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Nice. Daniel was distant kin

Glad you're having a good trip through the Bluegrass. Ramsey's is some count. Next time get a Hot Brown!

Cool pics

My buddy lives in Georgetown. When I hunted with him that castle was on the way to the farm we hunted.
Buds Guns is just south of Lexington I think. Might be worth a stop😉

We just rode today. I didn't stop for any pictures.

We met some fellow riders at a break stop. This Aprilia is the RSV4. It's like the Ferrari of motorcycles. Too fast and too uncomfortable for me, but still a badass bike. It's got 217 horsepower. The phrase comes to mind, "It is better to ride a slow bike fast than to ride a fast bike slow.




Either this bike, the BMW F800GS, or a Triumph Tiger 800 will be my next bike. You can take this BMW on the local fire roads or around the world. Great bike with a 100,000 mile engine.



We rode from Lawrenceville, KY to The Breaks in Virginia. We stopped in Pikeville, KY for dinner. Not a lot of wealthy folks in Eastern Kentucky. Lots of hills and the ONLY civilization at all is all collected in the little river and creek valleys, the "Hollers." No one lives on the mountains here.

They are building an amazing 4 lane limited access highway from Pikeville, KY to Grundy, Va. This thing has to be the most expensive interstate per mile in the entire world. The inn keeper here at The Breaks said that one of the bridges we went over (They only have a small portion of it all finished, and it's no wonder) was the highest bridge in Virginia. The road either cuts through a mountain top or bridges over a deep valley. Every highway cut in a mountain looks to have a seam of coal in it.

I’ve enjoyed following the trip. Keep ‘em coming 👍safe travels

You ran Sherwood Road if you went from Stevenson to Sewanee. That's a tough little road all by itself. In the late '70s early '80s, I had an opportunity to work in a little punch mine just west of Stevenson one summer in college, and a place to stay on campus up on the mountain. I skipped it partially because the mine was ventilated with a kitchen fan, and partially because I didn't want to have to run that mountain in a '74 F250 twice a day for 3 months. I'm not sure which would have been more dangerous..
BTW, I got gas at that Texaco in Sewanee one time, and they had an MG up on the lift, and a timber skidder torn completely down right behind it. In a town that size, they worked on ANYTHING.

When we got up this morning and started packing, it became clear that Dennis and I and maybe one other couple left over from this weekend's gospel singing were the only ones staying in the entire Breaks Interstate Lodge in Virginia. No staff were even there. The lodge restaurant is closed during the week because there is no staff available to hire. This was a bummer because I was hungry and this place is about 5 miles down the road from Bumfucktd, Egypt.

We had to ride from The Breaks to the Huddle House in St. Paul, VA just to get some food. St. Paul is over an hour away through some of the most rural, deserted and twisty back roads you have ever seen in your life.

Lots of abandoned houses in eastern Kentucky and western Virginia. Probably due to the demise of the coal industry. There really is no industry in this area at all that I can see. Still it's a beautiful area and some great remote riding. You could probably pick up some land here pretty cheap. We had about 5 deer run out in front of us on this morning's ride.

This is a uniquely designed house and I wonder what its story is. Who lived here? What did they do to have such a big house in such a poor rural area?




The corner of Frying Pan Road and Tiny Holler...




If you are just riding around and having fun it's a bike ride. If somebody breaks down and you have to take the bike apart in the Huddle House parking lot and fix it, then it is an Adventure.

We noticed a leak on Dennis' bike when we came out of the Huddle House, so we tore it all down to see where it was coming from. Fortunately I found the the leak. It was a pin hole in his radiator hose. Of course there is not going to be a Triumph Tiger 1050 radiator hose in St. Paul, but I crossed my fingers and took the hose to the local auto parts store where they let me go back in the back and poke around. I found a small hose that if I cut it just right, it could work and we made it work.




About 2 hours later we were back on the road. We had to make up the time, so we had to hop on interstate 24 a little, but we did get to drop off on highway 28 which is a super curvy road, and burned some of the chicken strips off the tires of the Kawasaki with Dennis trying to catch up.






