We left Cherokee and made a beautiful drive through Smokey Mountain National Park on the way to my Brothers house in Bowling Green, Ky. I was truly amazed at the amount of traffic in the park but understand as the foliage peepers were out in force. Went to Smokey Bones BBQ for dinner, it was terrific.
Friday was low key and laid back. Bob worked and we did a little shopping, then chilled as the weather was less than desirable.
Sat we spent a good part of the day watching college football before we went out and got the GRAND tour of the Western Kentucky basketball inner sanctum. All I can say is WOW. These kids have it made. The facilities are unbelievable. massive "man-cave leather recliners in the film room. A weight room the pros would be happy to have. 24 hours access to 3 different cafeterias and the gym to shoot hoops or watch film.
Once the tour was done, we went to the WKS home coming football game with tickets near mid field in theater style seats while the rest of the stadium was on steel benches.
Sunday was more campus tours and a great sports bar so I could watch the 9ers choke again.
Monday was a lot of two lane country backroads through Ky and into Mo where we would meet up with long times friends from motorcycle travels. Since it was a short day we arrived by lunch time and had a great day and evening with our friends before turning west on Tue.
Tue was more two lane backroads through Mo until we ended up in Springfield for the night. Colors were a combination of brilliant and muted as it looked like some had peaked last week and some were peaking now. I was surprised by the size of the rolling hills as we worked through the state. Drove through parts of the Mark twain National Forest.
Wed we moved further west and in Kansas. We landed in Kinsley, Ks for the night with the target for tomorrow being Alamosa, Co. Fri we will stop in Durango and spend the weekend with Deb's sister and her husband before moving on. I will report again during the Durango stop.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Image
We departed Blue Jay Campsites about 9 this morning continuing our drive through the Adirondack Park. Saranac Lake is the first place we come too and then Lake Placid, home of the US winter Olympics. We then took 9n to hwy 22 and south to Ticonderoga. Back in 2006 Deb and I rode motorcycles into Ticonderoga, with friends from Reno, and stayed at the Stone House Motel, next door to a house once occupied by Benjamin Franklin. We did not remember any of this however until totally by coincidence we stopped across the street from that very same motel. Throughout the early part of day, we rode through the mountains of the park watching as various trees showed the beginning of amazing colors changes. It was generally overcast so the colors were dulled slightly for lack of the blue sky to reflect against. We continued south on 9n to Lake George before we exited the park and continued to ride through the rolling hills and farm lands of New York. We were not allowed to leave ...
Read more
Image
The National Museum of the Marine Corp was amazing. Really well laid out with numerous docents to answer questions. Telling the history of the Corp from the late 1700's complete with authentic weapons and sabers. We spent 3 hours and could have easily spent 3 more. Mon we left and headed for Shenandoah NP. 105 miles with 75 turn outs. We stopped at maybe 50-60 of them. Such a pretty day with such inspiring vistas across many miles. A very nice map in the visitors center highlighted many of the points of interest. We can see the color is trying and it is certainly better here than the last couple days. Mostly a tree here, a tree there but it is easy to see what the blanket would look like if timed correctly. We had one stop with a sign detailing what the ridges were. The first mountain was 10 miles away and the furthermost ridge was the Appalachians and that was 35 miles away. The most colorful tree and a couple pictures to close. Tue is leg...
Read more
Image
We spent Wed night in Kinsley, Ks and got an early start as we continued west on secondary highways. Two lane roads and few if any trucks. While there wasn't nearly as much color as earlier we discovered it wasn't completely gone. We want to get to Alamosa, Co so we will have a short drive into Durango. That of course means we are going to be headed into the mountains. The mountains in the distance all showed the recent snows, but the roads are clear and the sky in blue. Really a beautiful drive though different than what we had been looking at. All the snow appears to have landed on the eastern slopes of the mountains and as we went through the pass and started down the other side we noticed a significantly lesser amount on the ground. We ended the day at the Base Camp Campgrounds a newer campground that will be very nice when the trees mature. We arose Fri morning to temps in the teens. Fortunately we are not in a hurry as the day is only 150 miles to a...
Read more