Mutton Running 2018

[Bill Hagan]

Good morning from the top of Virginia (and Happy Apple Blossom Festival weekend!)

Sent out much of the the following as an email a few minutes ago to many (who are likely deleting it like crazy , and thought I'd post here, too.

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This is information about and a late invitation to join me on a ride to (or meet me at) Whitesville, Kentucky, for this event on 26-27 May (yes, Memorial Day weekend).

If you have no clue what I am talking about, it's probably best understood by plowing through this slideshow of the 2016 ride and feast:

Mutton Stuff 2016

As some getting this may remember, I had to cancel last year as I got as sick as I can ever recall being just before — no, you haters, not after eating mutton! — launching.

That won’t happen this year, though if it does, I’m blaming Europeans. I’ll have just returned from a week-plus visit with some Old Flatulent Army parachuting buddies to airborne battlefields in France, Holland, and Belgium. [As an American infantryman purportedly said after the Battle of Soissons, 27 May 1918: "We've paid off that old fart, Lafayette. What Frog son-of-a-bitch do we owe now?” If he’d only known what his sons might be doing in 20 or so years. Before any French or Francophiles flame me, I like the French! Really. ]

Anyway, I'll provide routing (all back-road for me), lodging, and other info, e.g., about iconic Moonlite BBQ, to any who might be interested.

You may see a similar notice on a Guzzi website or two.

So, let me know if interested.

Ciao … & chow!

Bill

 

[Bill Hagan]

Just following up the above post after a grand romp in Virginia, W.V. -- they call it "Almost Heaven" because it's next to Virginia! -- Kentucky ... and a mile or two in Maryland.

Sent the following around as an email last night, but if you are having a slow day, here is some Guzzi chatter and pix:

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This is a story of two men, two motorcycles, and countless servings of mutton, beer, & bourbon.

Women play no role in this, except for the extraordinary indulgence of Kathi, who suffers my crazy pa$time of owning and riding Moto Guzzis, and my wonderful Kentucky aunts. You’ve been warned.

So, two years ago, I and some moto-buddies from Atlanta rode to a parish picnic near Owensboro, Kentucky, where I — if it may be said that I ever did — grew up. Last year, I sadly cancelled because I was too sick to ride.

This email and the accompanying photos tell the story of this year’s trip, made while Kathi was visiting daughter Kate and family in Washington State.

St. Mary of the Woods is about 20 miles east of Owensboro, in Whitesville, where all of my father’s people and many other Catholic families have lived since leaving the Pottinger’s Creek area in central Kentucky in the first quarter of the 19th century. They were all part of the “Great Catholic Migration” from Maryland in the last two decades of the 18th century. A refuge for Catholics in the 17th century, Maryland changed to the point that about 200 families moved west over the mountains to central Kentucky. If you like bourbon, be grateful that they, not Puritans, settled in Nelson and nearby counties!

Anyway, this time, I rode alone to Abingdon, Virginia, where I met Jay Hines, a Guzzista friend from Atlanta, though on this ride he was on his new Yamaha FZ09.

The next day, we rode through eastern Kentucky and spent the night in Lebanon.

On our third day of riding (grand) back roads — not an inch on the slab — through the heart of the old Catholic settlements, we arrived in Daviess County … yes, that’s spelled correctly and pronounced “Davis.” Actually, tho possibly only one person reading this cares (!), a scrivener misspelled the name, resulting in centuries of wrong now being right. I refer the idle and curious to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Hamilton_Daveiss. Quite a fellow, really.

We spent the fourth day at the picnic, after which Jay headed home to Atlanta. I stayed in the area another day, visiting relatives and enjoying some time-machine moments.

I left Owensboro on Memorial Day, spent the night well upriver in Maysville, and made Tuesday into a 400-mile romp home.
Lordy, I am a blessed man.

Some pictorial proof of all of that (except Kathi!) here: https://bill-and-kathi.smugmug.com/Mutton-Running-May-2018/n-dHftGV/

Bill

P.S. If those photos and captions left you more interested than bored, and you want to see the 2016 tale, go here: https://bill-and-kathi.smugmug.com/Men-Motorcycles-Mutton/

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[Trout]

Love your stories!

 

[Bill Hagan]

Well, seems that there are few muttonphiles out there.

But I cannot let that stop me from posting pix of my mutton-huntin' rides.

Those church picnics I love are held twice a year, in May and September. My prior post in this thread was about my run out there to western Kentucky in May. Took the Norge.

This time, last month, it was on the Griso, with "Staff" -- indulgent spousal unit Kathi -- along (but not too close!) in the Mini.

She carried enough tools for depot-level-maintenance if needed. But, as has always been the case with the Griso, it ran like … well, fill in the blank with whatever simile pleases you. I prefer several that get "The Look" from Kathi.

Anyway, it was a grand trip. I rode some stupendous roads in Virginia, W.V., and Ky., and Kathi and I met for the overnights along the way. Great fun.

Aside from mutton — yes, an acquired taste — we also enjoyed the travel and, especially, revisiting Daviess County, where I spent most of my early life, and seeing some of my “U.S. family" there.

We find it especially poignant (and serendipitous, as we did not know this when we moved to our present home in Virginia) that my third great grandfather, Thomas Clark Hagan, was born in 1793 about 10 miles from our Winchester home, and died in Whitesville in 1875. What a journey his life so literally was!

Enough musing; it’s mutton and Moto Guzzi time.

So, if still reading, see the pix here: https://bill-and-kathi.smugmug.com/Muttoning-Sept-2018/n-7HZKSL/

Bill