NASHVILLE ROAD KILL RIDE IN

The Nashville Road Kill Ride In is a group of trike owners and their wives that frequent the GL1800riders.com forum.  They meet once a year for a meet and greet and eat.  Many friendships have been established over the years and it is great to meet and see each other face to face.  Neither Judy nor I have attended one of these ride- ins.   However, I have been a member of this forum and frequented the GL1800 site almost every day.  I do not post many post nor reply very often but have learned who many of the people on the board are.  We decided to attend this year and finally put faces to names.

One of the members, Johnny (aka) Iowastroker, posted on the board and asked if anyone wanted to caravan, or trikeavan as he put it, down to Nashville.  We replied that we would be interested and decided to meet he and his lovely wife Ruthie at Mt. Vernon, IL.  What a wonderful couple.  What is not to like about these two.  They immediately took us under their wings and made our weekend so special.

We decided to take our Hannigan trailer to Nashville since we would be staying in a motel.  I hooked up the trailer to the bike and locked the padlock so no one would steal our trailer on the way down.  Someone, no names need mentioning here,  forgot to bring the key to unlock the trailer from the trike so I had to call in a very expensive locksmith.  He even had a security detail with him.

 

With his expertise, we were able to unhook our trailer and leave it at the hotel so we wouldn’t have to take it with us everywhere we went.  Many thanks to Johnny for getting us out of a bind.

Our supper road trip on Thursday night was to Famous Daves.  I always have liked that restaurant.

Good food and good fellowship.

After supper, Randall, one of the fine gentlemen who put this trip together, called for a special meeting and he laid out the plans for the weekend.

After the meeting, it was back to the hotel for a early to bed for most of the riders who had traveled great distances that day.

FRIDAY

After a great nights sleep, what better thing to do than eat and talk some.

After breakfast, it was outside for some of the guys to lie and tell stories.

Today, we were going to ride to a little town called Bell Buckle.  It has some antique shops and a nice restaurant.  We split all of the riders into two groups so we wouldn’t have any problem getting through the city traffic.  We were to meet up with the other group at a service station and from there, continue on to the town of Bell Buckle.  Here we are leaving the hotel.

We experienced some great riding and beautiful countryside.

Once we all met up, we took over a service station lot where we met up with Randall, Tammy(i), Wheels, Nancy, and I believe Robeth.  From here, we traveled as one group.

I love old barns.

Once we got to Bell Buckle, some of us were under the impression that we were going to eat lunch there.  6 of us went on into the cafe, sat down and ordered our meal.  Johnny, our new friend from Colorado, saw several advertisings about R C Cola and Moon Pies.  Since he had never eaten a Moon Pie before, he decided to order one before his meal.  This picture shows it all.

Our meals arrived and were delicious.  After we finished eating, we kept looking for the rest of the group to enter and have their meals.  When we got up to pay for our meals, we looked outside and all of the other members had mounted up on their trikes and were getting ready to head out of town.  Evidently, there was some misunderstanding and we were going to eat at Lynchburg, home of Jack Daniels.  They all left without us,  but our kind and precious friend, Jim, aka Wheels, stayed around to show us how to get to Lynchburg.  As soon as we were off of the bike, it started a downpour so we were not able to get many pictures of the town. Here are a few scenes of that wonderful little town.

As soon as we arrived, the heavens opened up and we all had to head for stores and overhead awnings to get out of the rain.  About an hour later, we divided up into two groups and mounted up for the return trip back to the hotel.  The county that Lynchburg is in is supposed to be dry but you couldn’t tell it by what we encountered on the way back. Ed was our leader for the trip home and he took us on some lovely winding and picturesque roads.  If it wasn’t for the fact that it was so hot, it would have been absolutely perfect.

The heat was unbearable on the way back so most everyone crashed in their rooms when arriving back at the hotel.  Our group was scheduled to eat at a restaurant that evening called The  Cock of the Walk .  At our scheduled time, we mounted up and headed out.  Our resident traffic director was in charge of counting the bikes and making sure that they all got out of the lot.

Meanwhile, his lovely and patient wife, Ruthie,  sat patiently on their trusted steed.

Supper this evening consisted of fried fish and fried chicken.  They brought it in by the plateful.

As we were exiting the restaurant, we noticed this huge rocking chair.  So being the children that we are, we climbed in for a photo opt.  It was not as easy as it looks to climb into that monster.

We all made it safely back home to the hotel.  Many stayed up and talked. I had the privilege to spend some time with Doc and learn about his life.  What a delightful gentleman.  I hope that I am as active as he is when I get his age.

SATURDAY

Doc and I in front of the hotel.

Early morning view of parking lot.

My wife saw me getting a picture taken with Doc and she wanted in on the fun.

Then Johnny joined in.

Judy and I finally got to meet Jim, aka Wheels, and his lovely wife Nancy.  Here is Jim, Doc and my wife Judy.

