Our cannon ball run to Loretta Lynns (long, like all of my reports)

[iroc8210]

This was 2 weekends ago but just got the camera back and have time to write this up...

Thursday evening I drive out to Jonathan's right after work, I go grocery shopping while he's still at work, we meet up at the apartment around 8:30-9pm take showers, pack a duffel bag, carry everything down to the Bunny (VW Rabbit) and head out around 10pm. Jonathan was taking the first leg of driving and I was taking the last. He's used to staying up till 2-3am so I wasn't going to complain. We're talking the first 2 hours and he finally reminds me I have to drive in a few hours, I had been up since 5am, I better sleep. So I go to sleep, well, try to. I was so excited and its one of those things where everytime you're about to go out for good something brings you back and wakes you up. So now we're somewhere between Indy and Louisville and I give up, sit back up in the seat and Jonathan goes "Good, I'm getting tired and its your turn to drive". Dang it...ok. So I chug along and soon enough we're in Louisville, I'm wide awake talking and Jonathan is trying to sleep. I shut up and just let him sleep. There's something very enjoyable about sharing the dark hilly roads with only truckers and the occasional car. Its black out, but I can still see silhouettes of mountains to my left and right as the road carves through the middle. Driving down 65 through KY I see signs for things like the Bourbon Trail, Mammoth Caves National Park, Dinosaur World, all kinds of neat things that I didn't realize I was going to be driving by. Driving Driving Driving, listening to everything from Bob Segar to Jimmy Buffet, to Brad Paisley cycling through Jonathan's iPod. Yay, Nashville! Take a right at Nashville! It was soooooo foggy in TN. about 4am I have to stop to pee and stretch my legs and get some caffeine. Back in the Bunny, go, go, go! We get to our exit off the highway and there's literally nothing there...just an exit and an old closed gas station. Now I'm on a small 2 lane highway thats super twisty and its so foggy you could cut it with a knife. It was starting to get light out but the fog was just incredible. Suddenly a critter runs into the road! Its a curvy road, its foggy...DON'T SWERVE! I do my best to come to a controlled stop and THUNK...I ran over the possum at about 5-10mph, just enough to see a puff of smoke/steam come out from the passenger front wheel well. I probably stopped right on top of the dang thing...oops. At least I slowed down enough it didn't do any damage to the Bunny.

After some back and forth on a road because the map isn't matching the road signs we're seeing we finally find Loretta Lynn's Ranch! Its 5:45 and the general store doesn't open for another 15 minutes so we just pull in and wait anyhow. We can't get into LL's until 6:30 anyhow. The store finally opens and we order breakfast sandwiches and wait out on the porch talking with 2 locals. Jonathan can correct me but I think it's Loretta's sister's daughter that runs the place (Help me out here)?

Finally pulling into the Ranch and I have to comment...I can now say I have seen the most severe effects gravity and improper bras can have on a woman...I will never forget that. We pull in and start seeing the camping sites and rigs and OMG...this is anything but amatures! I can't believe the craziness I am seeing. Racing didn't start till 7:30am so we drove back to the Ranch and took some pictures and looked around. Then we got our spot on the bleachers near the finish line and got a program and were ready for some racing! The fog was STILL heavy and it even started misting a bit...but not a rain...like, extra heavy fog. I didn't care, if it kept the sun away and kept it cooler I was all for it!

First moto was INSANE- MX Lites A, and the it was MX Lites B-stock which included riders Justin Barcia, Dean Wilson and AJ Catanzaro. I don't know what to say but I think amature racing was so much better than this years Pro Nationals and Redbud and all. Its awesome to watch 2strokes and 4strokes all race together again too. These kids/guys are KILLING these 4T bikes! I can't believe I didn't see one blow up while I was there watching. Noises I have NEVER heard before were coming from those bikes! 3rd or 4th moto of the day was the women's class and I got to see Kristen from WI running. There was quite a big class and some FAST ladies out there! Makes me want to race! Not that I'd be any good, but it just looked fun!

I watched soooooo many motos I'm not even going to try to comment on them all but my next favorite class was Supermini and finally getting to see Eli Tomac race in person. If you've never heard of him before, you will in a few years. He is the next GOAT. We got to see Malcolm Stewart race too (Bubba's little brother) in MX B-Stock and well...while his dad claims he'll be better than James once he gets out of the amatures...he was NOT on his game the 2 motos we watched him in.

By 1-2pm it was soooooo hot we went back to the car, and ran it with the AC on the whole intermission to try to cool down and rehydrate. Those guys who can actually compete in those conditions get a huge round of applause from me. I'd probably be puking after 1 lap. We watch more motos in the afternoon and then head back for the hotel, we're both EXHAUSTED and I had been up for about 36hrs. Drive back to Dickson to the Ramada, get our room, get Sonic for the first time in my life and go to bed watching the x-games.

