EOM Week 2011 - Kentucky or bust!

[Fred W]

This spring and summer we've been kind'a busy with a number of shorter, weekend rides, and of course pulling off the NERDS event in August. So this trip to (and from) EOM was planned as our big hoopty, annual vacation. The biggest question was: How would we fare weather wise?

As most "East Coasters" already know, autumn is tropical storm season. Last year our plans to tour around in Tennessee and North Carolina were cut short by the depression (in more ways than one) that rolled in on NAFO on Saturday night and subsequently continued all the following week. Rather than riding around in the rain, we cut our losses and headed back north via the slab. Would there be more of the same for Kentucky this year?

I'd convinced MEM to join me and my trusty pillion TMJ on the EOM round trip. The plan was to ride 3 full days of back-road bliss each way from our home here in southern New Hampshire, and spend two days at the actual EOM event for a total of eight days of solid riding. Sometimes the destination is the ride. In this case the destination would be both.

MEM arrived here from her home in New Brunswick on Sunday late afternoon. On Monday morning ionbeam came on over and we converged on MEM's lucky '07 to get her "rally ready". She got two brandy new PR2 tires put on and a new flashing LED brake light, just like the one she had noticed on my B4 at some earlier rides this year. It's one of those Whelen LIN3 super bright LED modules and a 3rd Brake light flasher module, which was originally documented by forum-ite DaJudge here, and which I was a pretty early adopter of. She also stuck on a couple of Alex's retro-reflective decal kits for more night time conspicuousness.

With all of the fancy farkling done, we all (the ionbeams', the W's and Ms. MEM) went out for some fine Asian delicacies at one of Josie and my favorite haunts here in town, Ginger Garden. We had a great dinner and a large quantity of sake. When it came time to settle the bill, wouldn't you know it but that little red headed scamp had scooted off to the front dais and already paid for dinner before they even brought us the check. Thanks again for that, Mary Ellen!

So with full bellies we headed home and retired early to begin our 8 day adventure...

Day 1 - NH to PA

Tuesday , the morning light came along with a loud symphony of big raindrops. Not to be deterred we suited up and headed west from the greater ManchVegas area to our first destination, breakfast at Audry's Cafe on Rte 101 in Dublin, NH. The rain in the first hours was steady and heavy. By the time we arrived at Audrey's our spirits (and some clothing) were already somewhat dampened. But we had the place to ourselves and after a tasty breakfast, we suited back up and continued westward.

When we reached the Vermont border we made a quick jog down I-91 south into Massachusetts to take some back roads through the Berkshire mountains in the western part of the state. Gradually the rain let up and TMJ's new camera came out of hiding.

It's wet, but green and lush

We eventually made our way over to the Catskills Mountains of New York state and rode on across Rte 28 and down Rte 30. There was still some damage from Irene

...as noted on this sign.

Skies were still pretty darned gray, but the roads were slowly beginning to dry off

South into the northern Pennsy farmland...

Getting later in the day...

Our original plan was to get some motel rooms in Clark's Summit, PA, but when we stopped at one of the motels they told us they had no vacancies. Rather than drive around I called all the other places in town and they were all booked!! WTF? On a Tuesday night? Calling a Days Inn just down the road in Dunmore (part of loverly Scranton) they had two non-smoking rooms left. "We'll take 'em. Be right there"

The place was a little on the dumpy side, and we had to pay extra for this thing being in our room:

But we grabbed some chow at a little pub around the corner from the hotel called "The Loading Dock" (and that is a whole 'nother story) but that's where it all started to come together. The hotels in the area were all filled with migrant workers from down south, staying in the area to work on restoring damages from Irene . All kinds of trades people were represented from plumbers and electricians to carpenters and road workers. Apparently the pay was good enough, or included per Diem stipends, for motel living.

In any case, I learned something from that first night and made us some reservations for following night in West Virgina via Hotels.com.