We also had the privilege to meet Jo Jo and his wife Willa.  They are a hoot.  They brought much laughter to the weekend.

Saturday, there were two trips planned and taken by various member.  We were still recovering  from the heat from the day before so we opted to hang around Nashville and go shopping.  Judy wanted to go to the Opry Mills Shopping Center so we went shopping.  Upon entering the mall, we found Phil (Rolling Thunder) waiting patiently while his wife Pat was shopping.  I sent Judy on her way and Phil and I sat in the mall and talked.  What a fantastic guy he is.  I loved hearing his story and visiting with him.

We arrived back at the hotel with just enough time to wash our face and change clothes.  We were scheduled to meet outside at 4:30 for our supper ride.  Of course, Randall had to have another meeting.

Most everyone was spell bound with Randall’s speech and instructions about the ride to supper.  I guess not everyone was spell bound.  I looked over at Jo Jo and saw that he had momentarily checked out.

I guess prior to this weekend, there had never been a group picture taken.  So we all got set up for a group picture.

Unbeknownst to most of us, this was a set up so that some very ornery guys could baptize  Randall.  And baptize him they did.  Jim’s wife, Nancy was the photographer for this event and had everyone looking her way, while a couple of guys got a cooler full of cold water and dumped it on Randall’s head.

Randall’s wife, Tammy was in on it because she walked over to their car afterwards and brought out a clean dry outfit for Randall to put on.  That was sneaky.  Johnny was standing too close to Randall when all of this went down and he got his share also.

I told Johnny that it looked like an inside job.

Our supper ride on Saturday evening was about 45 miles away.  It was at a place called Riverview Cafe.  It overlooked the Cumberland River and had been completely flooded out in 2010.  A new restaurant was built in the place of the old one.  We all sat in an outdoor patio.

Here is Ken and Jane from Robinson IL having a good time.

Overlooking the river.

After supper, several of us decided to go to downtown Nashville to experience the night life.  Randall and Tammy lead us and helped us find parking spaces.  After making sure that we had our bikes parked, Randall, Wheels, and their wives decided to head on back to their home.   Our unelected leaders for the rest of the evening was Ken and his lovely wife Martha.  They, along with Ruthie and Johnny had visited the downtown scene last year.

We visited several establishments and heard many groups singing and playing.  The area was mostly younger people but none of us felt unsafe downtown.  About an hour and a half later, we decided to head back to the hotel with Johnny leading us.  He did a great job directing us through the maze of streets and highways.  When we were starting to exit the highway to our hotel, Johnny got on the CB and said that the guy in front of him in a pickup truck was drunk and weaving all over the road.  Johnny passed him and by this time, the guy started to slow down to almost nothing.  Ken, who is a retired from the police department in Ft. Worth TX put on his 4-way flashers and pulled along side of him and told him to pull over.  The drunk thought Ken was a real policeman and pulled over.  Ken’s police training went into automatic mode and he got the drunk out of his pickup and had him at the back while calling 911 and asking them to send a squad car.  He sure made it  look easy.  Meanwhile, his wife Martha acted like it was just business as usual.  She was calm and collected.  Ken assured us that they would be alright and that they would wait until  the squad car arrived.  Judy and I rode on to the hotel.  A very short while later, Ken and Martha arrived.  We sat around and visited for a while then off to bed we went.

SUNDAY

Judy and I had originally planned on getting on the road around 7:00 to 8:00 but since we didn’t get to sleep until almost midnight, we had a hard time rising.  We finally got up around 8:00 and started packing the trailer.  After packing the trailer, we went back inside to eat breakfast  and fellowship some more.  As we were outside talking, I noticed something on Missouri Charlie’s seat of his trike.

It looked as if someone had given him a birthday present.  Or maybe it was an early Christmas present.

Johnny and Ruthie from Colorado and Al and Ed from Minnesota, allowed us the privilege to ride with them part way back home.  They turned off on I-64 in Illinois and Judy and I continued on up I-57 to our home.  Before we parted ways, we stopped and ate lunch at Steak and Shake in Mt. Vernon IL.

We had some good eats and great fellowship.  It was hard leaving these new friends that we had made but look forward to seeing them next year.  One parting picture was of Ruthie and Judy.  While looking at this picture, I realized just how lucky Johnny and I are to be married to these beautiful ladies.

In closing, Judy and I both were a little apprehensive about attending this event since we did not know anyone and weren’t quite sure what it would be like.  But after attending,  we both felt sad leaving  because we had so much fun and met so many wonderful people.  We were all pulled together by a machine that is mostly steel and plastic and rubber.  Yet, as it turned out, it wasn’t so much the machine or trike, it was the people.  People just like us who had families, jobs, homes and stories to tell.  People who were willing to accept us and take us into their lives for a weekend and make us feel as if we were part of their family.  We hope that we can attend again next year so that we can step up to the plate and extend that friendship to someone new next year.