Nick and Dale's Great Adventure: Illinois and Kentucky Edition

 

We left Miner, MO and headed for Kentucky along a relatively nice and flat road. This is where we had our third encounter with law enforcement, the Missouri State Police. Pulled over along Route 62, we thought he should have at least put the lights on to make it official. Fortunately, he was issuing us a warning! He asked "traveling across the country?" We said "Yes!". "Are you familiar with this road and the bridge ahead?" Our answer "No". He mentioned it was dangerous, long and narrow, and suggested we take up the entire lane. After seeing what we were in for, it was good advice. Crossing the Mississippi River was one of the points of interest we were waiting for...unfortunately, stopping on the bridge to take a picture was not in the cards.

The next surprise was Illinois! Although we were there for just a minute, Cairo, IL is a peninsula between the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers. Our time in Illinois was short, basically a right turn after the bridge to go over the next bridge spanning the Ohio. Similar bridge, except this time we had a patient trucker behind us blocking traffic and seemingly having our back. We made it safely to the other side to find Kentucky and a road with very limited shoulders. Busy roads and no shoulders make for stressful travel! I did manage to get a picture while rolling on the bridge over the Ohio...

We continued east into Kentucky and worked our way towards Paducah where we would meet up with our ladies later that day! The roads were decent and we took a quick break in the shade (yes, it was hot) to get our bearings. Standing along the road in Barlow, KY and across from a business with an open pine box, we were approached by an avid local who drove his car up on to the sidewalk beside us. Jumping out and full of energy, he was interested in our trip and talked to us for a bit. His advice was to be careful around Deadman's Curve near Kevil, KY. Let's just say that up to this point, we had experienced a wide variety of road conditions, possibly numbing us a bit to perceived dangers. I say this because we left the limits of Kevil and missed the curve somehow!

Our arrival into Paducah was along a stretch similar in many larger towns that includes businesses and busy shopping centers including a Walmart. After many miles of Google directions, we were becoming a bit more wise as Google will suggest the scenic, and not any safer, bicycle route. We continued on the direct path to our hotel where we would meet up with Cindy and Amy later in the day. Road engineering is another one of those things I wonder about at times. The road would take traffic to the left side like Europe and create a little more confusion on exactly where one should be, especially on a bike! Nonetheless, we arrived, cleaned up and waited on the ladies.

After five weeks, it was wonderful to see my wife. Quite a few things happened while I was away and I think she was glad to see me, hug me and just be near me, even if only for a day. Flamingo Row was a good place for food and drink. After a good night's sleep, we set out to explore Paducah. This was Dale's and my second break from bicycle travel and it felt good to take the day off. Paducah is along the Ohio and Tennessee Rivers. We walked along the Ohio for a minute, read about the history, visited local shops, lunched (at Doe's Eat Place) and then stopped at a bourbon bar for a drink. Later, we would visit the Purple Toad winery and enjoyed a late dinner at Rafferty's.

The ladies got on their way early on Sunday and we left a bit after they did heading towards Cadiz, KY. We crossed the Tennessee and watched the doors close on a lock to lift a boat above the dam and into Kentucky Lake. Our route would take us through the Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area. I figured the route would be flat, I was wrong. I thought the route would be scenic with water on both sides, while scenic, no water. I thought we would get to see elk and bison that are on a prairie preserve in the area, wrong again, no bicyclists allowed. It was along this route we met Steve, a fellow cyclist who was traveling from northern Minnesota to New Orleans using an Adventure Cycling route. He seemed to be an experienced, solo traveler and had some top notch equipment including a Bluetooth rearview camera. We chatted as we pedaled and went our separate ways. Leaving the Land Between the Lakes took us across the Cumberland River. We stopped and met two Leslies. They were traveling from Texas to the northeast, then Michigan and Montana before returning home all via motorcycle.

Our next stop was Franklin. The Adventure Cycling maps warn you when there are long stretches with out services, Google warns you about hills. We had traveled about 25 miles and passed a cafe' near the Jefferson Davis memorial. It would be the last place to get food or drink on our route until we hit Franklin nearly 50 miles later. I Fortunately, Dale and I had learned to be prepared! I might have stopped at the Jefferson Davis site which looks like a mini Washington Monument but Dale had gotten a bit ahead of me (I stopped to take some pics) and then had some young Amish ladies pull out in front of me (Yes, Kentucky has Amish too!) so we kept riding. Lot's of fields, so we got to see some of the real big farm equipment work the fields. We got drenched about 10 miles outside of Franklin and we were in twister territory, so we kept our eyes peeled for a funnel cloud. That was only the second time on the trip we got rained on (not counting a few drips here or there). We found our hotel for the evening (the pool was closed, or was it), ate a tremendous amount of food at the Colorado Grill and set off for Tennessee the next morning!