(slide show of all pictures from Day 1)

to be continued - Day 2 PA to WV

 

[Fred W]

Day 2 - PA to WV

After grabbing the free Continental breakfast we suited up and hit the road south and west through Pennsylvania. It's a pretty long state on the diagonal, and we stayed off the highway almost all day.

Is this gal bright eyed and bushy tailed or what?

One of the towns that we went through early in the day was Noxen. It had been slammed by the hurricane and a couple of bridges on Rte 29 were out, resulting in a wet dirt road detour

But once we cleared that mess it was smoother sailing

Western PA has some very pretty farmland. I guess those Amish and Mennonites folks know all about that...

Stopped for a cheap (and tasty) lunch here, somewhere?

MEM the road warrior

Gas station cum BBQ joint

Very pretty rural area

Crossed into Maryland briefly and then West Virginia somewhere along the way, We stayed at the Clarion Inn in Fairmont, WV. We had a little trouble finding it as Garmina thought the address should be somewhere in the middle of town, but it was actually right by the interchange with the I-79 freeway. It apparently used to be a Holiday Inn and so was not in the waypoint list . Once we found it, it was great. They were having a patron's appreciation deal in the bar w/ $2 drafts and free wings and apps. So we glommed on that for a good hour and suddenly nobody was hungry enough to go to dinner.

This was one of our most frugal days. Free Conti breakfast. A cheap sub at lunch, and free apps w/ $2 beers for dinner. :thumbsup:

view all our Day 2 pictures in a slideshow here

to be continued: Day 3 - WV to KY

 

[Fred W]

Day 3 - WV to KY

Thursday AM we hustled out of Fairmont, WV and ran on some pseudo slab (two lane, route 50) west to the Ohio border.

Just before crossing into O-Hi-O we stopped at a little diner in Parkersburg, WV. Highly recommended!!!

Yeah buddy!! Some of the best biscuits and gravy evah!! (sorry we were negligent with the food porn. perhaps MEM will help me fill in those details...)

Full bellies. Let's roll! (Do you suppose that "Heart of it all" stuff has anything to do with the Parkersburg sausage gravy?

Cool bridge

Running along the Ohio River. Hmmm... Is this where Homer works? I don't think this was Springfield.

Park in some Ohio town

The point of us going over into SE Ohio was to snag some of the twisty road goodness that Sir Wheaton doles out annually in his SE Ohio ramble. Being that it is so far from our own humble abode in Newer England, I figure that we'll never be able to participate in that, so this is the next best thing...

Oh Lord, deliver us from the evil DIRT temptation...

(but I sure do wonder what was up that road?)

Camera lean angle is merely an illusion...

More dirty temptation...

On the twistier, leanier, section, TMJ doesn't shoot the cam so much, preferring to hold on for dear life. But we were taking it pretty easy two up, fully loaded, and with MEM in tow in a similar condition. But damn, yes. Those were some good fun roads.

Now down into KY

We hit a few new sections that were recently carved into the hills. Some interesting geological strata was evident.

Nice, dry, roads...

but don't run wide...

We're there!!

On the final approach, wouldn't you know it but the skies opened up again dousing us for the last 5 miles of the twisty road in to the lodge. Oh well, we unloaded in the rain, got settled in and then headed out to see who's here. Drinks. Cigars. Talk. (it never happened 'cause there are no pitchers)

Our cozy home away form home for the next three nights in KY

link to a slideshow of all of our pictures from Day 3

stay tuned for Day 4 - Tour of the Bluegrass

 

[MEM]

:clapping: oh my, oh MY!!

Yup! that's pretty much the way I remember it

re: the food porn, I'm not sure I can help. We were always so hungry by the time you'd run us hard for 9 or 10 hours, we demolished our meals and THEN remembered: "Damn! the Food Porn shots! :blink: "

Keep it comin' Fred W !

 

[Old Michael]

Very pretty rural area

It certainly is, Fred. Wow!

Western PA, huh?

Great stuff. Looking forward to more of the FredW/Kazoo adventures.

 

[wheatonFJR]

Great stuff Fred!! :clapping:

 

[Fred W]

Thanks guys. It's no lame ass video... but I'm working at it.

