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Coal Miner’s Daughter
How I Learned to Love Country Music on Loretta Lynn’s Dude Ranch
Motorcycles, campfires, and a beer with Mooney
“Not my thing,” was my standard response when someone mentioned country music to me. How could anyone enjoy all that twang? It seemed to me every country song was about broken hearts, hard-drinking, or hound dogs. I just didn’t get it.
So when my husband suggested we attend a motorcycle rally at Loretta Lynn’s Dude Ranch I was less than enthusiastic. It was 1982 and we were in our third year of wedded bliss which meant I was still in “good wife” mode. Of course, I agreed.
We rode a 1979 Yamaha XS 1100. Hubs had outfitted our bike with a Vetter fairing and saddlebags. Vetter was the company sponsoring the rally.
Loretta Lynn’s ranch is in Hurricane Mills, Tennessee. We lived in Toledo, Ohio. The ride was about 550 miles one way. No big deal for us. Our honeymoon motorcycle trip had been a three-week, 2500-mile cross-country ride, camping the entire way.
We were young.
We packed the bike with our camping gear, clean underwear, and an extra pair of Levi’s. The plan was we’d get to the ranch and set up camp, then hit a local grocer, pick up a styrofoam cooler, a bag of ice…
