Killing a Few Vacation Days

[RPG]

I had a few vacation days to burn so decided to take my 2004 RT on a trip to visit the Corvette museum in Bowling Green, KY.

Since I live in rural, southern MI, I planned to take as many backroads as possible.

Eastern Indiana was really nice and I stopped at the Cumberland Covered Bridge for a nice break. https://www.showmegrantcounty.com/pl...overed-bridge/

I stopped for the night in Nashville, IN at the Brown County Inn. https://www.browncountyinn.com/
The room was ok, but the food was terrible. The photos on the webpage make it seem like it's chef prepared, but it's mostly bar food, with a microwave heated feel to it. The soup was definitely Campbell's.

Route 135 heading south from Nashville is a delight. Lots of elevation changes, twisties, and mostly predictable, fast sweepers. And almost zero traffic. Highly recommended.

After stopping for gas, I took an incoming projectile that came just over the windscreen and slammed into the collar of my First Gear jacket. It's impact was similar to the meteor that took out the dinosaurs some 65 million years ago. I thought, "this can't be good, that was far too big to be just a regular bug", and a few seconds later I was pulling over and in a mad exercise to remove said jacket, getting stung all over my right abdomen. When I finally extracted the creature, I found a very large bumblebee. Riding a bike is heaven with your collar open, but pleasure is often re-paid with pain.

If you get a chance, stay at the Grand Victorian Inn in Park City, KY, just outside Mammoth Cave. https://www.grandvictorianinnky.com/...ldwin-carroll/

Gary and Karin are wonderful people and Karin took pity on my ordeal and supplied me with high doses of benadryl and ice to ward off the stings. It's a 1905 Victorian style hotel converted to a B&B and offers meals with their own chef. Dinner that night was incredible with Spaghetti Carbonara followed with NY style cheesecake on the menu.

I rode over to Bowling Green the next morning to check out the Corvette museum and loved the people showing up for the Delivery of their new C8 Vette's. The cars are roped off in the lobby and it's great to see the new owner's reactions as they get to pick up their dream car.

The ride home took me over some more KY and IN backroads ,with an evening stop in Muscatatuck Park in North Vernon, IN. http://www.muscatatuckpark.com/history1.php

My old bike ran flawless. I spent the winter checking things out like the clutch, front wheel bearings and paralever bushings. With 113k, and no issues, I did find a leaking clutch slave cylinder, so that was replaced along with the clutch disc (new extended spline), Emerald Island paralever bushings, new front wheel bearings and new Spiegler stainless steel brake and clutch lines. And I finally upgraded to a BMS seat, but was so sad to hear that Rocky had passed. The seat is as good as everyone says. Zero discomfort for long, long days in the saddle.

I still love putting miles on this Oilhead. It has just the right amount of technology and It's still completely comfortable, reliable and presses all the right buttons.

[lawnchairboy]

nice tale, thanks for the pics. 

[wbw6cos]

Looks good.  Nice write up!

[TEWKS]

Got stung not that long ago myself. Worst part is you can smash at the jacket all you want but the sting is still coming! 
 

Didn't know you could pick up your new Vette at the factory. That’s a pretty special thing IMO. 

[RPG]

50 minutes ago, TEWKS said:

Got stung not that long ago myself. Worst part is you can smash at the jacket all you want but the sting is still coming! 
 

Didn't know you could pick up your new Vette at the factory. That’s a pretty special thing IMO. 

you can frantically hit every accessible point on your jacket and that painful retribution is still coming. lol!

 

I think the museum delivery is pretty cool, although it's pretty expensive.

[Lowndes]

Riding my R1100S on a warm day several weeks ago up in the mountains of N GA, had the collar of my jacket open and my little air scoop blowing a nice cool breeze down across my chest making it very pleasant.  It was working just fine until shortly after lunch when it scooped up a bee and sent him down to the middle of my chest in a very foul mood.  The first time he stung me it felt like a red hot nail was stuck in my chest.  Cars going by must have wondered what was going on seeing me beating my chest frantically trying to smush the little bugger.  Didn't work too well, he stung me like a sewing machine down my chest, across my tummy and around my right side where he finally ran out of bullets.  Later I stopped for gas and felt him still crawling, pulled up my jacket and shirt and he fell to the ground.  Yellowjacket.  Smeared his stinging little butt all over the parking lot.  Got to put a bug screen on the air scoop.