Just a short update

about.........

Dinner.

Medium rare ribeyes, butterfly shrimp, and sweet potato fries! Oh and, beers, of course.

Ya shoulda been here, was sooooo good!

Gotta go now. Nappytime's calling!

And in that same spirit of meanness, here's a pic of last Sunday's beer up yer butt chicken.

Dry rubbed inside and out with Buddly's secret Memphis rub!

Oh Lordy, fall off the bone juicy goodness!

( cleaning that pan up was a bitch, tho! lol )

Thinking Bar-B-Qued chicken thighs and boiled and buttered new potatos today.

Gotta grill while the grillin's good. Won't be summer forever!

Who am I kiddin? I grill all year round. Fixed Christmas dinner on the grill one year!

Bon Apetite, Xangaland!

Thunder rolls in Ironton

Bikers descend on southern Ohio for Rally on the River

Tim Preston
The Independent

IRONTON — Despite clear skies and a hot summer sun, thunder rolled through Ironton starting early Friday and grew louder by the hour as thousands of motorcycle enthusiasts gathered for Ironton’s Seventh annual Rally on the River.

“People just like to come out and see people and act crazy,” said Mark Rutledge, owner of Frogtown USA where much of the action in Ironton was centered as people connected with old friends, had a meal and enjoyed their fair share of cold barley-based beverages. Speaking for himself and his business, Rutledge said the annual Rally on the River is nothing but a good time.

“I get to see everybody out and enjoying themselves — and it brings money to the city,” he said. “There’s no way to guess how much money it brings in. We’ve got people here from Florida, Michigan, Canada, Arkansas, Alabama, Tennessee, Virginia, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Pennsylvania and West Virginia ... and, a lot of them are staying at the Ashland Plaza Hotel.”

With estimates of 25,000 to 30,000 people participating in the 2010 Rally on the River, Rutledge said local law enforcement and other agencies have been extremely supportive of the event.

“They work with us because they enjoy it too,” he said with a chuckle. “When we do have trouble it usually comes from the locals. The same people they have to run in at least once a month anyway.”

With cyclists staking out spots, including camping spaces, from Hanging Rock to the other edge of Ironton nearly everyone agreed the rally is a gathering of strangers who are all distantly related.

“We are all one big family,” said Mike Willis, recalling a time when he experienced a breakdown on the side of a South Dakota road and was soon rescued by fellow riders he had never met.

Willis said the attraction of the annual Rally on the River boils down to two components, “the people and the bikes.” The people, he said “are just like a brother or a sister” once you meet them, and the machines are the subject of individual taste.

“I just look at the Harleys. You see 100 black ones, but no two are the same,” he said, turning his head automatically along with everyone else in the crowd as a crew of roughly a dozen Harley owners piloted their machines down the nearby street.

Hustling to keep a horde of hungry, thirsty customers satisfied, Frog Town USA employee Karen Ruggeiri shrugged, smiled and concluded, “It’s like a redneck Cheers.”

Working at the bar inside, Kathy Larson of Flatwoods and Randie Hensley of Ironton agreed the crowd would be in high gear by about 9 p.m. Friday and again tonight.

“It’s friendly and loud,” Hensley observed.

Quietly enjoying a meal among the chaotic scene, Bill and Janice Sands sat with Pat and May Anne Leuken and made up for lost time.

“Pat and I worked together for 25 years and we haven’t seen each other for about three years,” Mr. Leuken explained.

“We all like to get together and drink some beer and listen to some good music,” Mrs. Leuken said as the sound of the band Southern Thunder saturated the restaurant.

D.L. McWhorter, who arrived on the scene riding a 1999 Harley-Davidson Softail Custom, said he couldn’t begin to guess the economic impact of the Rally on the River for businesses and vendors from Ironton Hanging Rock.

“I have no idea. I know a lot of these places — it makes their year,” he said, explaining he personally enjoys socializing with fellow cyclists and hearing good music performed by live bands.

TIM PRESTON can be reached at tpreston@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2651.

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I put up small pics because there's so many of them. You can click to make them bigger.

Here's some pics taken by Jessica St. James for the Ironton Tribune on Saturday.

He's in T-Bone Heaven.

Inch and a half thick, rubbed with a crushed garlic clove, seasoned with salt and coarse ground black pepper, grilled to medium rare perfection over medium high flame, Angus beef T-Bone Heaven, to be precise!

Served up with homemade Russett potato French Fries, and an ice-cold Yuengling Black and Tan!

OMG! Let me slice a piece of this off for ya.

If Heaven is indeed anything like this, I may do myself in tomorrow!

Wish every one of you could taste just how really delicious this is!

Angus beef. It's what's for dinner at Buddly's.

What you cookin' tonight?

Some of you may remember this old rusty caboose I posted about back in May. They were getting ready to put it on display at the Catlettsburg train depot.

I found a picture of it in it's original location online. It had been abandoned on some property owned by Marathon Petroleum for over two decades!

Nasty!

Took these about two months ago. It was cleaning up pretty well!

They started painting her last week. Decided on red rather than the traditional C&O blue. Near the end of the caboose era, C&O had repainted most cabooses still in service red, but this one never made it back to the carshops in Wurtland, Ky for repaint before cabooses were phased out entirely.

