This picture speaks for itself.
Things weren’t much better here.
On our way to certain death!
Category: Travel
Various trips
1996 Buick Roadmaster Estate Wagon for sale
Sold as of January 2, 2017
This car has served me quite well for years working in tandem with my heavy duty pickup truck to do the things I need. The Buick was great for hauling various loads including full 4×8 sheet goods – plywood, drywall, whatever. The truck handled that stuff better but wasn’t nearly as comfortable. Sadly my truck died and I decided to replace it with a Chevy Tahoe that also takes the place of this car. Continue reading “1996 Buick Roadmaster Estate Wagon for sale”
New Vehicle time
I used my pickup truck several times on the interstate recently. The vibration I’ve noticed before got worse. I checked the U-joints and they were sound. That meant the problem was elsewhere. Looking at the bottom side of the truck I decided to trade it in.
I found a 2009 Chevy Tahoe LTZ with a lot of great features used at a dealer in Kingsport. It had been there quite a while and the price was down already. When I called about it the price dropped again. Continue reading “New Vehicle time”
Old stuff is just cool
I’ve driven past this place for a while and finally decided to check out what’s here. Among other things there are a couple of large scale wood working machines. I’m pretty sure one is a planer. The other may be for making specific lengths of wood but I’m not sure.
And sadly a pile of what was probably once nice wood just stacked and rotting. There were several such stacks.
Chasing a tag in the NC tag game.
When a friend rode over 1000 miles to bring the tag back to near TN I felt like I just had to give it a kick myself.
I left home at 12:30 and tanked up near my house with non-ethanol high test gas. I didn’t get far before I ran into a major downpour. Water was rushing down the street 6″ deep. I was in cooling mesh gear when it cut loose. I had a brief thought about putting on some rain gear. Then I thought I didn’t bring any. Oh well. About that time the sun came out and helped dry me off. I got rained on off and on all day. I spent 9 hours in the saddle and covered 300 miles.
NC tag snag
Goats on the Roof on Wears Valley Rd in Tennessee
sunset from our boat
Sunset over the lake.
Took a ride to see Portal 31 in Lynch Kentucky
It was a beautiful day, Nat was travelin, we had a neighbor to watch the hound. Hm. Mow the lawn or ride?
Well along the ride (yeah, I chose to ride) I stopped over at this improvised overlook. My cell phone camera just can’t do this justice so I took a lot of shots.
The road I came up;
and the road I’m going up;
So off I went. Shortly after I left this spot I crossed into Kentucky. A sign at the border informed me that I was on Black Mountain at the highest point in Kentucky. The road I was on was 160 and not a lot of straight or level on it. Just my style. Not too much farther in was my goal.
Lots of history to this place. It was begun around 1912 on a government request to supply good quality coal for ammunition for World War I. They built an entire town around a coal mine and with a guaranteed market for the coal no expense was spared. Everything about it was state of the art.
Nowadays (but not today) they offer mine tours where you get to ride these cars. I shot this through the fence across the entrance.
This cute little machine was for grinding coal out of the mine.
I rode a little farther out looking for a good sized road. I found another town but didn’t note the name. They had a Hardees so I grabbed a nice lunch. While I was eating I could see a LOT of smoke rising off a hillside. After lunch I rode a little closer but not close enough to see what was going on.
My next notable stopover was the Cumberland Gap park and overlook.
With a vantage point like this it should be no surprise that this was a stronghold during the civil war. For both sides. Alternately. I my riding boots and temps in mid 70’s I wasn’t up to hiking around enough to see all those sights. I did get up to a cannon placement but took the wrong path to get closer to the cannon that was there. The real big gun was finally left in a cave down below. I don’t think the one there was it.
Down below at the main overlook you can see Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee. In Kentucky the town of Middlesburg is built in an ancient meteor crater. It’s possible to make out the shape of the crater if you concentrate.
Pot pie in NC.
The North Carolina tag game on ADVRider.com was placed at Pot Pie in Marshall, NC. I rode out expecting a pot pie lunch, some pictures of the place, and a good ride. Unfortunately all they sell is frozen pies that you take home. >sigh< That sent me down the road for lunch. At any rate this is the picture I snapped of the place. Not much free parking but nobody inside.
