Day Seven of the CCC trip

Dano says:
Well I know I slept like a rock and I woke up feeling great. Time to roust the gang, I open the door and there is Doug, Doug looks at me and says, "Who the f#*k bought this confrontational bastard?", pointing at Nimec. HaHaHa...good times my friends, good times. There was a LOT of trash outside the rooms, it appeared that we all went to bed without cleaning up outside. With a quick sweep of the area and dispensing of the trash, we got ourselves ready. Bikes packed, chains lubed we decided that our agenda today was to see the St. Louis Arch and then off to my pals place in Lexington, Kentucky. We got to downtown St. Louis and found the interstate was detoured....damn. Well we continued on as far as we could and luck had it that we made it to the Arch. Some of the group didn't care to go up in the Arch, but I did. So Leggy, Uncle Dude, Doug and myself took off walking from the parking lot as everyone else stayed with the bikes.





Family resemblance?


The Aussies got a first hand look at the new Chevy Camero,
I like it. We paid our fees and waited to board the tram to the top of the Arch. OMG is that a small capsule, and it seated five people. Not us people, maybe Leeds and Bucket people. The Arch tram is a combination of elevator and tram, it pulls you up and sideways at the same time. There is a funny rocking motion as it goes...what a ride. We four larger than average guys were crammed into a space about the size of the front seat of a Volkswagen Beetle.


Damn it was a small space. So we get to the top and exit like accordions. The feeling of being at 630 feet high and in the inside of the Arch looking out, gave me the feeling of being in an aircraft.
From the look, to the sound of the air conditioner, it made me feel like I was flying. The views were cool and worth the few bucks.


We did the photo shoots and made our way back to the Love Capsule to head out. At the bottom we got a woman attendant to shoot a few pics of us crammed into the capsule. I'm glad that I love these guys as it could have been a little awkward. Back to the bikes we go because now we have lots of miles to Lexington still ahead. We turned out of the parking lot and followed the signs to the interstate. Lets just say that St Louis has horrible road directions and worse road crew people directions. The road crew guys liked our bikes but couldn't direct their way out of a paper bag. And they work for the city road crews, wow. All I want to do is get on that bridge that is over our heads, how do we do that? Scratching their heads and saying "Well the roads have detours, so you have to go this way,....hey Mike/Fred(one of their own people)....how do you get on the 64 east from here?". Thanks guys, We'll figure it out, we made it this far across the country. Two minutes later with a few left hand turns we are screaming over their heads on the 64 east. With the day having moved on faster that normal because of the Arch stop, we were approaching lunchtime. So with people making the universal holding a imaginary burger to the helmet gesture, We spotted a Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant. It was good grub and plenty tasty, I had the boneless wings split in two different sauces. With our bellies full it was time to roll out. The bad thing about eating a large lunch and then riding in the sunshine and nice temperatures, is that you get sleepy. We did a few hundred miles and Chewie rode up next to me and gave the laying your head on the hands sleepy gesture. Ok, time to take a rest break, better safe than sorry. We exited the next available place and as would luck have it there was a new rustic restaurant there.
It had a huge covered patio with benches out front that had our names on them. Chewie stretched out and grabbed some zzz's. After about 15 minutes he got up, I said nope...get back to sleeping, he didn't argue to much. We all took a little nap and then got up maybe 30 minutes later. It was well worth the loss of time to be traveling well rested. As we were about to leave the manager approached us and told us to come in and enjoy some dessert.....damn, OK.
This time I didn't share with Hockey. I got apple pie and a few others tried the Bread pudding with bourbon sauce. Damn it was good too. Ok time to leave now. We made good time the rest of the day only stopping for gas. We got to Louisville,
stopped for gas and I called Gary to tell him where we were and the expected time of arrival. It looked like we were going to hit some rain and we did get a few drops, but we skirted the bulk of it. A little over a hour later we were in Lexington where Gary was waiting for us on the side of the road in a truck. He led us into his casa where we introduced ourselves to my pal. We unloaded and cleaned up as Gary made some mighty TASTY burgers.


As Gary made dinner, his wife Jessica came home and they set out chips and dips for us. Then came the ice chest of cold beers and two bottles of whiskey. One of Crown and another of Woodford Reserve. Wow, that Woodford is some nice whiskey. It is also made right up the road from where we were. We sat outside on the back patio and enjoyed a great dinner with my good pal Gary and wife Jessica. It was a perfect night to sit out and enjoy the outdoor temps and that's just what we did, petting the chocolate lab Bailey and the poodle with the cone on its head. That poodle kept us entertained by himself, what is it about a dog with a plastic cone on its neck that is so funny? Well on to more serious stuff, like the whiskey and drinking. Gary decided to turn it up an notch and walked outside with a Mason quart jar that is 3/4 full of a clear liquid. He sets it on the table.... we can all guess as to what it is. Good ole 'shine. Bucket is the first to pick it up, and we talk him into being the taste tester. He unscrews the top and sniffs it, and wrinkles his face. He reluctantly takes a sip and swallows it down...then he breathes in. Cough, cough....man that warms you up. He takes a second sip and passes it around. Doug takes the jar and two fists the shine. Go man GO. A second or two later he says, "That's FANTASTIC" and goes immediately to round two. Oh no, this don't look good, somebody is going to be comatose soon if they keep drinking that 'shine like that. Doug's eyes were mere slits about 10 minutes later, that 'shine kicked into overdrive and put Doug on easy street. We passed that jar around until it was gone and had a blast doing so. Three bottles of liquor vanished along with a lot of beers, wow another great night with the boys. During the passing of the 'shine jar, someone mentioned something about not wanting the other dudes germs on the jar. Yeah right, that 'shine is a pure disinfectant and kills all the germs. Damn it was tasty, by far the best that I have tasted, it was smooth and almost had a corn hint to it. I don't recall what time we went to bed, but I'm sure it had to do with the liquor being finished off. Gary was awesome and had a few beds, couches and blow up beds for us to sleep on. With everyone settled in, I crashed out upstairs. What a night, every night seems to be getting better.


David says:
We took our time getting on the road so traffic could die down going into St Louis. We got to the arch but I wasn't particularly interested in seeing it so I went across the street to the old courthouse where the Dred Scott case was heard.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dred_Scott_v._Sandford
Much of the old courthouse was being renovated but I still thought it was cool being there. After some confusion and a lot of left and rights that we probably didn't need to make we got to the interstate and started making time. It was getting late and we were pushing hard trying to make it to Lexington So I decided I didn't really have to pee that bad I could possibly hold out till we got there. My plan was flawed from the beginning because not only did I not know where we were going but I had no idea how long it would take to get there. After a while a fart also started brewing but I wasn't relaxing any muscles down there so I just held onto that one too until I hit what felt like a speed bump at 75. My bladder held its own but the fart escaped and felt like it may have brought some solids along for the ride. About that time someone signaled for a bathroom break and we pulled into a rest stop. I took off into that stall fully prepared to sacrifice a pair of boxers and bike shorts minimum. A quick check revealed no need. Sweet. We met Gary on the off ramp and followed him to his house. Gary and his wife Jessica fed us and got us completely hammered. Most of that night is a little blurry. I did have a chance to call Dina that night and tell her for the first time since I had left that we were in the same time zone. It made me feel better because I was missing her pretty bad by this time. Lexington KY 7051 miles so far.

miles traveled for the day=370-380

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