Louisville Kentucky via 2 Wheels

 Louisville, KY .. here we come!  Had more than one person ask if I was Triking it out there after posting this last week >>> 3 Wheels <<< .   Nooooooooooo....    not sure if they were F'ing with me or just didn't actually read that last post... but ...  TWO WHEELS! 

Wrote about the Iron Butt part of this in my CVMA Blog here >>> FTM <<<   When we decided to head out to the CVMA Nationals for 2022, I looked at the "Host Hotel" first but all the rooms were taken.  So, we did a quick head count of whom might go with us and made the decision to get a 2 Bdr Airbnb.  Quick glimpse and I found one down near the epicenter of downtown that looked like a winner.  Figured we could walk to a lot of places or grab an Uber for a short distance as necessary.  Dittels opted in, Kennedy's had a Mexico family trip planned.  Didn't realize how many others would eventually roll in so the small house it was.  Soon after that, Troy and Carrie snagged a big Airbnb that would have over a dozen folks in it.  Actually sounded like a good time to me... but.... unless we got a  King Size Bed, private bath ...not an option.  At this point in my life I'll leave that up to others.  Now, If I'd been traveling alone .. maybe.  But with mama and I, not an option... I'm not sure how many from our chapter traveled out that way .. but a quick count tells me 20+; not bad!  Chief and Cathy were at the Host Hotel, Frank and Carron stayed somewhere off by themselves as did Mario with his family.  The Big Airbnb had all the others... lots of others.

La Casa

Well, last Wednesday we headed out on bikes (just three in my group.); others headed out throughout the week.  Lucy and Holly would fly in Thursday.  Brother Dick and I didn't roll in until after midnight. He'd grabbed a six pack so we threw a few of those back on the front porch of the Airbnb and soaked in the surroundings.  When we rode up ... I was thinking "WTF did I do??".  We'd rode through a ghetto not too far from the house... a train not 75' was rolling down the tracks from our house .. and the home next door was boarded up.  Oh well...   hell to pay when the ladies showed up in the morning I'm thinking!  Well, crashed for a few hours but after about 4 or 5, woke up from my coma, found some coffee grounds and brewed up a pot.  Brother Dick is moving about now and we both head to the front porch to get our wits about us.  Once there, I'm realizing this area is sort of nice, sorta cool.  I knew there were train tracks nearby when I'd booked .... just didn't realize how close.  Across from them is a hidden marketplace that I wouldn't discover until late Friday ...  we're at a dead end of sorts so no car traffic to speak off. Well, we realized a few folks park in front of the homes since it's a public street and walk over to the market place, but ..we always had a place to park the bikes.  We soon realize this house is a winner, completely remodeled, up and coming area, no issues in the neighborhood.  Few hours later the ladies roll up in a cab and we're all in place.  In the meantime, I'd ordered some groceries and adult beverages from Walmart and had them delivered while we were at breakfast at an awesome joint called Big Bad Breakfast.  We'd find it the next day as well. After that we'd snuck out to find some liquor and Prosecco and stumbled across Evergreen Liquor which rocked.  We even pulled up a seat to the bar to drink some 23 yr old Pappy!  But eventually .. gotz to go. With the girls finally here, we load up on the bikes and headed to lunch down the road for some Mexican and yes.. Margaritas!  Food rocked .. drinks rocked ....  back to the house for a lil bit.  Had a scare for for a short period when Brother Dick couldn't find his wallet, but we retraced our steps and as luck would have it the folks at the restaurant had it waiting for him to show; bam!  Well, we're back on our game and off to the Nationals Vendor site to pick up orders and check things out before they sold out (which a few did).  On the way back on a whim we pulled into an nice lil joint in Germantown, met some great folks and a Navy Vet gave us some ideas for the next day's ride; score! After all the food and drinks....   the house is calling our names....  and that front porch.

BBB

Friday we're up and moving.  Back to Bid Bad Breakfast with the girls, but chose to walk it this time; burn off them calories. Once back ... we regroup then on the bikes and headed to the Indian Dealer a few miles north across the state line.  After bitching about lack of merchandise, we head NW to our destination for the day ;  Huber's Orchard and Winery.  This place will turn out to be a gem.  Beautiful ride out there in the country and upon arrival we work our way upstairs for a bourbon tasting.  We thought they only had wine but turns out both and the Bourbon was pretty good; we ended up bringing home several bottles. Eventually you've got to put down the glasses so headed downstairs for some good lunch and relaxation.  In the mean time we'd give a Dick Sammich' to one of the workers whom friggn' loved it... funny shit. She'd even text us later asking us look her up and she's buying next trip..lol .  Well.. back on the bikes and took a diff' way home, lil quicker just as beautiful. We've got a bike night to get to on the East Side of town so take a path to keep us off the Interstate which turned out to be a blessing giving us some great views of the city along the river.  When we pulled up an hour later I have to admit I've never seen anything like it.  The HD dealer was completely swamped with bikes parked (correctly) everywhere, lined up as far as the eye could see, row after row with people in between it all.  Surrounding it were cages and cages and more bikes; crazy!  In this mix are hundreds of Indians and thousands of HDs, with a mix of a few rice burners. We luckily got shuffled into the mix into a few spots and quickly found the rest of our crew wandering down in the maze; had a lil chapter meeting for sorts?  I quickly found the beer tent, grabbed a few and some waters...... and all good.  In a perfect world if we'd had a cooler and some chairs I could have stuck around for hours but not to be.  We're soon headed back to the house where it's a quiet Friday night ....   did I mention how much we liked that front porch? 

