Just Thoughts

I love the roads and ride when I can, it doesn't matter so much to where for it could be a new begin.  Then I see neat things, some old and rambling, some neat and new but the main thing is that my life's experiences took a chance and grew.  The weather plays a major factor in when and where I go, but as long as there's no ice, I can handle a bit of snow.  I listen to the wind as it passes by my head, I feel the breeze on my knees and thoughts of unusual places like old homesteads.  There's the few places to stop and grab a bite to eat, it's not that the food is so great, it's just the people you meet.  Along the highways some wide and very straight, I take time to think about things, I think they call it contemplate.

You never really know when, where or who you might actually meet.  But the nice thing is that you can exchange a greet.  You may never see them afterward then again you may, for the world is not all that big for the word never to say.  Your body feels the heat from the warm summer sun and then it may ache a bit after so much fun.  Your knees feels the breeze, your heart is all aflutter.  The excitement is joy in having fun riding with another.  Some people like to be loners and that's okay too, every once in a while I like it as one instead of being two.

I worry about my children, and their children in this time and day.  I hold them dear to my heart and mention them each night I pray.  I wonder what they will be doing long after I'm gone.  Will they continue enjoying life or will they stand alone.  Will the grandkids be prosperous and hold jobs of high esteem and will they be remembered by folks for having and doing their dream.  These things will occur long after I've ridden away, for the Pearly Gates are much closer than they are far away.

Time has a way of sneaking in the past, like missing out on family things because life moves so fast.  So that's why I like to ride those highways listening to the sounds because I don't want to end things, I want them to last.  Life has lots of things that go on each day, but not everyone understands what comes their way.  They let things lapse even those things they once did like, like meeting a stranger on a ride or a hike.  It's not the big things that makes up the life, it's the small day to day events that help remove the strife.  It's like a good friend one that is tried and true, to help you over the hump of being sad or blue.

So as I ride those highways and byways through valleys and hills, it brings relief to my soul like a handful of pills.  I pass the time away looking at the scenes and recall boyhood memories and lifetime dreams.  It's not a chore to run up the miles, as long as I can remember all the people's smiles.  To my children and theirs and theirs too, I hope you remember to remember your childhood as you grew.  And last a thought you may keep in your mind, I love you all even while I'm having a good time.

The Last Cheese Run of 2015

Friend Paul and I decided to make a cheese run down to Philadelphia, TN Saturday to pick up some cheese.  Since there will be a number of out of towners coming in for Christmas I thought this to be a great idea, and besides, an opportunity to get in a little ride.  I left the house at 11:00 a.m. for the meet-up and to gas up Sweet Thang before our 11:30 departure time.  Temp was 42 degrees, high would be 54.  Just as I was about complete with topping off the tank, Paul Rides up.  Called me sissy because I was riding Sweet Thang instead of the new "Naked" bike.  Sweet Thang has a lot of windshield and the Baker Wings on the sides that keep a lot of cold air off your body.  I just replied to him to remove his windshield and he admitted that he was a sissy too.

We pulled out and onto U.S. 411 heading south to Maryville, TN and over to Smoky Mountain Harley Davidson to meet up with Terry for 12:00 noon.  Sky was so blue and the air nice and crisp.  We arrived about 15 minutes early so Paul and I was sitting on the lounge seats near the fireplace drinking HD's coffee and eating a snack bar we brought from the house.  Up walks Terry so we finished up and headed out to the bikes.

We pulled out taking a number of back roads, loop roads and an occasional main road.  Mostly farming country and cattle in this area of rolling hills.

Seems so naked with the leaves all gone and the sun making the trees and their limbs ghostly arms dangling about the highway.

One of the 1 1/2 lane roads traversed along a small stream for a good ways. A little error in judgement or too long of a glance at the scenery could get you a bit damp.

Old grave headstones look grayer in color since the grass is no longer green.  And this cemetery was without a fence too.  I guess the trees are acting as sentinels.  Needs a fence.

It was such a pretty day and with few to no clouds in the sky, the blue just seemed to go on forever.










The highway here is almost half as high as the barn.  Know what the part of the roof sticking out is called?  It's usually referred to as a Crow's Beak.  Usually a pulley is installed and hay or feed is hoisted up and pulled into the barn loft from that position.






Curvy roads, narrow roads, and when you're on one like this and it has a sign that shows the road is going to get narrower, makes you wonder what the reason was to do so.  Well, here it means there's a culvert bridge and there won't be any shoulder to the roadway.  Heck, there's no shoulder anyway.

After about an hour or so we arrived at Sweetwater Farms.  Cheese, about 20 plus varieties.  Mild, sharp, pepper, and hotter pepper.  Some plain, some smoked.  And an aroma of barnyard about the outdoor part too.



We normally buy the end-cuts.  They are where the blocks are trimmed up and then put in bags.  You get more for your money, they just aren't in block forms.  My milk and crackers doesn't know the difference, maybe with a dab of pepper jelly.




