KENTUCKY
' n i p p i r t y a D
By Indian Rider Bill
A
few weekends ago we, Team Thunder Roads® TN/KY, made our first appearance in Kentucky. As was mentioned earlier, our strategy was simple; be where riders are. But where to start? Not only with the actual where, that was the easier part, yet how to roll the entire effort into something doable and readable with a storyline that invites our readers, you, to be part of our effort. As you can imagine, we met people, shook lots of hands, identified distribution points, dropped magazines and made new friends. And I still struggled with what I should write about Kentucky. Well, my friends, that answer came in the last two hours of the journey. So, I’ll start at the end.
What trip to Kentucky would be worth its mettle if it didn’t have a picture, a story about Kentucky Fried Chicken, right? Well, not just any KFC storefront would do. We had to stop in Corbin, Kentucky. The first ever storefront. The one where it all began. And that’s exactly what we did. After more than a dozen stops at leather shops, restaurants, motorcycle dealerships, pubs, visitor centers and even a Mayor’s office, we rolled into the parking lot of the Corbin store to take a few photos. At this point in our journey, we now had our resident photographer with us, as we just finished up a photo shoot. So, there we were, snapping photos of the store at its obligatory tourist photo-op display when suddenly, a car pulls in, stops next to us 8
and its driver asks “Hey, what are you all doing”? And it wasn’t framed as a question, but more so sounding much like that of a professional Showman. We turned to acknowledge the driver and it’s none other than The Colonel!! Yep, Colonel Sanders, aka Johnny Miller. Johnny, a professional Colonel Sanders impersonator just happened to be passing by as he was heading back to his home from an American Legion military service for one of its members. The Colonel, Johnny, told us that the museum was closed, but if we had time and wanted to see one of the largest private collections of Kentucky Fried Chicken memorabilia in the country, it was at his house just 5 minutes away. Talk about a no brainer! We piled in our cars and off we went following Johnny. Who knew The Colonel drove a Ford C-Max Hybrid? In a few short minutes we arrived at The Colonel’s humble abode and being the gentleman that he is, he apologized for not straightening things up as he didn’t expect to pick up travelers and invite them in.
ThunderRoadsTennessee.com
FEBRUARY 2022