Day 4 - Tour of the Bluegrass

As most EOM attendees know, James (protondecay) arranged a tour of the Kentucky backroads, including a stop at the Red State BBQ joint for lunch and a tour of the Buffalo Trace Distillery. We were extremely excited to be able to participate, that is until we woke up on Friday morning and looked outside. -_-

After the third gaggle of geese swam by the entrance to the Lodge, we figured it was safe to don our best wet weather gear :Snorkle: and headed to the appointed meeting spot, alternately called the "entrance to the campground" and the "riding stables". Luckily, it was one and the same location so the confusion was all ours. It was easy to identify as there were about a dozen other idiots, dressed in similar garb, waiting to get on with the ordeal.

After James gave us a run down on where we were going, we all mounted up and started making some waves. Seriously, this was one of the hardest rains I've ever ridden through and everyone did a stalwart job of forging on. I have to admit that the idea of bailing out and heading back to the dry lodge did enter my mind several times in the first two or three hours.

But, eventually, the rains did taper off (somewhat), and we were able to do some sight seeing in the Blue Grass horse country. It is some very pretty country, and you can see the dollar bills ooozing from those properties. Unfortunately, we didn't get a lot of camera work done as the H2O to air ratio was still >100%.

To keep us all on out toes, James gave us a few new wrinkles in his original route, but we rolled into the Buffalo Trace Distillery grounds less than 10 minutes late for our appointed tour.

Luckily, things run on a different speed clock "down South" and our tardiness did not phase them in the least. So, with rain gear still dripping off, we launched head-long into how the brown nectar of the Gods is produced.

Being a home-brewer of beer, I was keen on learning how Kentucky Bourbon Whiskey (KBW) is produced commercially. I must admit that it was considerably different than what I expected, which was that it would be more in line with a Scotch Whiskey, which is similar to beer. But it isn't even close.

For one thing, to qualify as a KBW it must be at least 51% corn. Here's a tractor trailer truck load of fresh corn being delivered. They receive around five tractor trailer loads of corn per day!! And this is a small distillery.

So now I leave it up to you to decide... would you rather have that corn being made into ethanol for your E10 gasoline blend or to make into a nice Kentucky Bourbon? :huh:

Yeah... me too. :drinks:

It might not have been entirely clear on what they were actually doing here, even to the other folks on the tour, because our tour guide took us around to things a bit out of order in the process, and he also skipped a step (or else I was snoozing and I missed it). Let me see if I can recreate it all:

First, they take in the new corn, and after sifting out the rodents and corn cobs, they run it up a giant auger / conveyor to the top of the plant (so they can make uise of gravity as much as possible) and then run it through a mill. We really never saw the dry milled corn, but we did see how fine it was later. They dump the grist into the cereal pressure-cooker along with fresh water from the Kentucky River and give it a good boil to soften up the starch.

The next part is what they skipped over in the tour. They need to make that raw corn starch into sugars, 'cause that's all that yeast like to eat. And let's face it, yeast are our friends. This part of the process is called the "Mash". To mash a starch into sugar you need to hold it at a controlled temperature in the presence of Amylase enzymes. Amlylase is present in the husks of malted barley. So (although he didn't mention it on the tour) they either introduce crushed malted barley into the mash, or else directly introduce the enzymes, and then hold it at some very specific temperatures (~140 - 160 deg F) for a good long time (30 minutes to 2 hours).

Once the starch is converted then they can introduce the yeast to the mash, which will eat up all the sugars and they pee out alcohol and fart out CO2 in the beautiful process called fermentation. In beer making they attempt to separate these liquids from the solids (grains) before starting fermentation, but not here. The yeast goes right on into the mash after the pumop the stuff into gigantic open fermenters.

One of the more astounding aspects of the distillery tour was that you could walk into and hang over their open fermenters?