With our purchases placed in the saddlebags, we mount our trusty steeds for a rambling return trip.  Here's Terry on "Ole Silver" pulling away from Sweetwater Farms.







We run down the highway a short distance and then head off on some more backroads.  Paul leading, Terry and I'm the tail of this parade.

I just love the geometric designs the tree limbs make especially with their dark gray bark and the bright blue sky for the backdrop.

Over hill, over dales, across the way we ride like the 6,000.  Or something like that.  With the weather as it was, who cares about anything but listening to the pipes and watching the scenery.

We pulled up to an intersection and to the right was this old farmstead with its rustic out buildings.

Ahead of me at the intersection was Paul on the left and Terry on the right waiting patiently for that car to decide if it was going to turn left or go straight.  It finally turned.  Was a local license place so must have been on lunar cruise mode today.

Riding through the arches.  No, not really but the tree limbs grow so that it looks as if the roadway is covered by an arch.  When the leaves are out it really looks like an archway.








This is a beautiful old farm with a house that is quite large.  Wonder how many was in that family.  With the amount of land it was probably a sizeable number of kids to help with the plowing, milking, etc.

Off on another turn we we departed from Terry as he was headed west back to his home.  Sun was getting a little lower in the sky by this time and when you rode into the shade you could feel the temperature drop a few degrees.

The road and the small stream ran side by side for a few miles and with the small waterfalls I wished we had been riding in the opposite direction to capture them on film.  Or at least on a disc.

Looking back behind you can see the small drop-offs making the water cascade down as little waterfalls.







Getting closer to the house we get to see the grayish-blue of the mountains off in the distance and housing developments in the foreground.

This is The Univ. of Tenn.'s Agriculture Department's experimentation farm.  A very nice piece of land, quite large and used in developing new faster more productive agricultural crops.  Or sometime they just try to improve what is already out there.  

Across from the U.T. Farm is a river used for some fishing but a lot for summer swimming/picnics.

This very large older home sits on a very nice piece of pasture land used by their horses.  They are far enough off the highway that car noises do not bother them.  People or horses.

This would be referred to as a gap in the mountain, that low place sort of in the middle of the picture.  It does not mean it is easy to cross, just that it is lower than the rest of the area.








Old farm building almost blending in with its surroundings next to a row of Cedar Trees that seem to run toward the mountains.  A celestial sight for sure.  No noise here except that of our engines.  Peace and quiet.  Country living at its best.

One last farmstead on today's ride.  Next stop, Highland Park Drive.  It has been a very pleasant day for a ride especially knowing that most of next week has rain predicted.  The temperatures were just right, the fellow riders very nice guys, and the end results of having fun and picking up some cheese was just the whipped cream on top.



The total ride for today was 132 miles door to door.  Not a long ride by any means, but a nice ride.  Met some nice folks at Sweetwater Farms, saw some very nice scenery and enjoyed the company of my two fellow riders.  All in all, a darn good day.

So until the next Valkyrie Adventure, here's wishing each of you and yours a Very Merry Christmas.  If traveling to family or friends, be safe and stay alert.  And be very thankful you're in a country that allows the freedoms we have.  Merry Christmas to all.

Bristol, VA and The Country Western Museum

Thursday, Dec. 10, 2015, my Brother's birthday.  Time, 7:30 a.m., temp, mid-40s, high to be in upper 60s.  Very foggy this morning.  Biker friend Paul and I are riding to Bristol, VA to visit a museum.  It is suppose to be the birthplace of country western recording.  Surprise, Surprise.  It wasn't in Nashville and yes, WE were going to a museum.

We pulled out of our meet-up spot at 8:05 a.m.  It's about a 120 miles to Bristol but you have 3 cities all in a wad there so it gets a little slow when you hit the Triangle (Johnson City, Kingsport, Bristol).

This was the sight just outside of my subdivision at 7:30 a.m.  It was time to take the "seeing eye stick" out and put it into action.

A little farther up the road the conditions hadn't improved any so it looked like a slow scanning pace, watching for those side roads and fools that drive under these conditions without headlights turned on.

The sun was just coming over the tree tops and was going to have a hard time burning the mist out of the air this morning.  The fog went from "okay" to "thick" in 15 minutes this morning.

So, you just take it easy hoping that anyone coming from the side would look twice this morning to make sure before they pulled out into the traffic.

Farther up the road you get a better view of the sunrise, the mountains and the mist.  Taking pictures in the fog is very interesting, it's the driving that makes you a bit tense.

To shorten the time we decided to run some miles up the interstate where the fog was not an issue.  So we cranked a bit on that old throttle.

Then we turned west onto a very nice 2-lane highway and got back into the fog again.  This picture I refer to as "Sentinels In The Mist".

But this is one of my favorites.  Without its leaves it seems a bit eerie, like one of those Halloween cartoons.

This highway took us through some beautiful farm country, lots of horses and cows.  And some pretty old farm houses to boot.

