2014 Bowling Green motorcycle trip
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August 15
I awoke this morning feeling like I could sleep a little longer, but it was time to get up. John & Debby were using the bathroom so Donna & I went downstairs to check out breakfast and Donna wanted to smoke. While we were looking at the breakfast offerings a girl asked me if the breakfast was free or not. I told her it was usually free. Donna and I started to fill our plates when on the other side of the partition we heard the girl ask the attendant if they charged for breakfast. $9.95. I looked at Donna and put my plate back on the bar. I'm not paying $10/plate for hotel food. Donna, never one to go down without a fight, went over to the desk and came back a few minutes later with four free breakfast cards.
When we went back upstairs John & Debby went to breakfast while we cleaned up. I just washed up then laid on the bed while Donna cleaned up. When John & Debby came back Debby rebandaged Donna's finger and braided her hair. I had tried to braid Donna's hair yesterday but it was pretty sad so Debby took over that task.
We packed up the bikes and headed down the road. It was only 115 miles to Bowling Green.
 Lebanon Junction, KY. 10:18, mileage 74,557 - We waited until we got out of the metropolis before we got gas.
 The railroad line between Louisville and Bowling Green is pretty active and I had high hopes of seeing a train along the way. It was not to be. John had parked in front of me so he led us back to I-65. As we were pulling out of the parking lot some dufus in a white van exited out of the entrance and cut in between John and I. I don't think he even saw me. When John pulled onto the highway the van just sat there even though there was no traffic. He eventually pulled out with traffic coming so I waited for the traffic to clear. I caught the van as we entered the on-ramp and he drove about 20 mph. When we merged onto the interstate the van didn't merge and kept driving in the pulloff area. Not sure if he was having a stroke or if his 300 lb belly was getting in the way.
 By this time John was probably a mile ahead of us. Once again, our radios worked perfectly. He said his cruise was on 62 mph so I set mine on 69. When we got through some traffic I could see them way ahead.
Eventually we caught up.
 About 20 miles later we saw flashing lights in the northbound lane. A semi was hauling a mobile container (like trains and ships carry) and the container had caught fire. Part of the container was being loaded onto a wrecker. Traffic was backed up for several miles. I'd hated to be the bikes in the picture. Traffic jams make my clutch hand hurt. For the most part the ride was drama free. Around Munfordville we had to swerve to avoid debris from a semi tire blowout. Several miles down the road we caught up to the offending truck. A rear trailer tire had blown and it was still spewing some debris. As we started to go around him another chunk came off and we had to avoid more rubber and steel belt shards. I don't know what trucking protocols are, but this guy needed to pull the hell over.
 We were on final approach to the hotel when I saw this guy. His rear wiper was broken off but it was on. It looked funny.
 Ahhhhhhhh...the Bowling Green Staybridge. We stayed here on our Georgia trip.
Debby found a chunk of rubber from the spewing semi. It was only 11am when we got here (thanks to the time zone change) but they had our rooms ready. We dumped off our luggage and piddled for a bit.
 John decided to park in back since it is visible from his room. He dumped his trailer. Losing the trailer is always nice because it means you have arrived at the main part of the trip and you're gonna stay awhile.
 The business at hand now is to run some errands and have lunch. Our first stop was at CVS to pick up some pain meds for Donna.
 Next was lunch. We are cooking steaks tonight so we decided to have lunch at Cheddars. I've never been there. I had a club sandwich and Donna had chicken & pasta salad. I was tempted to have salad but went with the old favorite. Another reason we ate at Cheddars is because it is in the same lot as Krogers. We went there for groceries. The plan is for steaks tonight and chicken & noodles tomorrow.
 There are several places we'd like to visit this weekend. Given the time of day we decided to visit the Aviation Heritage Park since it is open until dusk. We dropped off our groceries then headed that way.
 I was surprised to find out this was the first time Donna had seen aircraft displays. It was fun seeing her curiosity as she checked out the planes.
 Bowling Green, KY. 16:57, mileage 74,660 - We plan to do some miles tomorrow so we fueled up and got some fountain pops. The GPS-chosen route to the park was a stoplight-fest so on the way back we tried another road to the hotel. Much better!
 Back at the hotel we unloaded and covered the bikes. Donna and I walked next door to Walgreens. There were a couple things she didn't get at CVS. I've also been looking for a strap for my sunglasses. CVS had one made of granny beads. Nope! We found everything we wanted at Walgreens. Back at the hotel we took showers and put on the lounge clothes...T-shirts, pajama pants, and slippers. Hefner mode. We met John & Debby at the pool area. I brought my laptop and we discussed and plotted the ride and places to visit for tomorrow. With that done we moved to the grille where John cooked the steaks and potatoes. It was a great end to the day.
115 miles. Click here for the next day's adventure. |
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