Day 26 - The Haden's Lake House - Henrico NC - Fri, 11 July 2014 - Mileage 5,125 miles

Another great day!  Got up fairly early this morning because Jeff and Cathy had to go to work and I needed the oil changed on Old Blue.  We said our good-bye's and it was sad we had so little time . . 

:-(

Me and Uncle Jeff, and the couple . . .  Thank you sooo much for the night at you house and the food and the company!  It was a great visit!  Thanks . . .

I pulled out of the Austin home and headed about a mile to the Yamaha dealership and a GREAT group of guys work there.  They Swooped my bike into the shop and had the oil and outdrive oil changed very quickly.  Here is Tim, the service manager.

And this is the great shop that took care of me

They get my recommendation for how they took a "No Appointment" guy in and did a great job for a reasonable price.  Here is inside the place:

And finally, Old Blue was ready

Here is the service tech guy . . .

I got on the road heading to Raleigh NC to visit Judi's mom, JoAnn Austin.  I was riding well until BAM, there was a truck that crashed and clobbered the freeway. . . It was like this for over an hour, stop and go . . .

For ever . . . . . . .  This was the cause, when I finally passed it:

And

Not sure what happened? But I was glad to get through!  Finally crossed into

And passed an old familier city we used to live in:

And the 82nd Airborne Div at Ft Bragg NC

I finally got to Judi's mom's place about 3:30 and what a beautiful place it is!!!

This is out JoAnn's Balcony

There is no place like this in Vegas, that I know of.  They buy a condo in this facility and pay a monthly fee for all the amenities.  There is aerobic swimming:

Crafts:

A room for group play - This is set up for chair volleyball

And the workout room, all led by certified instructors - 

Here is a model of the master planned community

Here are random pictures of the gardening, JoAnn's building, the water features, It's just a beautiful place to live and everyone is friends here and sit with different people every night for dinner.  Here are the shots

the clubhouse

JoAnn and her friend Claude.  A great guy, smart and fun to talk to.  Very educated, even if he did go to Duke ;-)

The clubhouse again . . .

 They took me into a Friday night Happy Hour that someone sets up every Friday for the folks.  I met some very nice people, Including "The Mayor" of The Cypress . . .  ;-)

   We joined up with a very nice couple to have dinner.  It was a classy meal that was delicious and the table talk was great!  Here were my dinner companions . . .

After dinner, I had to get on the road, but passed these group of "young ladies" who were all hitting on me ;-) and trying to get a ride on my scooter . . .

 Claude showed me his origional 65 Mustang in mint condition, not restored . . .  Take a look:

All origional everything.  A little tore up, but in good shap considering its 50 years old next year!

I packed my bike, very sad I hadn't planned to stay the night and visit more with these wonderful people.

and, of course, the "selfie" shot:

JoAnn and Claude, Thak you for the wonderful dinner and company for the afternoon.  I'll be back!!!

It was then off to the Lake and the Haden's house.  Got a late start and yes, it was a little scary on those BLACK, DARK, SCARY, roads, with the sound track of Deliverence playing in my head.  I would have never found this place without the GPS.  Maybe 30-40 turns from Raliegh to Lake Gaston.  Hank waited up for me, and got me settled, like the great host he always is.  I hit the rack pretty fast and, oh, BTW, I have ZERO cell service out here with AT&T?  Weird . . .  They all have Verision?

OK, That's it for this jam packed day!!!

LUKE Out!!!