Another long time since I posted. Will catch up some more family posts when I get back to Michigan. Left Brighton on September 11 and headed south to ride the Natchez Trace and visit two of the Coakley kids in Chattanooga and Atlanta. This trip was just short of 1500 miles and sun virtually all the way vs. my trip south last year that was rain most of the way from a leftover hurricane heading north.
Ready for the road in Brighton
The best distillery tour I've ever been on! Not well advertised and not part of the Bourbon Trail but well worth the visit in Frankfort, KY
Love the sign. Weller is one of the bourbons that Buffalo Trace produces.
This is the one building shop where they hand bottle, label, number and pack the single barrel bourbon, Blanton's. Very impressive and we could get up close and personal.
Every bottle is hand sealed, waxed, wiped, labeled and numbered.
Also visited the Wild Turkey spot. A little disappointing as the tours were closed down and lots of construction going on that prevented checking things out.
We did get some pours of the various Wild Turkey products.
I traveled through Kentucky on the backroads. Great ride and lots of tobacco. Could not get to a spot where I could get a picture of the crop drying in the barns. Here you see a field with two different plantings
This bridge takes the Natchez Trace over the highway just south of Nashville
Turkeys were everywhere on the first part of the trace. I saw well over a hundred
One of my many stops on the Trace
Thought I'd take the walk to the falls
The falls were nearly dry in the dry summer
A small tobacco planting on the Trace and some tobacco hanging in the barn to dry
A two mile section of the original Trace. Cool to think that Indians and settlers used to travel this very road
I've always been an admirer of Lewis and Clark. Had to stop to check out the Lewis grave site.
The small markers on the ground are various pioneers buried in this area with Lewis.
My first time in the state of Alabama
An impressive bridge build solely for the Natchez Trace across the wide Tennessee River
A sign on the trace said this was the highest spot in Alabama at all of 800 feet!
Lots of Indian history along the Trace
Also was my first time in Mississippi
One of many various markers and spots on the Trace
An unplanned, but very good, stop in Huntsville AL at the NASA air and space center
A full size rocket. See the next photo for some scale
These things are huge!
One large building had the rocket in full size and cut into sections. They host various events in the hall.
The actual Apollo 16 command module
Great history and lots of things for kids to do at the center
Conor tries on my helmet in Chattanooga
Getting ready to leave Lookout Mountain and a great visit with Sean, Alyse and Conor. Sadly, I missed Michelle but she was yukking it up in Miami Beach with some gal friends.
Sean suggested I ride the Ocoee River on the way to Atlanta. So glad I did. It was a Saturday and lots of traffic but a great ride. The '76 Olympics held the kayak competition on the river
It was a great day for rafters and kayaks. Dozens and dozens of them along the way.
My visit to see Jennie in Atlanta was great except for the fact that someone had knocked over my bike while parked. No idea how it happened and someone actually had picked the bike back up. But it broke my brake lever, did some damage to my throttle grip and damaged my right rear passenger peg. But could have been much worse!
I had a great visit with Jennie but never got a photo of her! Until this when we surveyed the damage to the bike and tried to figure out if the van behind me had done the dirty deed. Tested the bike out a bit in Atlanta and it seemed to ride ok so I busted on to Lexington SC.
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