Breakfast Ride to 66 Cafe

Saturday, Aug. 2, 2014, riding again?  Well, yes.  That's why they make those wheels round so they roll.  Standing still to long could make them have flat spots.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it.  So I contacted friend Paul who had sent me an email yesterday about possible breakfast ride.  Sounded good to me so I called him last night to get meet-up time and place.  As usual, for most of our rides, it would be the Exxon Sta. on Boyds Creek Hwy. and this time at 7:30 a.m.  That's morning for some of you sleepy heads.  However, not for son Shane who is an early riser.

Since it had already been misting rain, I suited up and pushed Sweet Thang out of the garage at 7:10, ran up the road about 5 miles to the Exxon station and topped off the tank.  Then I pulled up away from the gas pumps to watch for Paul.  I then decided to change gloves and remove my camera so it wouldn't get wet.  Bad move for I missed some great pics and it didn't rain hard enough to have gotten my camera wet as the windshield catches most of the raindrops.

This was the opening sunrise on Boyds Creek Hwy. between my house and the Exxon station.  This blue soon disappeared into overcast and then darkened a bit releasing a small sprinkle of rain.  We lucked out as there were some places where the rain was just ahead of us and made you ride more carefully due to the damp road.  Couldn't turn and burn this morning.



It took us about an hour and forty-five minutes to get to our breakfast destination even by taking the interstate for part of the ride.  Shortly after we turned off the interstate the countryside became beautiful, riding in the valley on the state routes.  With all the beautiful scenery you have to stay on your toes due to blind hills, blind curves, blind driveways and in come cases, blind people.  There's also the gravel that drifts off the edge of the road or out of the home driveways which can give you an instant heart attack when your tire slips on the rolling pebbles or soft sand.  It's called "hugging your seat" or "tightening up".

Paul getting ready to leave 66 Cafe.  Now this place isn't marked on the national restaurant registry but they make some of the best sausage gravy to pour over those biscuits that you'll ever flop a lip over.  And the fried eggs, choose your color (blue, green, white, tan) because the owner and a friend of his have chickens that lay eggs with the shell colored according to the chicken.  One egg, one biscuit with gravy, a side of bacon and coffee is less than $5.  Just getting there was worth that much and more.   

Leaving I had my camera hanging around my neck.  These pics show the better of some of the roads we rode on this morning.  Ever notice some of the highway signs along the routes you take?  Well, this morning I found one to be very funny.  We were on a single lane road, no striping, just old asphalt.  All of a sudden there was a sign saying "Single Lane Bridge".  I had to laugh.  Over the CB I asked Paul how could there have been anything other than a single lane bridge on a single lane road.  It just struck me as very funny.

The barn and the church
appeared to be not in use.
Then we came upon two
chimneys without a house.    

A little later we came upon a house that was a little
fixer-upper.  Well, maybe a
bit more fixing is needed. No, the road doesn't end behind the barn, it does continue onward.


There are some great old farm houses out on these little roads making you wonder how they ever found some of these valleys.  Back then the roads were not paved and the routes didn't have road signs.  Some places had great soil and some was so rocky that a goat would have a hard time surviving on what little grass grew between the boulders.  Maybe I'm wrong, they may have been growing rocks to sell to the crazy city folks.

 

Above left is one of those one lane roads mentioned earlier.  The next is a meadow of blue wild flowers, then back on a bigger highway carved out of the mountain side only to exit back onto a lane and a half road.  The red roof square log cabin is a long way from a Walmart or shopping mall.

A country church on a
country lane.    


A rural farm house a bit more modern than most in the area.

Cherokee Lake from a ridge
where a monument has been erected honoring our
Veterans. 

 On a road leading back to the house.

Looking through the
windscreen checking the
next curve.

Off the ridge crossing a finger of Cherokee Lake.

The ride of the day, approx. 175 miles.  Not as far as the last ride but just as exciting and enjoyable, even with the weather.  Crazy?  Maybe.  Happy to do it again, just let me know when you want to leave.  Cost of gas, approx. $12.  Value in fun, priceless.

Until the next ride I hope all stay healthy and happy.  If not, see a doctor and change your attitude.