should normally put in some food porn. But, we were too busy eating, and, like I said earlier, when I’m around my Angel my brain turns to mush. So no pics of the AMAZING hotdogs we had. I promise to do better next time.
If you like lots of “stuff” on your hotdogs, this is the place. One pic I can give you is of the jar of Wasabi mustard I bought. This stuff was in the condiment buffet, along with a TON of other unique items, and was SO good, I just HAD to buy a jar to take home. They even have a supply of sampling sticks so you can get a dip and try it before you put it on your hotdog. Nice thoughtful folks! (Of course, I bet they sell LOTS of product that way!)
After the lunch stop, I somehow missed the turn off of 231 in Scottsville onto 585 towards Gold City. So we just stayed on 231 all the way into Bowling Green. The city was having a “Second Saturday” party in the town square, so we stopped and hung out for a bit. These kids were more interested in their book than anything. (I don’t blame them though. I’m sure the book was better than the band that was playing.)
No trip to Bowling Green is complete without stopping at the Corvette Museum. We didn’t go in, as it was a bit late, but we had to get a couple pics to taunt our friend Chris, who is a Corvette fanatic. (Yep, the same Chris from the Harley ride report I mentioned at the top of this page. We’re still friends in spite of that!)
Now, remember how I’ve been talking about how good things happen when you’re with an angel? It was a bit too late to go INSIDE to look at cars, but, OUTSIDE there just happened to be an auction going on that had a WHOLE lot more cool cars than you would ever get to see inside!!
Oooooooohhh, Barracuda!! (sorry, had to do that. I’m a big fan of “Heart”)
After leaving the Corvette museum we headed on out of town on 1402, and grabbed 101 a while later. That’s where I made my second route mistake and missed the turn off for Meador Port Oliver Rd. It’s in fine print on the map and connects 101 to 252, and it just flat out didn’t register in my head (brain turned to mush, remember?). So we ended up taking 101 all the way down to 31E by Scottsville. I figured out what I had done, and since it was getting late and our butts were getting tired, we just took 31E north, picked up the map again at 252, whipped around Glasgow on the bypass, up to 218 and on to the town of Horse Cave. It’s a cute town if you’re there to do some spelunking, but we decided to pass this time.
A right turn onto 31W took us back to the motel and dinner at El Mazatlan, a local Mexican restaurant. We had wanted to try some BBQ at another place but it had closed at 7:00 PM….on a Saturday?!!! We ended up going for the BBQ the next day for lunch at Mama Lou’s. Sorry, but I forgot the food porn pics again, so I’ll leave you with this last pic of my Angel at the Corvette museum. That’s better than BBQ anyway.
I’ve mostly been a lurker here for a number of years, but now, after getting my personal life a bit more in order, I think it’s finally time to contribute a bit more to the festivities.
First though, some introductions are probably in order since this is my first real ride report. (I won’t count the Harley ride report I did a while back. https://www.fjrforum.com/forum//index.php?showtopic=105623 )
This is me…Ray. (Seems to be several of us on this forum. Great name!! )
And for this ride, I was joined by my Angel.
“My” Angel is the one in back wearing the black top. As you can see by this next pic, she has wings too!
The plan was simple. Since we live 700 miles apart and hadn’t seen each other since Memorial Day, we would meet half way, around the Mammoth Cave area of Kentucky on Friday night. We’d have a nice bike ride on Saturday, and then head home on Sunday.
Since Angel had only had her motorcycle endorsement for a short time and had no long trip experience, and no trailer hitch on her car, she just drove down from the north in the cage leaving her 2006 Honda Shadow 750 at home. And, (this is my excuse and I’m sticking to it!) since I had recently gotten a puncture in my rear bike tire and it still had a very slow leak, I didn’t want to trust it to six hours of freeway riding. So my 2003 FJR made the trip in the back of my pickup truck.
They say that all things happen for a reason, and when they involve an angel, that is even more true. Because of the slow leak in my bike tire, I brought my fully charged portable air tank with me. When we went to leave Sunday, Angel’s car ended up with a flat front tire. I put her spare on it so she could make it to the Wal-Mart in Glasgow, but found it only had 15 pounds of air in it. I had exactly enough air in the portable tank to top off the spare for her! Even bad things happen for good reasons when you’re around an angel.
Ok…now that I’ve introduced us, it’s time to get to the good stuff…the RIDE!
We settled on a motel in Munfordville, KY. The Super 8 there was clean, comfortable, and (with the AARP discount) affordable. The angel statue at the entrance was a good omen! I dug through my collection of “RoadRUNNER” magazines and found one of their “Shamrock Tours” that covered that same area. Since we only had one day of riding planned, this one leaf of the Shamrock would fit the bill nicely. The tank bag map they included in the magazine turned out to be very easy to follow, even for me. Although I did miss a couple turns and slightly modified the route in a couple places.
Leaving the motel we headed south on 31W until we met up with the map at 88 and headed east. I gave Angel instructions to keep the camera handy and just snap as many pics as she wanted.
We soon discovered the first crisis. The camera’s batteries were low. Oh well, a quick stop at a convenience store and we’d be all set, except, there aren’t many convenience stores along Kentucky back roads! Angel was able to get a few shots off before the batteries went completely, though.
It just doesn’t get much better than this! A perfect day, an FJR, great roads, beautiful scenery, and an angel riding behind you!
We finally spotted this little combination store/diner just before the turn off for 869. Being a farming community, there was the stereotypical group of guys sitting around in front of the store, just watching the world go by and swapping tall tales.
