Well I have all the pictures from everybody on the last trip out west. I'm hoping to get them sorted out by day and location. I will probably post them in an album that can be viewed from here. There's more than 3000 pictures and I have a ways to go yet.
On to new stuff. The weather here in Cincinnati has turned warmer and drier. It's ridin' time again!
Doug, Jim and myself have all been out trying to get ready for the next trip. Doug has been riding his bike to work every day and Jim has been taking his out for some short trips. I have spent the last week doing short trips and finally got up to 120 miles. I have to build up the shoulder muscles so I can manage the longer runs. The good thing is the bike actually helps with this. See...now it's a medical necessity for me to ride my motorcycle! I like it!
On Friday this week, Jim and I met Doug out at Lunken airport for a short trip through Kentucky. It was a beautiful, bright, sunny day for a ride. The idea was to go to Natural Bridge State Park and ride through the area for a couple of hours. Jim also wanted to take us through an old logging tunnel off rt. 77 somewhere.
Now this sounds pretty simple doesn't it? Ya'll know Jim don't ya?For those folks out there who are friends, relatives, members of the Model T club, T'bird club etc. nothing is ever that simple....The drive to Natural Bridge is about 2 hours. That is if you use the normal routes and highways. What was it Jim, about 5 and a half hours to get to the tunnel? Now, most of you know that when you're going somewhere with Jim, the destination is only the goal of the trip, the journey IS the trip. The reason for the trip is to go see new places and things, and that means, if possible, routes that not many people would take if they didn't live there. We definitely accomplished this!
Let's see if I can remember... we took KY ST. Routes 27, 9, 25, 539, 165, 68, 36, I think 62 was in there too, 211, 77. I'm here to tell you, we had some very good roads to ride during this trip. Some of the roads were just flat fun to ride. Some were reminiscent of some of the roads in Wyoming.
After a few hours of riding we decided to stop and grab a bite to eat in the next town. Jim said we'd find us a mom n pop burger joint somewhere. We like to find local places to eat. Sure enough we pulled into a sizable mom n pop place and got some food. Pops name was Ronald I believe, funny lookin' guy with red hair, never did see Mom.
On route 77 we found the Nada Tunnel road LOGGING TUNNEL! Whooohooo!! Actually it was a neat place. The road at the tunnel was surrounded by the rocky hills of the Natural Bridge area and almost seemed to pop up out of nowhere. For a while it seemed as if we'd never get there, then there we were at the tunnel mouth.
We stopped and parked the bikes before entering the tunnel and just admired the scenery for a few minutes. We waved a few cars on through ahead of us to give ourselves a few more minutes before entering the darkness of the tunnel. Now, the tunnel isn't that long, 75-100 yards maybe. You could clearly see the exit at the other end and the drizzle of a waterfall we would have to ride through.
After a few minutes of admiring the area we decided to ride on through the tunnel.
Doug led off, with Jim next and me following behind. This was going to be soooo cool!! Into the tunnel we rode...then...everything went dark! All I could see was the light at the end of the tunnel (so to speak) and two little red tail lights ahead of me. Everything else had disappeared.
Remember that bright sunny day...yep...still had on my dark sunglasses. Couldn't see squat!
It took a few seconds for my eyes to adjust enough to make out the road and the walls of the tunnel. That was interesting!
Neat ride all together. After the tunnel we decided to use the highways on the way home since it was getting late. We got onto the Bert T. Combs Mountain Parkway West to I64, then on to I 75 to home. We waved good bye on the highway as we separated and headed home.
This was a great ride to start the season off with. We were on the road from about noon until nearly 9PM.
I'm not sure if we'll manage another day ride before our trip to Mississippi and the Natchez Trail, but I'll be ready to go any time.
