Let’s get this straight–I love riding a motorcycle, but riding with a buddy is better than riding solo.  And riding solo on the Interstate is at the bottom of my favorite ride list.  But Andy is home, and I wake up in Georgetown, KY, home of Georgetown College and Toyota Camry.  Great exit with lots of motels and restaurants.  I got up late, ate breakfast at 8:00 and was on the road with a full tank at 9:00 AM.  I lasted until London, KY; that was all I could take. 

I began to think of the days when I was selling World Book and drove a loop up 27 to Somerset, accross on 80 to London, and back down I-75 to Maryville, then home to the office and to Chatty and back with the orders I had picked up.  I did this for about 4 years every Tuesday.  So I know the way.  The memories seemed better and better the farther I went down the Interstate.  So I did it.

Does anyone remember playing the card game Touring as a child?  I do.  Two of the cards are London, KY and Somerset, KY.  Hwy 80 was great; sunshine, staight but hilly roadway, and smooth sailing on a Sunday morning with no traffic.  Better–much better.  I stopped in Burnside below Somerset to take the pix of the Burnside marina.  In the 1980’s this was where Someset Houseboats were manufactured.  Big, beautiful houseboats all over the place.  But I asked, and found that the economy shut the manufacturing down.  The Cumberland River, however, still has many big houseboats located at this marina.

Bear with me a moment longer on my trip down Hwy 27 memory lane.  I had a district sales manager who lived in Sunbright, TN just below Onieda, TN.  My most vivid memory of Sunbright was the ‘Library.’  It was in this building on a curve in the road as you go North on 27:

I guess they have a new library now; this building was empty.  On down the road I stopped two places in Harriman, TN.  This was a place where I used to recruit new sales people using a room in the old City Hall Building.  It has this plaque out front declaring Harriman to be a utopian city free from ‘demon rum.’

Here is a shot of the whole building.  I spent many days there in the corner room on the left interviewing prospects.

Just down the road, still in Harriman, is a church, West Hills Presbyterian, where I agreed to do pulpit  supply for a month one summer in the 1970’s.  14 months later I told them that they needed to find a permanent pastor (they had stopped looking).  It was great, but it was not the best thing for the church just to have a speaker on Sunday and no pastor.  Here is the church.

Forty miles later I was home.  Four pix here.  My bike at the new entrance to Bryan College, my alma mater and part-time employer; the famous courthouse in Dayton, TN, the home of the Scopes trial; the statue of William Jennings Bryan on the courthouse lawn; and my bike parked in front of our house.  It is good to be home.  Thank you Lord for safety, for best friends, and for home.