2nd Saturday

How our day begins, always!

2nd Saturday dawned early again.  Not AS early as the previous day, though :)  Our goal destination was Bell Buckle, TN to the RC Cola and Moonpie festival!  Who even knew that was a thing?  Now we do!  Bell Buckle is southwest, towards Murfreesboro and not far outside Nashville.  Now, you'd think since it's in the same state that it's not that far, but it's a solid 3 hour and change ride for us.  Of course, that's taking mostly interstate, and in a cage which can be filled up once and done.  My SIL and FIL came to the house on Friday to stay over so she could drive the boys to the festival.  We would have had to taken 2 cars regardless since there was 6 of us, so David and I took the bikes!  No rain in the forecast, why not?

We set out due west on our freshly gassed up bikes and our still tender rears feeling refreshed from a good night's sleep and a cold shower.  We took Hwy 60 most of the way there, and it was actually really fun!  No rain this time, and the road is an interesting mix of higher speed straightaways and tight curvy 35 mph sections.  David and I dug in on the curves and twisted those throttles with sheer abandon, leaving the boys (and my beautiful SIL) in the dust!  As we thundered closer to the tiny town square, the GPS sent us down some small back roads which were GREAT.  Some gravel to be leery of, but we always ride with heads on a swivel, and eyes on every possible obstacle.  I was still feeling wonderful, eons more comfortable, feeling very much 'back to normal'.  As we entered the town square, Khaleesi's fan turned on and blew a whined protest of hot air on me as we rode in FIRST GEAR behind a line of traffic.  She does NOT care for slow speeds on a hot day.

We found a church parking lot to duck into and I patted myself on the back for packing a change of clothes in the SIL's car.  Um, that was until I attempted to change in the car, lol!  I exchanged my jeans for yoga capris that was having a VERY hard time pulling over my sweaty legs :D  Oops.  Got them pulled up enough to be decent, slid on my flip flops, then got out of the car so I could do the "yank up your pants to proper positioning" dance.  We were sporting our new Dri Fit IMRG T's, so that part was great.  Exchanged the helmet for a ball cap and off we went!

The festival was cute.  But it was too dang hot ... and there were a LOT of people crammed into a tight place.  The moonpies were melting, and I didn't even want an RC Cola, I wanted ice water.  We will DEFINITELY ride the bikes back to Bell Buckle in the future, but I don't think we'd do the festival again unless it moved to late Fall.  We decided to leave and head towards Chattanooga since the MIL had met us at the festival, and that was the way she needed to go to head back home to GA.  What's convenient to Chattanooga and Bell Buckle?  Lynchburg!  What's in Lynchburg?  The Jack Daniel's Distillery!

I made a last minute decision to leave on the yoga pants, and changed my flip flops for my boots.  I was glad I'd decided to wear the tall boots!  And no, there's no photographic proof!  Topped my T shirt with a 1/4 zip SUPER light weight LS shirt; it's just less heavy than the mesh jacket and allows more air on such a hot, humid day.  I know the LS wouldn't provide much more protection than a T shirt, but my goal was not to get sunburned.  I was wearing my Fox ATV gloves that are 20 years old b/c my motorcycle gloves I got a few months ago are useless in weather that's too cold or too hot; the temps have to be between 65-75 to ride comfortably in those.  The ATV gloves are very comfortable in high temps; they're just old and falling apart w/ not as much cushioning on my knuckles to absorb the vibrations of the throttle.  I'd rather my hands breathe though, so there it was!

We made our way out to Lynchburg.  BEAUTIFUL town!  You could probably talk me into living there, it's very peaceful.  The distillery smelled awful, though!  I'm not sure what it was.  David and I were STOKED to get motorcycle parking right up front.  We walked through the museum for free; we couldn't do any of the tours because of 2 underage children!  That was fine though, we were just there to visit the place b/c it's a Tennessee icon.  I've actually never even tried so much as a single shot of JD; it just smells nasty lol :D  We were getting hungry by this point; our appetites had been fairly low just due to the HEAT.  We opted to hop on the Interstate for the fastest route to Chattanooga, and wouldn't you know the skies would open up and God would rain down a massive thunderstorm?  We darted off to sit under an awning for a few minutes, then just decided to go on.  I was uncomfortable; riding in the rain is not my favorite thing.  We pulled the face shields down and went with it.  Some areas of the interstate had huge puddles of water, so we just navigated carefully through those.  Soon enough, the rain stopped and by the time we arrived in downtown, we were completely dry.  It's amazing how that hot sun will suck the wet right out of ya!

OK, so maybe there IS photographic evidence, lolol!

Switched back to my flipflops in the parking lot, and we ate at Puckett's.  Very good food, they talked us into their drink of the day.  It was sooooo good, smelled way better than whiskey!  We walked for a few minutes over to the little water areas in front of the aquarium, just enjoying our family time.  The boys got in and got a little wet; I was SO grateful to have the chance to spend time with my family AND ride the bikes.  Best of both worlds!

Just a boy and his Pawpaw

You can almost see all of us!

My yoga pants were now sweaty and wet from the water, so I changed back into my jeans!  The ride home was a blur; we stayed off the interstate and took back roads up.  Total mileage for the day was 400, making out 2 day total 800ish miles.  That was our biggest yet!  Someday we'll do an epic riding vacation with a few thousand miles, but that will be either after my Scout is set up a little better, or after I get my Chieftan!  Sunday was a quiet day spent at home.  I thank God for blessing our family with the desire and the ability to own/ride motorcycles.  I thank my FIL for taking me on my first ride and beginning my addiction!  I especially thank God for the safety on the road, and I pray for His continued blessings in that department.  Looking forward to many, many more adventures on 2 wheels!

How our day ended.  So blessed!