We had the possibility of rain on our departure day so we decided if it is raining we would drive, We don't have a problem when we encounter rain while out riding but who likes to leave the house in the rain right? So the morning of departure we woke up and the driveway was dry, rain in the forecast, drops here and there but for the most part it was dry, so we are riding! But within 30 minutes from home we hit our first thunderstorm, rained cats and dogs, we stopped at a gas station to tank and run from the heavy rain, within 10 minutes the rain had passed and we were off again. To our luck we did not see a drop of rain the entire rest of the day, in the contrary we had a wonderful ride.
The route north we choose passed through some areas known to us, roads we passed on our New Years Day ride, as well as some new roads. Our first day took us 384 miles from home to Murray KY, where we visited with family and had a wonderful dinner. We stayed at our usual place, Murray Plaza Lodge, which is an old school motel style place that has been restored to its glory, the type of place you park you car/motorcycle right outside your door. We like those places.
This is our first day route
Outside Scottsboro AL, at the Gunthersville Lake
Murray Plaza Lodge, bikes parked for the night!
The second day had us cutting through south central Illinois, to the east of St. Louis, I love riding through here most people think it's flat and boring but I love it, the farms, the farm houses, barns, silos small towns with lots of history and charm. We were delighted to stop in Lebanon IL for lunch and found a wonderful place called Dr. Jazz Soda Fountain and Grille, an old school place playing great music, serving great food and good service. We will be back that way soon. North of Lebanon in Scaunton IL is where we took a sharp left turn and headed west towards the Illinois River, passing small towns like Bunker Hill, Woodburn, Brighton and Jerseyville, we crossed the Illinois River in Hardin and headed north to Kampsville, than west on 96 which takes us all the way up to Loraine IL.
Our second day route
Pinckneyville IL
Lebanon IL
Lebanon IL
Lebanon IL
Lebanon IL
The weather was wonderful the visit with the family even better. But we knew we had to come back home, we knew we had two days back. But there was a small problem! I spent so much time planning the trip up, that I never planned the trip back. So in the spirit of Adventure we decided to just head out and see where we would end up. Jeannie had one request, she wanted to cross the Mississippi River into Missouri, and she wanted to cross the Ohio River into Indiana. With those two points of reference we plotted in our minds the way back and headed out. There was yet another small problem! A severe storm system was approaching from the West covering hundreds of miles north to south and to beat the storm we had to head east, as far east as we could.
The day of departure started early, we were both eager to get back on the road so we left Jeannie's parents early in the morning, headed south into and crossed the Mississippi River in Hannibal Missouri, than continued south on MO 79 and eventually IL 100 which is also known as The Great River Road, IL 100 passes towns like Grafton, where the Illinois River and the Mississippi River merge, Elsah and Alton, where we found the famous Alton Mural and took the obligatory picture.
The route on our first day back
Hannibal Missouri - Tom Sawyer Village
Hannibal Missouri - Tom Sawyer Village
Hannibal Missouri - Historic Downtown
Alton IL - Mural
Alton IL - Mural
In Alton we also made a stop at the famous Fast Eddies, but they were closed, we were there pretty early :(
From Alton it was quite clear that the storms were behind us, but approaching fast so we needed to head either south or continue east, we decided to continue east, remember we had the Ohio River and Indiana in our minds. So we continued east on IL 140 to Greenville, here in Greenville we had lunch at the Big Kahuna Burgers and Shakes, which had an awesome burger and great service. As we exit the building we felt rain drops, oh no! the storm caught up with us, again the decision do we head south from here towards south IL and KY or continue east, well east it was we headed to Carlyle IL were we caught the very famous Highway 50/ US 50 and headed east towards Vincennes, crossed the Ohio, landed our bikes and feet in Indiana and decided it was time to head south towards Evansville and eventually KY. By the time we reached Evansville IN, the storm caught up with us, Jeannie and I experienced something completely new to both of us, while riding down a beautiful two lane farm road, IN 66, it started to hail, yes hail, pea size hail, I hear in the intercom "babe these rain drops hurt", oh no they are not rain drops!, its hail....... what do we do, in the middle of Indiana with no trees, pull over on the side of the road, look at your gas tank and let it rain!!, or let it hail!! hearing the music coming from my aluminum side panniers as the pea size hail hits them, it was scary, funny and interesting all at the same time, it lasted 10 minutes and we were off, eventually we stopped at a McDonalds for a break and the storm caught up with us, Tornado sirens going off, raining so hard you could not see the bikes in the other side of the parking lot, we took refuge inside that McD's for a good part of an hour, before it had passed us enough to ride south into Hopkinsville KY on the Pennyrile Highway to our destination for the night.
After a restful night, we woke up to cloudy skies but no rain, the forecast looked good for the ride home, so we headed out of Hopkinsville on US 41 south towards Nashville and rode through some beautiful rolling hills and farms all the way down in Nashville, this was a unforgettable ride. My GPS helped us get through Nashville through 4 lane boulevards and small streets and very quickly we were on the other side of Nashville back on US 41 heading towards Murfreesboro TN. After lunch we decided that Interstate 24 through this area is actually pretty, all the way up the mountain and back down again into Chattanooga so we decided to hit the interstate, make up some time, but still enjoyed the scenery, at a much faster rate off course :).
The route on our last day back home
We arrived home around 5:00 pm, with a total of 1547 miles ridden, and yes it was Six States, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri and Indiana, this was an unforgettable ride, we visited with family, we dodged the interstate as much as we could, we dodged the rain, we experienced hail, there are so many things that we saw, did and experienced in these 6 days, it will stay with us forever, bikes were tested, gear was tested, skills, endurance and patience were tested. But we made it home safe and sound. Jeannie is now a proud member of the long distance crowd. She still amazes me every time we go out.
Till next time!!. Thanks for keeping up with us.
Awesome trip. Great Read. Thanks for sharing
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