Rolling into Bike Night ... pics can't describe it

Saturday is here .. our National Meeting Day.  We're all a lil' tired and not in a hurry.  Hell, we're on our second bottle of mimosas' when I see the time, think 'oh shit!' and we're headed out.  Fifteen minutes later it's almost 0900 start time as we pull into the main parking area into another sea of bikes .. but the good news is .. a lot of folks are still walking in.. we aren't the only late ones.  Find some spots, headed in and we quickly find Dutch standing on a chair waving and guiding us in. Our chapter has seats saved and we're all together.  In a pure stroke of luck, Uplander is down from Michigan and is literally sitting right in front of me...   I'm assuming it was all luck; maybe he saw some 23-11 chapter members?  But I haven't seen him since '15. Hell we was the first Combat Vet I'd ever met and at some level part of the reason I'm here today making me aware of it.  Well, we caught up and soon the room is filled and the meeting starts. I can't describe how crowded the room was... I'm looking at approximately 5,000 members in this room in some level of disbelief.  When I did the '18 meeting we had less than a third and that was huge; this is crazy!   This Association is just shy of 20k active members and it just grows and grows every year. Well, a few hours later, first part of the meeting is over and we're swiping cards for attendance.  Most come back in, few take off... we .. took off!  We headed back to the house, stripped down to something more comfortable with the Chief and Kathy stopping by for a few.  Then we took off walking looking for fun.  We headed next door to the Marketplace finally to hit their bar .... then after an hour or so ventured a few blocks over to a cool Asian bar called Kaiju where they had some Sushi and some items to tide our hunger over for a lil bit. Literally one block from our house is an AMVETS post (Post 1) so we headed over there to check it out. Have to admit, I have NEVER been to one.. go figure!  Needless to say, drinks were cheap (and good), Bar food not bad, folks in there were great (after that great time I joined AMVETS literally just now, as I type this).  Best part, our house was a quick few minutes to get back to.  After some porch time ..... I'm off to zzzzzzzzzz... and ......

........it's time to roll.  It's Sunday morning already.  Girls are headed to the airport so I've got the Bike loaded up and time to roll. No pressure, weather's not bad.... and I'm headed South.  I'll make it almost to TN when the BS begins... again.  I find myself feeling weird as I do sometimes and eventually pull over.  What to do .. what to do ... I know what's happened... we kicked it up again (as always)..... not enough sleep....    didn't hydrate...  .. swore I wouldn't do this again .. but ... here I am .. on the side of the road wondering how this is going to play out.  After about thirty minutes, get back on and head about a dozen miles.  I see a sign for hotels and Hospital .. seems like a smart exit to to me.  I pull up to several hotels but its before noon and after a sold out night prior, no rooms are available.  So I park myself on a park bench in from of Holiday Inn ....   close the eyes and just .. relax.  I'm convinced this isn't a Heart issue now .. but more a 'meds' issue after my last two doc visits.  Still, it's an issue that causes shit.  After about thirty minutes, I've got a guy that's noticed my vest and we're chatting... he's carrying .. notices I am too.. so the conversation goes that way.  He's got something in a small quilted blanket he's carrying around and asks me "what do  you think this is?"   I'm pretty sure I know and simply say 'rifle'.  He's just begging to show it to me so I follow him to his vehicle where he pulls out an older AR-15 and hands it to me (in a correct fashion).  Got to tell you ... for whatever reason .. I'm digging this.  Nice guy, seems intelligent .. and we're just bullshitting with at least 4 guns between us (I've got a .45 in my vest, 9mm on my hip).  Guessing if a anti-gun nut walked by they'd run off screaming?  Well, his kids are inside the hotel so he's headed back in.. .me.. feeling better... so leg over the bike and back down the road.  I'll be on it for the next four hours before I pull over and have to put on rain gear as the sky opens and dumps on me.  I'm passing bikes waiting it out under overpasses ... I know it's less than 50 miles wide on the radar, so I'm rolling.  Got to admit .. I was getting tired so when I saw more hotels shy of Memphis .. pulled the plug.  Found a nicer motel....  grabbed some fast food ... and ... crawled in bed.  It's barely 7pm ... and I'm nodding off... by 8 .. I'm out.

Sometime around 0100 hrs .. eyes are open.  Laying there debating how tired I am and the longer I lay there the more I realize I'm not getting back to sleep ... so ...  F'it... I'm up.   Quick check of weather tells me looks clear .. temps are mid 70s ... we've got a winner.  By 0200 I'm rolling down the interstate with almost zero traffic in Memphis.   I'm soon in Arkansas and miles are blipping by.  Once the sun comes up I grab the throttle and I'm closer to 90mph ....  making time. Only thing stopping me is... I've got the munchies and have "waffle house" on my mind....   As soon as I rolled across the Texas border I spotted one .. .with only two hours to go .. .perfect time.. not worried about a 'food coma' at this point; almost home.  Sitting down to order my waitress asks me what Chapter I'm in .. .hmmmm.. that's a first.  Turns out her boyfriend is deployed and part of 23-14 (well .. she says Tyler)...  Makes for great conversation even when a second waitress asks where I'm from.. turns out she's from Caddo Mills and knows the Fosters... small world. Left a nice tip .. and back on the road.

Two hours later I'm pulling up and it finally hits me .. pull the gear off....   get some pool time... and .. I'm nodding in the recliner.  Pure Exhaustion.  I'm home and so glad to be back in Texas.  Hell... beats the side of the road in south Kentucky wondering ....  "WTF .. here we go again"?

Another awesome trip in the record books ... . Life on 2 wheels .. I love it.  Next year, it's Colorado Springs.... and I can't wait.  Sneaking in some time to ride with Riss on that one.