This is/was alarming to me for multiple reasons. One was the safety aspect: What happens when some little bone head kid falls into a fermenter? :huh:

But maybe more disconcerting (as a brewer) was the sanitation angle. When we tourists are all hanging over the edge of the fermenter and breathing, sneezing, scratching our asses... what sort of vile germ laden junk is falling down into these fermenters? In the beer brewing world this would be the shortest path to bad beer possible. But maybe that is just a part of their "special" flavor profile?

More likely, the environment of the actively fermenting mash is so hostile that bacteria and their ilk have no chance.

The next thing they do is the initial distillation, where they take the alcohol laden mash into a giant still and separate off the alcohol from the rest. This is the largest volume still as there is the most waste material.

There was some amount of disinformation from our guide about heads and tails, but the gist of it is the same. The real deal is: When you begin to evaporate off alcohol from the mash it is unfit for human consumption as it contains too many bad things (this is the heads). That is the stuff the moonshiners used to drink and go blind or grow 12 toes. Generally this is either thrown away (at small scale distilleries) or is used as fuel to fire the equipment.

The "body" is what they keep and pass on to the next process.

And the late distillate is called the "tails" and it is too weak and contains a higher percentage of nasty tasting stuff, so they re-distill it to get rid of the bad flavor and bring it up to a higher proof and then add it back into the batch. That is what they were doing when we were in the pot still room. (I believe that our guide had it backwards)

Once the first distillation is completed they call the results "beer" because the alcohol percentage is only ~5-6 percent by volume.

That liquid goes to the "Beer Still" where it is further distilled into what they call "wine" at 15-20% by volume.

and from there they send the wine to the wine still (they never showed us this) where it is distilled to the barrel proof. (~60% alcohol by volume - 120 proof)

What was especially impressive (to me) was the amount of space, time and inventory that is tied up in the aging. They had huge buildings full of barrels of whiskey aging for upwards of 10-12 years.

They open and close the windows in these building to try and encourage the type of barrel aging that will produce the flavor profiles that they are after. In summer, windows are open, in cooler weather, closed. None of this could take place in New England...

The grounds of the facility were also quite a showplace, as is often the case for larger breweries. It was defineitely a treat, especuially since after the tour the sun was out and we could strip off all of the rubber wear and dry out on our way back to the lodge

link to all of our Day 4 pictures in a slide show

stay tuned for Day 5 - Southwest Eggrolls! (the best day yet!)

 

[MEM]

TMJ did a stellar job with the photos !

And, man, were YOU ever paying attention at the Buffalo Trace tour Nice job !

 

[RossKean]

Great pics Fred. Waiting for the next installment.

Couldn't make EOM but "might" get a Blue Ridge, Cherohala to Florida ride in before the season ends.

Ross

Edit:

Regarding "Heads" and "Tails" - the first nasty stuff you want to get rid of are substances that boil off at a lower temperature than ethanol - includes methanol (very bad), ethyl acetate, acetone and possibly acetaldehyde etc. The higher alcohols and "fusel oils" tend to be more concentrated in the "tails" since they have a higher boiling point than ethanol - crap like propanol, isopropanol, butanols, amyl acetate, furfural plus some higher molecular weight stuff (esters, ketones, aldehydes and higher alcohols). As you mentioned, the amount of ethanol coming off at the higher temperatures is very much reduced so you stop the distillation because of diminishing returns on the nectar and eliminate the really bad tasting (and toxic) junk.

(Chemist by trade and also appreciate the good stuff)

Interesting Website for Distillation basics

 

[Fred W]

Day 5 - Southwest Egg-rolls

With no real solid plans in mind, after having ridden the Tour of the Bluegrass with James for 10 1/2 hours on Friday , we tried to decide on a good route for Saturday that maybe wasn't quite so long. We didn't want to be out as long since the EOM dinner / banquet was that night, and we'd come all this way to hang out with some FJR peeps. We also wanted to do some touristy things and see what the Cumberland Falls Park were all about, while there.

A couple of the routes seemed a bit too ambitious. Some others seemed like they wouldn't be enough and we'd be back before lunch time.

The southwest Egg-rolls route seemed like it would be the "Goldilocks route of the day" Juuust right! Hell ya, let's go.