These guys said they were the “Shady Grove Liars Club”. Not only that, the three guys facing the camera in the first shot claimed to be the “board of directors”. The one on the far right is also a WW II veteran. We were sure to thank him for his service. I was having so much fun listening to them chat with Angel that I didn’t even think about asking for any details from his time fighting for our country. I would like to have known if he had been anywhere near any of my three uncles that had also served. Angel has that effect on me though. One look at her and my brain turns to mush.
After the first pic the “board of directors” was joined by this younger guy in the highlighter green shirt.
He said he was a “manager-in-training” for the club.
One thing you need to get used to when in the company of an angel, is that good things happen. We needed two AA batteries for the camera. It just so happened that the girl in the store had just ordered two packs of the exact battery we needed. She hadn’t really expected to even sell them! She said no one ever came in there asking for batteries like that, but had just ordered them on a whim!
And then there was the “Liars Club”. They ended up being anything but. For some reason, I decided to double check our route to make sure I was still on track and following the map correctly. I asked them if we were going the right way to catch 869. It turns out that I would have completely missed making a required right turn there at the store if I hadn’t asked them! They also laughingly warned us that 869 was REALLY twisty, and towards the end was a very steep drop and if we weren’t careful it would be easy to miss the end of the road and end up in a real bad way. It sounded perfect to us!
In spite of claiming to be liars, they gave us some really good directions! Thanks fellas!!
869 was indeed the twistiest road of the trip. There were enough tight curves and roller coaster-like elevation changes to put big grins on both our faces! After a right turn onto 70, followed a very short time later by a left turn onto 640, we were on a highway named for a group of guys you might have heard of.
The next pic shows the most common resident of this area. We didn’t see any sheep though.
Knob Lick still had a bit of Independence Day decorations up. (Really only included this pic so I could mention “Knob Lick” <snicker>
Like I said…plenty of cows on this ride.
It’s interesting how a lot of even the newer barns sport these decorations. If I remember my old grade school lessons from northern Ohio, I think they are supposed to be for good luck or something.
Any amateur botanists know what kind of tree this is?
Of course, being farm country, there was an abundance of old weathered barns to be seen.
Again I ask, can it get any better than this?!?
Hay!
More good luck??
Maybe you need lots of luck if you go to church in Cyclone!
Yep…the sign says Cyclone Church of Christ. At least it was a brick building!
More of that wonderful scenery…
…a couple minor obstacles from time to time…
Even out in the country, folks like nice landscaping!
This looked like a nice spot to cool your feet on a hot day.
And with a little more good luck….
We turned south on 31E from 87, got through a construction zone without too much of a wait, and found Paradise just when we were really wanting to take a lunch break! (Paradise Point, that is.) It’s a fun little hot dog place with lots of quirky artwork and antiques for sale.
Did I mention “Quirky”?
And then there was this guy who was basically saying, “EAT ME!”
I never knew this about coffee….
And don’t forget Hank. You can pet him…just don’t feed him…no matter how much he gives you the “starving puppy dog” look.
OK… This is where one should normally put in some food porn. But, we were too busy eating, and, like I said earlier, when I’m around my Angel my brain turns to mush. So no pics of the AMAZING hotdogs we had. I promise to do better next time.
If you like lots of “stuff” on your hotdogs, this is the place. One pic I can give you is of the jar of Wasabi mustard I bought. This stuff was in the condiment buffet, along with a TON of other unique items, and was SO good, I just HAD to buy a jar to take home. They even have a supply of sampling sticks so you can get a dip and try it before you put it on your hotdog. Nice thoughtful folks! (Of course, I bet they sell LOTS of product that way!)
After the lunch stop, I somehow missed the turn off of 231 in Scottsville onto 585 towards Gold City. So we just stayed on 231 all the way into Bowling Green. The city was having a “Second Saturday” party in the town square, so we stopped and hung out for a bit. These kids were more interested in their book than anything. (I don’t blame them though. I’m sure the book was better than the band that was playing.)
No trip to Bowling Green is complete without stopping at the Corvette Museum. We didn’t go in, as it was a bit late, but we had to get a couple pics to taunt our friend Chris, who is a Corvette fanatic. (Yep, the same Chris from the Harley ride report I mentioned at the top of this page. We’re still friends in spite of that!)
Now, remember how I’ve been talking about how good things happen when you’re with an angel? It was a bit too late to go INSIDE to look at cars, but, OUTSIDE there just happened to be an auction going on that had a WHOLE lot more cool cars than you would ever get to see inside!!
Oooooooohhh, Barracuda!! (sorry, had to do that. I’m a big fan of “Heart”)
After leaving the Corvette museum we headed on out of town on 1402, and grabbed 101 a while later. That’s where I made my second route mistake and missed the turn off for Meador Port Oliver Rd. It’s in fine print on the map and connects 101 to 252, and it just flat out didn’t register in my head (brain turned to mush, remember?). So we ended up taking 101 all the way down to 31E by Scottsville. I figured out what I had done, and since it was getting late and our butts were getting tired, we just took 31E north, picked up the map again at 252, whipped around Glasgow on the bypass, up to 218 and on to the town of Horse Cave. It’s a cute town if you’re there to do some spelunking, but we decided to pass this time.
A right turn onto 31W took us back to the motel and dinner at El Mazatlan, a local Mexican restaurant. We had wanted to try some BBQ at another place but it had closed at 7:00 PM….on a Saturday?!!! We ended up going for the BBQ the next day for lunch at Mama Lou’s. Sorry, but I forgot the food porn pics again, so I’ll leave you with this last pic of my Angel at the Corvette museum. That’s better than BBQ anyway.