Bright and early Saturday morning...we're up and getting gas and head to Waffle House for breakfast before getting to the track. Very little fog today...that just tells me its going to be a scorcher. It was. Just standing there you can feel the sweat dripping down your chest and funneled between your boobs to make that spot on your shirt...you girls know what I'm talking about! More great motos, more Eli, more Barcia, Picone, and other amature greats battling like warriors. Racing wrapped up about 3:30ish and we decided to just start heading north instead of staying in Dickson again.

The track was BEAUTIFUL!

My drink at 9:30-10am

Jonathan's drink at 9:30-10am

The starts were INSANE! It was crazy how tight everyone was the first couple laps

Start Gate

Video of a MX Lites C class start

http://good-times.webshots.com/video/3005968040036727308cDSKLj

Amature...huh?

Water Trucks

Us...

[crfrider189]

looks like a lot of fun!

[iroc8210]

Jonathan asks "what do you want to do?" I get a stupid grin on my face like it was santa asking me what I wanted for christmas... "GO TO MAMMOTH CAVES NATIONAL PARK!" I guess I'm a nerd ? Ok OK...look up hotels and info and I'll start driving that way. Wow I thought to myself...that was easy. We drive up to Park City, KY and get a room at the Best Western. It seems to be a tourist trap type city with all kinds of putt-putt golf places, Dino world, anything to make a dime...and I think the biggest thing in the town was the Cracker Barrel. We take showers and head out for food and end up at ROsie's for some BBQ...it was interesting to say the least. I feel like I'm talking too much here so I'm sparing details but if anyone wants to know more about the japanese guys at Rosies just let me know haha. Back to the hotel in the biggest bed in the world and Jonathan is playing on his iphone looking things up about the Bourbon Trail and I had our cave tour all picked out for the next day.

Rise and shine! We get up and out to Mammoth Caves National Park and the first tour of the day that I wanted was already sold out so I get tickets for the next one 1:45 later. I started to see that Jonathan wasn't nearly as excited about this as I was. I'm having flashbacks to the time I tried to get him to hike up the SLeeping Bear Dunes with me...this might not be good. We take off in the car and drive around some fun county roads and then head back into the park to look at another area. Jonathan suggests doing a little .6 mile hike to a scenic outlook...uhm, ok. I was kind of surprised but he wasn't excited about all the time we had to waste and didn't want to just sit around. Trail starts out easy, then we're climbing down down down down...when you go down, you have to go back up...then we start going up a bit and we arrive at the scenic outlook to the green river. On our way back we see 2 fawns hanging out just watching us, laying in the grass. They had to have been there when we walked by the first time but we didn't see them! So back to the car...the down down down turned into the Up Up Up and I was getting the stares of death over his shoulder as he walked in front of me in jeans and a black polo...ooops...sleeping bear dunes all over again. Not his idea of vacation. We get back to the car and head back to the main center where you leave for the tour, seeing more fawns all over the place. FINALLY, TOUR TIME...we get down to the caves being herded like cattle, not my kind of fun. Then we hang back and let everyone go in front so no one is pushing us and not getting annoyed by ill behaved kids. We did the Historic Tour but didn't take a camera. I don't think the pics would've turned out down there anyhow. Its very dark...duh...caves. As we approach the entrance to the cave you can just feel a rush of cold air, it was really really strange. The caves were really neat, though I thought I was going to get to see some stalactites or something, but not in this section of the caves. We walked a few miles under ground and I think they said we went down almost 200 feet from the surface? Maybe it was more like 300, dang it I don't remember. But you go through everything from giant caverns to Fat Man's Misery which is about 36" or less at the hips. The park guide stops along the way explaining things and history of the areas of the cave including its role in the war of 1812 and others. As you climb back out of the cave you get hit with this rush of what smelled like o-zone! Like those those ozone air purifiers...it was really really strange!

Hopped across the trail on our hike...

The Scenic Outlook

Someone's not thrilled about having to go back Up Up Up...

One of the fawns got up to stretch

As soon as we are done we jump in the car and head to Jonathan's destination...the Jim Beam Distillery. It was about an hours drive there and it was a SUnday so we couldn't buy or sample anything but it was still really neat to see and learn about. Anyone else know the difference between whiskey, kentucky bourbon, and scotch? All bourbon is whiskey but not all whiskey is bourbon!We didn't realize somewhere in there the time changed on us so we thought we had about 2 hrs and we really had less than 1. In fact we had to convince the store owner to re-open the cash register for us to get some souviners, luckily they did! The grounds of the distillery were really neat and had it not been a Sunday I'm sure you could spend a few hours there. We're really interested in going back and going to a few more stops on the Bouron Trail. The history behind the families and the distilleries is very very intriguing. The lady at the store does tip us off that some of the Liquor World's have limited Beam stuff and you can buy on Sundays, so we bust up to Louisville to see what we can find. They didnt have all that we wanted...well...anything that we REALLY wanted but we got some new things to try and it was a LOT cheaper than in MI. Oh, and in KY they have to-go slushi daquaries and margaritas in the liquor stores! Just can't put your straw in until you've reached your final destination! How awesome is that hahaha. So we head back towards home, stop at a Ruby Tuesday's for dinner and then chug-a-lug allllll the way back to home...we pulled in around 11:30pm.