At breakfast we cornered Dave and Ann (Mr and Mrs 08FJR4ME) and finagled them into riding along with us. Then out in the parking lot we learned that Yamafitter Bill wanted to run that route today too! Sweet. Word spread little by little and before we knew it we had a nice dozen or so riders to take on the Egg rolls! The day was brightening quickly and promised to be warm and dry.

There was a little confuscation at the onset. I had thought that Bill was going to lead us. I think some others maybe thought that I was leading. But after too many revs and horn toots Dave stepped up and grabbed that bull by the short hairs and led us on out of the parking lot. Good thing, or else we might still have been there now. As it turned out, I think this was a great thing.

I initially fell into 2nd spot on the way out, but after a few miles on wet park roads, Bill swept on up into the 2nd spot and I took over third. Bill is one of them, thar Canadian "close riders" and I know that has a tendency to encourage the lead rider to go just a little faster. Considering that Dave and I were both 2-up in 1st and 3rd, we ran a pretty respectable pace.

The route was fantastic. Once the roads finished drying off, the weather was quite spectacular. Everyone in the group rode superbly. What a fantastic time. This was seriously one of the very best rides in my motorcycling life. When we stopped and chatted, and when we got back to the lodge, I could tell from conversations that everyone else felt pretty much the same way. Strange how sometimes everything just falls together...

Low hanging clouds to start out...

The view that I would have most of the day

Sweet roads...

Rolling through the little town of Monticello (the first time)...

Country roads, take me home...

The "Gas Stop":

...as it turns out, this would have some consequences.

There was a little park just down the road from "the Gas stop". It was the site of an old Mill of some kind. Very picturesque. We dawdled here for quite a while. I don't think anyone was anxious to leave.

Gary (toophast) decided that he needed to check the waterproof integrity of his old riding boots. That guy just cracks me up!!

Down into Tennessee

So... remember that gas stop? Well we'd decided at that time that we still had a few bars plus reserve, so we'd be good for about 100 miles. We'll just stop at the next station. Well, I'm here to tell you that 100 mile estimate isn't true, at least not when running two up and at 08FJR4ME pace. And there weren't any more next stations. I was running on reserve for ~40 miles and I was messing with my GPS, and I couldn't see any fuel within 25 miles ahead on our route.

So I wussed out ( a really good thing) and pulled off and turned back to the closest town with fuel. The yard where we stopped was populated with a whole pack of midget doggies!!

But they decided we were not a serious threat and didn't bite our ankles or anything... Mary Ellen, had also forgone fueling, but since she was 1-up (and on a second gen) she was still OK on early reserve and not stumbling quite yet. She opted to follow me on our quest for the closest fuel and the least pushing. As it tuned out, that closest fuel town was Monticello, the same little town we'd come down through earlier in the morning.

I seriously ran out of gas no less than 10 times while trying to get the 5-6 miles to Monticello. Each time I'd shake the bajeebers outta the bike, back and forth, violently and a little splash would fill the fuel pump and she would press on just a little more. Hey... beats pushing, I figured. The first gas station we rolled up to was closed. Oh dayum!! But the next one, although it looked closed on first inspection, was really open. Woohoo!!

I pumped 6.5 gallons into that tank with the greatest zeal of my life.

So, after fueling up, MEM and Josie and I decided to head on back to the route and finish it as planned.

We came up behind a string of HOGs doing the speed limit (or maybe under) and at the first opportunity we passed the whole string at once. They didn't seem to mind and we gave them a happy wave for good measure.

A few miles down the road we rolled up to a construction zone with a one lane restriction flagger. Damn, says Mary Ellen, I sure hope those Hardley boysdon't roll up behind us here. That sure would be awkward. So of course after a few minutes of sitting we see MC headlights in the mirrors.

But it wasn't the Hardleys, it was the rest of our posse!! I still don't fully understand how they ever got behind us, but it happened. And we rolled on up back to the Lodge from there having a good old time.

