We took us a little motorcycle ride this past Sunday.......we took off about 8:30am on a perfectly beautiful sunny early autumn morning. I was so excited to find that I could fit into some black combat boots that Alyssa had left in her closet! I felt like a total bad biker babe!!! I know they are just silly boots....but MAN oh MAN did they give me some sassy attitude! Hahaha!!! I even smeared on some black eyeliner before we left home....and I felt like I was one mean woman to be reckoned with! (Because biker boots and black eyeliner can do wonders for your self-esteem, ya know!)
The sun was shining bright and the sky was clear-blue with nary a cloud to mar the perfection! There was a chill in the air that made it necessary to wear a light jacket underneath our gear and once we got going pretty good, the wind was chilly, but not unpleasant. We mapped out a route, headed north-east from our house. We traveled through Nollensville, through Smyrna, through Mount Juliet, on up through Wilson County to Trousdale County and up through Hartsville and on to Red Boiling Springs, TN. We stopped just outside Nollensville at a McDonalds long enough for Steve to eat a biscuit and I enjoyed a glorious cup of steaming hot coffee (I had my usual handful of almonds for breakfast before we left home). After we had full and happy tummies, we geared back up and headed back on the road with smiles and sunshine on our faces. The morning rides are some of my favorite....I love the world when it's just waking up...before the cares of the day smudge the edges. I love the way the dew sparkles on the grass and the way it smells fresh and clean. I love the sound of lawn mowers and seeing giant bales of hay...evenly spaced in fields. I love the way the little ponds and lakes we pass have faint wisps of steam on their glassy smooth surfaces.
On this trip, we saw lots of tobacco fields. Giant green leafs...some of them turning yellow in the field.....the fields always have the one or two tall wooden barns and if you look back through the doorways and loft windows, you can see the tobacco hanging from the rafters to dry and cure.....these drying leaves have turned that rich, chocolaty brown color already. I never realized that there were so many tobacco fields in Tennessee. I was used to seeing them in North Carolina when we lived there. I remember my grandfather telling me that he grew up in Middle Tennessee and that they grew their own tobacco....seeing the tobacco fields reminded me a lot of him....and made me smile.
We saw lots of fields ready for haying and some already baled. We saw fields with gardens with late harvests of tomatoes, okra and what-not....and even a couple of giant pumpkin patches! I love seeing the apple trees...branches bending low under the weight of the ripe fruit. I would love to spend an afternoon picking apples again! Maybe later this fall.
I noticed a lot of what we would call 'Trailer Parks'....but they are no longer called mere trailer parks. The signs we saw proclaimed that these are now called "Manufactured Mobile Home Communities." Live and learn. I guess "Trailer Parks" have gotten a bad rap in the last few years. We lived in a trailer when I was a little girl.....excuse me, a Manufactured Mobile Home. Ain't no shame in that!
We made it to Red Boiling Springs just before noon and toured the Cyclemos Motorcycle Museum...which was mostly a retail establishment. They were having some sort of festival...but it wasn't all that festive. And we were the only NON-CRUISER bike within miles and miles. Nobody was ugly, but they weren't overly friendly either. It was an interesting group, to say the least. There was one fella who was just wandering around aimlessly....he looked like a cross between Santa Claus, The Grateful Dead, HillyBilly-Bob and a Hobo. He was shirtless and shoeless and had a scraggly white beard. Quite the character, he was. He was drinking his PBR from a Koozie-covered can and if his staggering gait didn't give him away, his glazed eyes would have. Like I said, it was an interesting crowd. We looked around in the store/museum and I found a nice pink hat for only $1.99. And I had a raging case of helmet hair....so I thought the hat was a bargain! I will now have a nice pink hat to wear on our rides! :) After paying for my hat, we walked down the road a bit, following a little stream (that was more or less a wide ditch) and we saw a Bed and Breakfast/Spa that offered spa treatments and hot mineral baths. We didn't indulge.
After we'd seen what we wanted to see of Red Boiling Springs, we geared back up and headed towards Carthage, TN. By this time, our tummies were grumbbley and we started looking for a place to get a bite to eat. On these kinds of trips, we usually try to make a point of finding a local spot to eat instead of a restaurant chain. We stopped at a place called "The Timberloft" in Gordonsville, TN, just off I-40. The food was excellent and the service was good. I ordered Pulled Pork Nachos and Steve got a half rack of ribs and fixins. The only flub was that I ordered unsweet tea and Steve ordered sweet tea...and our waitress mixed them up....so I dumped a couple packets of Splenda into my glass, before realizing I had Steve's glass of sweet tea. Then it was REALLY sweet tea. The waitress brought him another glass and I added Splenda to my own tea and all was good. :) It was sort of a surreal experience eating there......we were seated in the bar area....complete with rows of liquor bottles lined up along the back wall on shelves, draft tap pulls and neon beer signs......but it was Sunday in a small town....so they were BLARING some Christian music over the loud speakers. I was happily singing along with Micheal W. Smith and Phillips Craig and Dean and even some old-school Twila Paris. It just seemed weird to hear that music playing in the bar. It was nice though....in an oddly comforting way.
We both had full tummies when we geared up again for the ride home.....we took I-40 up one exit and then hit the back roads again.....going through Smyrna before hitting 840 and turning towards home. It was a long ride....almost 7 hours on the bike...and by the time we got home, my hips sure were complaining about being seated for that long....but I thoroughly enjoyed the morning. I am turning into a total Motorcycle-Momma! Complete with Bad Black Boots, Black eyeliner and a totally kick-butt attitude!! Hahahaha!!! The best part? I got to spend 7 hours holding on tight to my amazing man....which is honestly and truly not a bad way to spend the day!
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