Stopped by the bank on the way home yesterday and saw they have her almost finished. Still a lot of little detail work to be done, but it's looking pretty good.

You've came a long way, baby!

They say they're going to use it as a small museum for local historical artifacts, so they installed a heat pump for climate control.

Looks right at home down there at the end of the depot's apron!

Great job, guys.

The C&O was a large part of my life in my younger days. My grandfather worked as a carpenter for the C&O all his life, as did my dad for quite awhile in the late 1940's and 50's.

If you're wondering why the railroad needed carpenters, you're probably pretty young. Back in the 'old days' most freight was carried on the railroads in wooden gondolas and boxcars, and C&O's were built right here at the Wurtland carshops. The kind the hobo's used to ride the rails on back in the dust bowl days. You don't see many of them any more, most railcars are made with steel and aluminium these days.

The C&O is responsible for my family even being here in Northeastern Kentucky. Originally from Richmond Va, when the Great Depression hit, the C&O closed it's Richmond carshop and told my grandfather if he wanted to continue working for them he had a job waiting for him at the Wurtland, Ky carshop, part of the Russell Railyard, at that time the largest independently owned railyard in the world. So he packed up the family and moved west. Dad's two older brothers moved back to Richmond later, but dad and his younger sister stayed here with Grampa Ferguson. I'm glad he did. I've enjoyed living here in Ky, with the Ohio River on one side of me and the railroad tracks on the other. It's home to me. Always has been and always will be.

And I can't even imagine living life and not being a University of Kentucky Wildcat fan!

Wouldn't ya think that a guy willing to spend $5002.00 to put a new engine in a 10 year old truck last October and $669.00 for a new distributer-coil combination just last week for the same 10 year old truck, would at least get off his lazy butt and wash the damn thing?

I was thinking the same thing last Saturday and realized the last time it was washed was when they put the engine in 9 months ago!

So, feeling a little ashamed of myself, I grabbed the bucket and rags and headed out to brave the 90 degree heat and take care of bidness!

It was well worth the effort. Looks and runs like new again!

Got her all cleaned up, inside and out, even cleaned the glass. Decided to reward myself with a few cold ones and took her out to show her off and headed for the carry-out in Ironton.

On the way over the bridge I saw there was another sternwheeler tied off at the Ironton boat dock and thought I'd get a few photos of my truck using the boat as a backdrop.

It wasn't the Belle of Louisville this time, it's the Belle of Cincinnati. Cool.

I want you to look at where the truck is parked in this first shot.

What happened before I took this I probably shouldn't tell ya. It's the kind of thing that makes me wonder sometimes how an idiot like me has managed to stay alive for as long as I have.

I pulled up to the edge of the bank, reached over and got my camera, turned her on and took off the lens cap, left the engine running and the air on cause it was hot, set the emergency brake, opened the door and stepped out, took a couple of steps away from her, and watched her start rolling down the bank!

I know I made some kinda high-pitched little girlie sounding noise when I took off after her! Luckily I had left the door open, so I tried to toss the camera on the seat to free my hands, missed and watched my Nikon hit the asphalt out of the corner of my eye as I frantically half-leaped/half-jumped/half-lunged myself into the truck, groping around with my foot trying to find the brake pedal. Finally found it and put the brakes on just as the front tires went over that little 3" curb! Looked down at the gear shift and saw that I had left the damn thing in Drive! Felt really stupid right about then.

Nothing in front of her except about twenty feet of riverbank and a whole lot of deep water! Had to pull her into 4WD to back  up to where I was parked.

Don't mind telling ya, that scared the mortal crap out of me. Heart pounding, hands shaking scared! Walked around awhile (after shutting her off, putting her in Park, and setting the emergency brake....hard) and smoked a couple of cigarettes til my hands stopped shaking enough to hold my camera steady. Which wasn't hurt by skittering across the asphalt, by the way. A tiny nick on the UV filter ring was all the damage I could see. Easy fix.

Pretty lucky day for me all around! Figured after all that, I might as well take some pictures.

I like this next one a lot. I'm using it as wallpaper on my desktop at home.

Made it back to the house all in one piece, thank God. That could have been hell of an expensive beer run!

To get my mind off of that mental image of seeing my little black truck's tailgate disappearing into the murky waters of the Mighty Ohio, I had a few beers and whipped up some blue cheese burgers and fired up the grill.

These guys are so good, and very easy to make.

One and a half to two pounds of ground chuck, one beaten egg, 1/2 cup breadcrumbs, and three heaping tablespoons of good chunky blue cheese dressing.

Mix everything in a large bowl with a fork 4 or 5 minutes til it's the consistency of a meatloaf, dampen hands with warm water and shape into 4 patties. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste. I also add a light sprinkle of garlic powder.

Open another beer and place the burgers on the grill over medium low heat. Handle them carefully, they're a little soft and delicate til the've cooked a bit and started to set.

Served on a sesame seed bun with thinly sliced Bermuda onion, fresh tomato, and mayo. Along with sweet potatoe fries and Sweet Baby Ray's Dipping Sauce.

Good Lord, sinfully delicious!

On Sunday, we went to WalMart, came home, I cut the grass, and stayed put.

Didn't wanna take any chances!