Kudzo prevails

We got back to the lodge early enough so that some of us took the short hike on down the park trails to the Falls. Along the way there were some incredible caves and cliffs in the side of the hill

And the we reached the river and the falls, no doubt engorged by the recent rains

TMJ: Paparazzi pillion & all around great gal.

The tourist pose. The W's.

Back up to the lodge, what a beautiful view of the river valley. It's sure easy to see why the toursitas would come here.

The EOM dinner Saturday night was great, as usual.

I think that everyone had as good of a time as we had.

After dinner, Drinks. Cigars. Lots of fun and laughter.

Sorry I got no pics. You just have to come there for that.

What a great day it was. Thank you to everyone who shared it, and helped to make it happen.

click here for a slideshow of all of our Day 5 photos

and stay tuned for Day 6 - Cherry Cola, Deals Gap, BRP

 

[MEM]

BRAVO!!

With your permission, I'll post this link on my smugmug site

 

[escapefjrtist]

Thanks for taking us along on the odyssey Fred...great pics and prose.

Looks like a great time was had by all!

--G

 

[wheatonFJR]

wow...great report. :yahoo:

No lame ass videos though to fudge it up...

 

[dcarver]

Most Excellent RR, FW!

So, then tell me,

when all is said and done -

what was *the* moment on this ride?

Not necessarily scenery, but of people, love, life?

That is what I look for in rides...

My guess is that on this ride, something, some person, some experience -

... is what you will recall to your last day,

tell me what it is?

 

[MEM]

My guess is that on this ride, something, some person, some experience -

... is what you will recall to your last day,

tell me what it is?

Oh, baby ....I have a few of those ! But then, you weren't asking me

There was the bar dick manager at the pub in Dunmore, PA, who tried to hook me up with a nice light 'lady' beer :assassin: . And rooting through my bag liner that same night and finding the gift that Charlie (the Wills' yellow white lab) left for me . And the few seconds on Saturday night when I thought toophast and I were going to have to get married And .....and ...

Seriously, I know what you mean, Don. And it's an interesting observation. The whole trip - from the time I arrived at the Fred Ws' and spent the next 10 days with them - was one of the best vacations I've ever had.

 

[Fred W]

Absolutely. Anyone is welcome to post links to or steal pictures from any of this. After all, I am throwing this out into the public domain of the interwebs.

It is there for your enjoyment and/ or ridicule.

But wait... I'm not done yet. There's even more!!

We still have to get home.

The long way...

Day 6 - Cherry Cola, Deals Gap, Blue Ridge Parkway

A part of our weather aborted plans from NAFO in Knoxville last year was to ride the Cherohala Skyway and at least the southern parts of the Blue Ridge Parkway. Since Corbin, KY is just an hour or so north of Knoxville, TN, and we had alloted three days to get home from EOM, we aimed to make that happen this year on out way back. Our traveling companion, Mary Ellen, was game for the idea and added that she would like to stop by the famous Deals Gap Resort on The Dragon.

The weather forecasts showed goodness for Sunday through Tuesday. It's on!

And what a great send off we had. A spectacular Sunday sunrise from the patio deck at the lodge

Rather than eat the buffet again at the lodge we decided to run the couple of hours of slab down through Knoxville to Tellico Plains to a little restaurant that MEM had visited previously. It was very good. Again, apologies for the lack of food porn shots. We were ravenous and gobbled it all down.

And right after breakfast you are thrust into some of the finest, most scenic roads in the southland. Cherry Cola rules!

At the end of the Cherohala you turn north a bit on Rte 219 and end up at the intersection of the beginning of the "Tail of the Dragon" and "Moonshiner 28". (they have such colorful names for their favorite roads in that area) well known to motorcyclists as "Deals Gap".

Because the day's goal was primarily collecting scenery, and because the parking lot at Deals Gap was full of adrenaline intoxicated motorcycle yahoos on a nice sunny Sunday, and because we did need to eventually get home in three days, rather than running up and back on the Dragon (just so we could say we had "done it") we just pressed on down to the south and east on Moonshiner 28 towards the BRP. Maybe some day I'll run the Dragon on a weekday. Maybe not. I could live without it.

