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TUESDAY
The drizzle was back. It looked like a hit-or-miss all day so we saddled-up and headed down to Webbs for breakfast. What a great treat to find a place to eat that has just down to earth good food. Nancy had the “Not So Big Breakfast”, a couple of eggs, grits and a buttermilk biscuit ($1.50) while I had the more filling “Gap Breakfast”, two eggs, bacon, fried potatoes, biscuit, gravy and a slab of country ham ($5.75). She ate half of my excellent piece of ham. We planned to return on Wednesday and get the advertised special “Free Food Tomorrow”.
Sated we forced ourselves back onto the bikes and headed east on US 58, a four lane slab that we had to take for 26 grueling miles to get to some interesting roads. Nancy has a hard time staying awake on these straight boring highways, but she had a couple cups of Webbs coffee to keep her jolted. We did see a couple of buffalo lazing in one field.
We took the first short-cut available, a left onto VA 899 and then another quick left onto VA 659. This back road passed through some very scenic rural areas with the Cumberland Mountains as a back drop. There are few passes over this step terrain as we would discover on Wednesday. After 8.5 miles we hit US 58A and passed through Ben Hur into Pennington Gap where we spied a strange sign at a gas station, “PMS Football Saturday”. Bet that’s a rough game! Then north onto US 421 which we had heard was a pretty good twisty road.
US 421 had some traffic and nothing spectacular in the way of twisties for the next 24 miles into Harlan, Kentucky, home of the Green Dragons at Harlan County High School.
Harlan County, Kentucky is noted for its OHV trails. We plan to return with our 4-wheelers to explore. SEE MORE http://www.harlancountytrails.com/
At Baxter we missed the left turn onto US 421 and decided to continue on US 119 easterly and make the planned loop backwards. Eight miles later we opted for an interesting super twisty road on the GPS. Turning left KY 522 and heading into Daniel Boone National Forest, we were instantly greeted with a great unmarked mountain road loaded with switch-backs and absolutely no traffic.
We stopped for some photos at a large rock outcropping and then at 3.5 miles took a turn-off marked as a fire tower access. This showed on the GPS as KY 1679 and was one of the most unusual roads we have ever encountered. It was asphalted, but a single lane showing on the maps as connecting back into US 421 some 9 miles distant. We rode it for several miles before turning around. In our neck of the woods a road like this would be gravel and probably a little rutted.
Backtracking to KY 522 we continued north to KY 221. From this intersection KY 221 winds its way northward through the Daniel Boone National Forest. This turned-out to be the best twisting road we had ridden on the trip so far. Some great sweepers and finishing with some really tight curves near the northern end. There were very few houses and no traffic the entire way.
Looking at the map KY 699 looked interesting to the east so we turned right and almost immediately ran into a massive road construction project which had half the mountain torn down where 699 used to twist and turn. There was a really eerie vacant building on the construction bypass …. too scary for us to even stop.
Heading back the other direction 699 turned northerly and proved to be an interesting ride for 16 miles all the way to KY 80 at a place labeled Trouble on our GPS. The ride on 699 did have one drawback; huge coal trucks with little concern for other vehicles as they sped around the mountain roads often taking all of their lane and half of ours. No big deal to us as we like added challenges when we ride.
We hung a left onto KY 80 west bound and got behind a slow pick-up for a couple of miles. He finally pulled over just as we got to the good section. Once again we followed a local driver who knew the road and liked to go the speed limit of 55 or a little better …. and that was plenty fast enough for us as the curves really tightened. KY 80 was even a better road than 221 that we had been on just a half hour earlier.
At US 421 we headed back south. This was a good ride too with very little traffic and some great curves. We stopped at a large mining operation to take some photos of the conveyor belts leading up onto the mountain side and the twisting along the ridge as far as you could see. This Bledsoe Mine had shafts going back into the mountains some 10 miles. The conveyors were actually carrying away the unused part of the operation to a dump miles away. This mine produces 250 million tons of coal a year.
Back on the road we got behind a coal truck and had a little difficulty passing in the twisties. The passing signal given by the truck is the left turn signal flashing. That means if you are really fast you might make it around before the oncoming traffic gets to you.
We turned back to the west on KY 221 and soon saw the approaching thunder storm. The sky was black so we stopped and took precautions. All the cameras, electronics and wallets went in the Givis. We zipped our Aerostitches, tightly sealed the Velcro and closed all the vents. Getting back on the road the sky erupted in the next minute. Lightening blinded us as we prayed for a shelter to pull into. Another half mile and an old out-of-business gas station was a most welcomed sight. The storm passed in about 15 minutes and we continued back to the campground in a drizzle.
The heater in the RV helped us get back to normal and after a hot shower we were ready for dinner at Webbs. Our mouths had been watering since reading the dinner menu at breakfast.
Nancy had the “Pinto Special” ($5.75), pinto beans, greens, fried potatoes, corn bread and onions. I chose the “Chicken Fried Steak” dinner ($6.95) with gravy, green beans, fried okra, yams and cornbread. This was probably the best meal we have had at any restaurant in years. Nancy’s comment after her first bite of pintos and greens was “I think I’ve died and gone to heaven.” We were both full to overflowing, but we just had to split a pallet cleansing blackberry cobbler ($1.95) for dessert. All of the vegetables were cooked fresh, nothing canned. What a treat this meal was. We planned to return and get the “Free Food Tomorrow”.
Webbs Country Kitchen is worth going 50 miles or even more out of your way for. They are relocating caddy-corner into another building in the coming months. We sure hope their food doesn’t change.
We slept good after an evening walk around the campground.
SUMMARY:
TOTAL DISTANCE: 181 miles
TRAVEL TIME: 5 hours
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