Pulling into Jim Beam

Store

Sign explaining mold all over the buildings

Jonathan day dreaming about what it would've been like to run moonshine with his ancestors back in the day...

JB Fire Truck...I think its still used for parades and such

Some grapes growing on the property

Beam Logo on the shutters of the Beam house

"I think I belong here"

What an awesome trip.

[Plushpuppy]

you know, it's really eerie--the likeness of the two rocking chair dudes ? guess it's your chance to see the future, bwahaha! glad you had a great trip!

[iroc8210]

you know, it's really eerie--the likeness of the two rocking chair dudes ? guess it's your chance to see the future, bwahaha! glad you had a great trip!

LOL, I never looked at those two pics next to one another till just now...Jonathan's dog is a lot bigger tho...just a ratio game...big man little dog, little man (not really, just for comparison) big dog...close in ratios!

[iroc8210]

P.S. Here is the link to the whole album...theres like 100 pictures in it (not saying they're all good) ?

http://good-times.webshots.com/album/565415997AmNlbQ?vhost=good-times

[657pinkKTM]

is that your little GTI? or is that a rabbit? my dad has a silver GTI that i learned to drive in.

it looks like you guys had a TON of fun!

[657pinkKTM]

Lites B-stock which included riders Justin Barcia, Dean Wilson and AJ Catanzaro.

oh yeah, they are local kids, AJ is just....man...wacked up...he was hittin 100' + jumps since hes been on 80s....check his website out. www.fastcatracing.com him and my boyfriend don't get along at all!

[iroc8210]

is that your little GTI? or is that a rabbit? my dad has a silver GTI that i learned to drive in.

it looks like you guys had a TON of fun!

Its Jackdrinker's Rabbit, manual trans...awesome car for the $, you couldn't ask for more.

[Oxy]

great ride report & pics!

thx for sharin ... >:-)

[GENE426]

Great pics

[jackdrinker48015]

It was Clara Lynn (sissy Lynn), her daughter..

This year was fun but way more stressful than last due to the abundance of golf carts and such, which were governed far better last year...

The caves were ok, but my idea of a vacation is not a tourist trap, group tours and kids...

There was a funny conversation between Cori and I...

She asked if I ever do anything without drinking... My reply, " I go to work"..

Guess you had to witness it.

Th Beam distillery to me was magic, not because I drink it... But the history and dedication. My whole family is from the south and my great uncle was killed by the law running moonshine across the Tennessee river in the 40's...

This type of history is so fascinating to me because of the dedication and pride.

I brought home a few pints of Bourbon, a few we cant purchase in Michigan.

They were a Woodford Select, Buffalo Trace, Jim Beam Black and a Makers Mark.

It was a fun trip and plans made a day before we left, it was wicked hot.. I love the heat and nasty humidity so I was at home.. There was something surreal about hearing loretta Lynn "Portland Oregon" at 7:15am on the ranch waiting for the moto's to start...

[mxdirtdiva]

Great photos and report! I miss taking being able to off like that with my hub. Won't be doing that again till my kids are older. Is that the same Kristin blndebmbr got her bike from? I think you need to get Jonathan a rocker like that, suits him well... haha. LOVE that vintage fire truck too, very cool!

[blndebmbr]

Very cool report. Thanks so much for sharing. I want to go next year.

[iroc8210]

Great photos and report! I miss taking being able to off like that with my hub. Won't be doing that again till my kids are older. Is that the same Kristin blndebmbr got her bike from? I think you need to get Jonathan a rocker like that, suits him well... haha. LOVE that vintage fire truck too, very cool!

Yep, same Kristen! Unfortunately the 3rd moto wasn't her best but I still saw her out there kicking some butt.

[HeidiB]

That was a great report Cori. I really enjoyed it and the great pictures. Sounds like an awesome time.

[DRZCatastrophe]

Yeah, you can't buy alcohol in KY on Sundays. They lock it up in the Stores on the "Holy" day too. Craziness. Always found it funny to see the liquor locked up and chained. The drive thru liquor places made up for it though.

I understand too that Bourbon County is a dry as well, which is crazy since that is the birthplace of the yummy stuff. Ok well, apparently THAT is a myth...sorry! http://www.parisky.com/funfacts.html

[jackdrinker48015]

Yeah, you can't buy alcohol in KY on Sundays. They lock it up in the Stores on the "Holy" day too. Craziness. Always found it funny to see the liquor locked up and chained. The drive thru liquor places made up for it though.

I understand too that Bourbon County is a dry as well, which is crazy since that is the birthplace of the yummy stuff. Ok well, apparently THAT is a myth...sorry! http://www.parisky.com/funfacts.html

Not all of KY.. We bought our goods in Louisville on Sunday.

[DRZCatastrophe]

Not all of KY.. We bought our goods in Louisville on Sunday.

I remember we could still buy drinks on Sunday in Lexington if we were dining in a restaraunt. Don't ask me why, when 20 min down the road the alcohol section in Kroger was locked up tighter than Ft. Knox.