But Moonshiner 28 was a beautiful road with scenery to match

Eventually we wound our way into the Indian town of Cherokee NC. Wish we had more time to be tourists there. It would have been kind of fun, in a campy sort of way...

Which brought us to the southernmost end of the famous Blue Ridge Parkway

I'm probably not telling anyone that has been there anything new, but for those that have not, there is no shortage of curves, tunnels or scenic vistas on the BRP. It is mile after mile of mountainous beauty as you wind along the ridge of the mountain tops. I was surprised at the number of tunnels too.

Seriously, around every corner was another breathtaking view. It's also pretty easy to see where the name "Blue Ridge" comes from as the distant mountains have a distinctively blue hue to them

We stopped at the highest point for the Ob Photo

And then continued on through the splendid scenery

Even saw a tinge of early fall colors at a few of the lookouts

The afternoon was wearing on and the car traffic was pretty heavy and slow (it was a sunny Sunday, remember?). I think we were all well into sensory overload as the views weren't quite as thrilling any more. As we approached the Asheville, NC exits from the parkway we opted out and slabbed it on back up into Tennessee.

Taking a tip from some other forumites, we stopped at the TN tourist welcome center just over the state line on the throughway.

There we picked up a copy of one of the coupon booklets they have available. These coupon deals are the true insider bargain in travel. With some helpful guidance from a friendly security guy at the welcome center rest area, we found a really nice place just up the road in Johnson City called The Jameson Inn. I'd never heard of them before, but they are apparently a sizable chain down in the southeast. This one was particularly nice and at $55 / room / night was a total steal. Recommended!!

We ate next door at the Cracker Barrel (don't expect any food porn anymore, do ya?) and drank up some of the Bourbon that we'd brought along.

Yeah, this living on the road stuff is really tough.

click for slideshow of all of our Day 6 pictures

stay tuned for Day 7 - The Virginia / Pennsylvania Slabfest

 

[bbdig]

Looks like a great time. Wish I had been with you but couldn't take the chance with the daughters wedding being Oct 1st. Although I did spent most of the week and a half before it avoiding the bride, OEM was not to be for me this year. :angry2: Hopefully NAFO12 next year. :yahoo:

 

[Fred W]

Day 7 - The Virginia / Pennsylvania Slabfest

Because we had gone south on Day 6 to play, rather than northeast-ward towards home, we needed to make some tracks on Monday to ensure getting home as required on Tuesday. So from the Jameson Inn in Johnson City we took interstate highway north (primarily I-81) all day on Monday. This is so very out of character for me when it is isn't pouring rain, but it had to be done, so we did it.

Interestingly, there was a good bit of rural scenery along I-81 that is worth seeing. And since you really aren't doing much else it's pretty easy to look around.Leaving Tennessee you jump up into Virgina for good long while...

Then buzz through the corners of...

and...

before entering

...where you will spend the entire rest of the day. But there is still stuff along the road to see, if you like farms...

As might be expected, this was a fairly uneventful day. We stopped at the Pennsy visitor welcome center (yeah, we're quick learners) and grabbed their version of the magic coupon booklet. Found a likely place to stop just past Scranton / Wilkes Barre area called the Pocono Lakes Comfort Inn. Exit 17 off of I-84. It was clean, comfortable, cheap at the $63 coupon price, and was right next door to a diner for a walk-in dinner.

The diner was less than spectacular at the vegetable stir frys the two ladies opted for, though my burger was OK. And they did not have a liquor license. :glare: Even worse, we polished off the dregs of the two bottles o' bourbon we had along on the ride that night.

Yep, it was clearly time for these old horses to head for the barn.

click here for a slideshow of all of our Day 7 pictures

and stay tuned for the final installment, Day 8 - Back to New England

 

[wheatonFJR]

Nice photos/kudos to your photographer. :clapping:

Really great photos...text/storyline is good as well.

All we need now is some lame ass video of you doing the Dragon....a nice long one showing you following the HDs. Maybe next time...