We finally made it to the Tapoco Lodge for dinner and drinks. Our other buddy, Jeff, road all the way from Bagdad, Kentucky to meet us and ride with us for a couple of days. Jeff is a unique guy. He's the only horse dentist that I have ever met and just a super dude on top of that. We've all been riding motorcycle together for about 10 years.

That’s a nice ride. I rode to Robbinsville and camped a couple of days then rode up to Pigeon Forge and back to camp. The next day on the way out I rode the Dragon again but on the way back thru it the backend got squirrelly. I had picked up something and the tire was leaking down. Worst part it was a Sunday and nothing around. I aired up the tire at the gas station Between the rows it goes a Cherohala skyway in the Dragon. Then I sagged to the closest Walmart I got a canna fix a flat and borrow air pump. Thankfully I made it home safely but sure ruined a new tire. So I can relate to ya’lls little adventure with the water hose leak. Good luck the rest af your trip and be safe. Keep the rubber to the pavement.

eastern kentucky is full of sights. several thousand wild horses roam the eastern hills ...

Awesome! I never knew about 1st alabama cavalry.

A few pics from Wednesday's riding. Wayah Road and Blood Mountain road were the main travels... This was day 6 of our Appalachian motorcycle trip.

I know it's not a Hump Day thread, but I must admit that I had some serious lust over this car. It's a Porsche Cayman GTS in British Racing Green and the gold wheels. Makes my tee tee get really really long...



One of our first rides of the day was Wayah Road and we went to see my buddy Mark's house. He and his wife Tina are old motorcycle friends of ours and they have been travelling in a really nice motorhome for over 2 years and are ready to get back into a house, so they bought a little retirement home in Clarksville, Ga.

Our buddy Mark's Moto Guzzi...




Jeff the horse dentist and motorcycle enthusiast...




I love roads that run along mountain streams...









2 bedroom, 2 bath, car port, 1100 S.F. Walking distance from downtown. $375,000 Nice little house, but I couldn't believe it.




After we checked out Mark and TIna's new cottage, we headed back via Blood Mountain Road and Highway 129. Blood Mountain road is about like a race track and we all had a good, fast paced time. I just rolled on back to Tapoco and was already in the hot tub drinking a Bulleit Rye when the rest of the guys got back.



Later we opted for a pizza at the great restaurant at Tapoco. Two great guys to have as friends...

I wanna be like IrishGuy when I grow up!

No kidding. That looks like a fun trip.

Yesterday we took the Cherohala Skyway over to meet our buddy Mark in Tellico plains. Great riding but pretty much uneventful. Had a great lunch at Ironworks Grill and Pub with Mark.

Obligatory bike pic...



The views from the Cherohala are magnificent. It's hard to keep your eyes on the road sometimes.






Dennis and I met R.L. on the left and Bob on the right. Bob and R.L. are in their late 70's and have been riding motorcycles together since 1972. They ride at least once a week. Their current bikes are Yamaha XT250's because their Suzuki DR350's got too heavy for them so they sold them and bought the lighter Yamaha's. Lucky guys to live in a place where there is such good riding area. Great guys. We had a nice conversation and I asked them to pose with their bikes. It's always worth it to strike up a conversation with strangers.




Mark and Dennis behind Mark's Husqvarna 650. Yes. The chainsaw company builds some pretty badass motorcycles. They teamed up with BMW and Rotax on the engine. The water cooled 650 produces 58 horsepower. It's a pretty sweet ride. Nice compliment to his Moto Guzzi.




I initially thought this truck was a prop for the restaurant until Dennis and I walked up to it and looked inside. It was someone's daily driver.




Yours truly by his trusty steed. "Kawasaki lets the good times roll."




We got back to the Tapoco Lodge where Mrs. Irish met us for dinner and during dinner God started showing out blessing us with a complete rainbow...

Looks like an awesome trip! Thanks for sharing all of it with us!

Great trip and beautiful bikes. I do have a question about the bikes... How do you get the Husqvarna and Moto Guzzi bikes serviced and repaired if necessary? I would think the dealers would be few and far between. Seems like there is a Honda or Harley dealer around every corner.