week end bike trip

Every year one of our friends in our motorcycle chapter organizes a ride to Elizabethtown Kentucky. This week end was it.
Rudee's sister and brother n law were going as well and had called us asking we meet them in Plainfield so we could ride together.
We had to be up and on the road early Saturday morning and we left the 5th wheel at 6 a.m. :-O. It wasn't even daylight yet!!
We had only ridden about 1/2 mile when the dry roads changed to wet roads. The rain must have just quit and we lucked out and didn't get wet.
The sky started getting brighter the closer we got to Plainfield and it looked like the rain clouds had moved out.
We met David and BJ at the Denny's for breakfast. David's twin brother Dennis and girlfriend Marcia also joined us.
We had a nice breakfast and then fell in formation for the ride. David led us south through the rolling hills. The traffic was light and we made good time. We stopped for gas before we got to Louisville where we hopped on the interstate to bypass the busy city streets.
Once we were south of the metro area we exited off the interstate onto US 31W. The traffic had increased quite a bit since this morning and the temps were starting to heat up as well.
We stopped into a Hooters for lunch (I only go there for the chicken wings ... honest) and were able to cool down (in the air conditioning) and heat up (with the hot wings) at the same time :-).
After lunch we rode the final 40 miles to Elizabethtown and found our motel.
Rudee and I were staying at the Baymont while both sets of Greenlee's were next door in the Ramada.
Rudee and I made a bee line for the indoor pool where we had the entire pool to ourselves.
We spent the next hour just chilling out in the pool before heading back to our room.
The rest of the chapter had ridden down by a different route and were staying at the Howard Johnson's. We met up with them shortly after they arrived around 4:00 pm.
Several went to the pool for a quick dip and we hung out with Rob and Jany Runyon in their room.
We made plans to go to Texas Roadhouse for supper so Rudee and I rode over to put our name in for a table.
The restaurant was pretty busy even though it was still early. We had to wait about 30 minutes for our table but the meal was worth the wait.
The reason for the trip was to attend the Saturday night show at the Lincoln Jamboree in nearby Hodgensville Kentucky. This show has been going on every Saturday night for over 50 years. The owner/emcee, Joel Ray Sprowl, is back on stage after suffering a stroke last year.
The house band is a mix of young and old (some of the players having been there 30+ years) and play a mix of country and gospel music while Joel Ray introduces the songs and entertains with his corny jokes and banter.
They even have guest impersonators including Dolly Parton, Charlie Pride, Don Williams and even Elvis Presley.
The show lasted for a solid 3 hours and we all had a good time. Plans were made to meet at the Denny's in Elizabethtown for a late night desert so we all loaded up and headed that way. There were about 20 motorcycles all riding in staggered formation for the trip. Rudee and I were near the back and it was quite a sight to see all those bikes ahead of us.

Sunday morning we hooked up with some of the group and followed them on a winding trip towards home.
We stopped in Smithfield Kentucky at the Our Best Restaurant for lunch. They specialize in "home cooking" and our group of 20 enjoyed our meals and the southern hospitality. They even had fried green tomatoes which is one of Rudee and my favorites :-).

The rest of the ride home was hot, hot, hot with the temperature rising into the mid 90's.
We made it home around 4:30 and were both about ready to pass out from heat stroke. I parked the bike and we quickly got our swim suits on and walked over to the pool and jumped in .......... ahhhh, that's the ticket.

We had a nice week end and it helped recharge our inner batteries for the work week ahead. No real plans for this week and it looks like this heat wave may finally be over. I'll keep you posted.