Back from Vacation

[Mr442]

It may be "good to be king", but it sucks coming back after a vacation.  The wife and I took last week off, did a little MC riding down into 'Ol Kentucky, spent a few days kicking back around home, an topped it off with a trip up to US 41 Dragway in Morocco, IN to watch the son play with my 4-4-2.

The Kentucky part started on Sunday the 18th, with a 34 degree morning.  Good thing I got a Goldwing with the Comfort package.  The heated seats and grips make a difference, as did wearing the proper gear.  We made it 50 miles before the wife had me stop.  Her legs were cold, so I had her put on some rain pants to block the wind.  That did the trick, and she was cozy the rest of the way.  We found one of my color towns, Gold City, way south of Bowling Green, out in the sticks.  Luckily Kentucky has some nice state maintained county roads.  They make for smooth riding when you are off the beaten path.  We spent our first night in Glasgow, which is a nice sized small city. 

The next morning we headed east towards Gold Bug KY, which is about 6 miles north of the KY/TN state line on I-75.  It took us about 3 hours after leaving Glasgow, travelling on mostly 2 lane US highways.  The wing and I got a good workout in the hilly twisty sections the further east we went.  After finding Gold Bug we headed towards the Corbin area to check out a couple cemeteries.  My paternal grandfather came from that area, and we were trying to find his great great (maybe another great, I'm not sure) grandfather's grave.  We did find the grave of his wife's great grandfather, and met a couple really distant cousins, one from KY and one from VA, while we were at one graveyard.  We never did find the grave we were looking for, as we were unable to locate the second cemetery.  Looks like another trip next year is in order.  We spent the second night in a noisy London KY motel, and won't stay there again!

The third morning came too soon and we were headed north and home.  We avoided the Interstate once again, sticking to the old highways.  When we got to Frankfort, we picked up US421.  Like many of you, I was familiar with US421 as it passes through central Indiana.  Let me tell you, the KY sections are nothing like the gentle road we know.  It was hilly, narrow, and had more turns and twists than a belly dancer.  It was a blast!   After wearing that road out, we made across the Ohio river and into Madison, IN.  Just seeing that town makes us want to go back and visit.  We then headed across southern Indiana to Sullivan, then headed north to home.  964 miles and three days later, we were there.  We had good, if somewhat cold at times, weather all the way,  It made for a good trip.

On Wednesday the wife had her annual boob squeezing (mammogram), the a visit to her regular doc for a check up, then a visit with her oncologist.  Good news all the way around, so we were excited.  It's been 8 years since her brush with breast cancer, and she is doing fine.

Thursday and Friday were spent running errands and generally kicking back.  On Saturday we went to a funeral visitation for a former coworker's wife.  That was the only bad part of the week.

Sunday rolled around bright and sunny, so we went along with my son to US 41 Dragway.  A friend of ours had put together a loosely organized get together of musclecar enthusiasts to do a little test and tune racing.  Along with my 70 4-4-2, we had a 69 Hurts SC/Rambler, a 71 GTO, a 72 GTO, a 69 Hurst Olds, a 68 Mustang notchback 428 CJ, and a 69 W-31 Cutlass.  Of course there were plenty of regulars at the track doing their thing as well.  A bunch of Chicago heavy hitters are out there racing each other, in some very very bad assed cars.  It is a sight to behold.

Our day went well as we drove the 4-4-2 onto the trailer at the end of the day.  As they say, the third time is a charm.  The first two times we took that car up there, it broke an axle.   This time the only casualty was a trailer tire on the way up.  Yeah, I've got to put some new rubber on the trailer.   The Olds turned a 14.20 @ 97 MPH yesterday,  Not the fastest it has ran, but close.  We wanted to see how it reacted to a couple of recent changes, and it reacted good.  I'll be tearing the car apart this winter and starting restoration, including rebuilding the engine, so we wanted a good baseline beforehand, and now we have it.

Well, that was our vacation week, not as exciting as some, but we do feel refreshed, and that is what matters.

[Palehorse]

Sounds like you had a helluva time for the most part. I've been out for a ride or two in the last week myself, but fear the time for putting her up for the winter is drawing near. I dread that. . . 

[me]

I've always thought Madison was a neat town.  We used to camp at Clifty Falls a lot and was there for the 4th of July Regatta's a few times.  Sounds like a great ride.