Another turn and we're on US 11, a highway that starts South of Slidell, LA and runs up to the Northeast.  That was the primary road before interstates were constructed.  At Rogersville we made a little stop, grabbed some coffee and a breakfast sandwich as a late breakfast or early lunch.  About 20 mins. later we were off and running again to Bristol, VA.

About 11:15 we rolled into downtown Bristol,VA/TN.  It has been years since I was downtown as most of my trips North was on the interstate and in a hurry.  State Street is the dividing line between Bristol, TN and Bristol, VA.  We rode in on State Street.

The museum was once an auto dealership.  You would never know it now.  It is a very nice building and contains 3 theatres, one which is fairly large.  Featured in one wing of the museum was Tennessee Ernie Ford who was from the Bristol area along with The Carter Family (June Carter who later married Johnny Cash).

Paul checked under the Christmas tree to see if a present was there for him.  No present, just a lump of coal and a bundle of switches.  Apparently he's been a baaaad boy.

This beautiful quilt hangs on the wall of the stairway going up to the second floor.  Very artistic.  Akin to a tapestry.

They had a lot of 1920 era black and white photographs, some movies, etc., telling the story of the first recordings of Country Music.  First recorded was primarily Gospel songs.  Later it crossed all boundaries to include Blues, Blue Grass, Country and Gospel.  All because one man found that they had a mobile recording machine and he put it to use in various towns around the area.

There were groups of people that played and sang around the area and when the recording started their names became well known as their music was now recorded and played on the radio stations.  The Carter Family, The Tennessee Ramblers, etc.

When the Western Electric Microphone was developed the quality of the recordings improved immensely.  First recordings were rather scratchy sounding.

Ralph Peer was the man that started doing the recording and put country music on the radio stations.  Quite a feat considering many places still was without electricity.  People that had radios would invite their neighbors and friends over to listen.

The Bristol Sessions became very popular.  Visiting singers/players would just gather and have a jam session in which a recording was usually made for later playing.

The museum showcased a number of music entertainers and their instruments, like Bill Monroe and his mandolin, old banjos (four and five string), autoharps and this rare Harp Guitar.

This is an old gramophone with cylinders of recorded music. 

A small Christmas table was set up in the lobby of the museum.

In the featured wing Tennessee Ernie Ford was displayed and some of his original TV tapings shown.  One was Minnie Pearl from The Grand Ole Opry, the only time she was on his show.

The displayed information was very interesting.  Often the voices of sons or daughters of deceased stars was used telling of their relative's music career, family life, etc.

I use to watch Ernie Ford on TV when I was a kid.  It was one of my parents favorite TV shows.  Wholesome family shows that all members of the family could watch.  Not quite like today where you have to first screen the show to see if it can be seen by children.  Just shows the decline in morality these days.

After two hours in the museum we mounted our trusty steeds and headed back toward Seymour, TN.  Taking some back roads of course.

One such road brought us by the Bristol Raceway, one of the toughest auto race tracks in the racing circuit.

Lots of rolling hills and large tracts of farmland.  And straight roads too.

A pretty old farmhouse proudly flying Old Glory.  Quite a place.

We crossed several streams that flowed from another stream that was once a lake, etc., etc., etc.

This particular portion was down to a small channel.  Apparently caused by a draw-down of the lake.

More rolling hills, straight roads and plenty of blue sky.  Making time.  Practically zero traffic on several of the roads.

And far off in the distance you can see the outline of the mountains.  We were headed back to the house where straight roads were rare and mountains plentiful.

Once someone's nice little house.  Now just an empty hulk with 3 large trees standing guard over it as time takes its toll.

Pastures aplenty covered by a vast blue sky and a sun starting to get low on the horizon.  Probably should throttle up a bit as the day is waning.

 

 The white fence in the foreground must have been a quarter of a mile long at the least.  In other words, it would take a heap of paint and a lot of brushing to keep it nice and white.  It surrounded quite a large amount of acreage which had some very nice looking horses on it.

As the sun drops lower the vail of clouds soften the brilliance to a smothered purplish haze.  Crank that throttle some more, time is fleeting fast.

This old beat up barn/shed/garage caught my attention and with that gnarly old tree made the place look like something out of the Old West.

Funny how that sun seems to drop a lot faster when you're trying to make sure you beat it before it gets dark.

And coming down the home stretch, about a mile to go.  Yes, I pulled into the garage at 5:00 p.m., just a short time before Ole Sol went to bed for the night.  The entire day ridden in valleys and hills with no mountains to cross.  Most unusual but an excellent day all the same.  Learned something new today.  We all should strive to learn at least one new thing each day just to keep our minds and brains active.

Approximately 242 miles door to door.  Foggy start, sunshine finish.  Good things learned, new places seen, and continued friendship explored.  As Paul would say, "ADGD", short for "A Dang Good Day".  So until the next Valkyrie Adventure, I hope you will learn something new about something even if it's about yourself.  Enjoy your life, it doesn't last here on Earth forever.