![\"Hwy](\"http:\/\/farm6.staticflickr.com\/5466\/9605955207_c27bd7ca64_b_d.jpg\" "\\"Clinch")
<\/a>We recently decided to take a Saturday and drive up to the new Highway 25E overlook on Clinch Mountain, near Tazwell Tennessee.\u00a0 It was a beautiful fall day; the sky was clear and azure.\u00a0 Trees were starting to turn color, proudly decked out in the deep red of red oaks, the gold-orange of white oaks, hickories and poplar, the bright red of dogwoods and the vivid orange of maple, creating a tapestry of color draped over the mountains like a quilt against the chilly air.\u00a0 The higher we got the cooler the air became and the more color there was.\u00a0 Clinch Mountain reaches an elevation of 4,000 feet.\u00a0 We didn\u2019t get quite that high, but it was pretty chilly when we got out of the truck just the same.\u00a0 <\/p>\n The overlook offers a view of the Clinch River Valley, Lake Norris and several rows of Appalachian Mountains.\u00a0 It seems like you could see right up into Kentucky on a really clear day!<\/p>\n While we were enjoying the view, a group of motorcyclists decked out in black leather, frayed denim and German WWII style helmets pulled in and started backing their bikes into the spaces near our truck.\u00a0 We weren\u2019t especially worried; these days motorcyclists are rarely the violently dangerous rebels that they were in the 50\u2019s and 60\u2019s.\u00a0 Still I felt what little tension there may have been go away when they started taking off helmets and saw bald heads tattooed not with naked women, Nazi symbols, or such standard \u201cbiker\u201d fare but with crosses and \u201cJesus Saves\u201d, \u201cHe is risen\u201d and other Christian mantra.<\/p>\n As it turns out this was a Christian biker group from Knoxville known as The Sons of the Savior and they were on their monthly Charity Ride; a joy ride with a purpose. This month they were raising money to help buy shoes for poor kids in their area.\u00a0 They were nice people and I enjoyed chatting with them.<\/p>\n We had taken the highway to get up to the overlook, going back home we took the \u201cscenic route\u201d by getting off the main road at the first opportunity and seeing what we could find.<\/p>\n Marie makes an excellent navigator.\u00a0 Somehow she always seems to know where we are and in what direction \u201chome\u201d lies.\u00a0 We do pack a collection of maps to help, but they just help her see what roads we might want to use.\u00a0 We spent the rest of the afternoon poking into little towns and along back roads.\u00a0 We saw some gorgeous scenery and a few amazing things in people\u2019s yards.<\/p>\n We got back home just before dark, and our \u201cgirls\u201d came trotting out to greet us.\u00a0 We had not gone off on a joy ride for a while, and I think they were getting nervous about whether or not we were coming back to fix their supper.<\/p>\n But all was forgiven now, we were home, they were happy to see us (and eager to get inside to their kibbles and snuggle beds).\u00a0 It was a very pleasant day; we had a lot of fun, saw some new things, met some new people and all for the price of a half-tank of gas and some home-made sandwiches.\u00a0 This is just one of the Simple Pleasures that we enjoy so much about life in the mountains.<\/p>\n Thank you for reading, and until next time; may the Simple Life be yours!<\/p>\n Do you like road trips?\u00a0 If so, please tell us about your most memorable joy ride below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Long ago, Dear Reader, in an economy far, far away… Marie and I made a habit of going out for long drives in the country on Sundays after church. It was one of those simple pleasures in life that we enjoy so much. We would stop off somewhere and pick up sandwiches and drinks and … Continue reading “Poking the Muse with a Saturday Joy Ride”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[19],"class_list":["post-3853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-muse","tag-adventures"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3853"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3853\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21532,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3853\/revisions\/21532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a><\/a><\/a>