Tales of the Dragon

[Cormanus]

Another great report, Empty Sea. I was relieved it was a temporary separation.

The map is, I think, looking a bit [url=https://maps.google.com.au/maps?saddr=Chicago,+IL,+USA&daddr=39.041144,-84.3559722+to:Augusta,+KY,+USA+to:38.853983,-84.3811255+to:38.116599,-84.190477+to:37.7023946,-83.9756186+to:McKee,+KY,+USA+to:37.5679356,-84.2993353+to:Corbin,+KY,+USA+to:Cumberland+Falls+State+Resort+Park,+Kentucky+90​,+Corbin,+KY,+United+States+to:36.1674383,-84.1441403+to:Deal%27s+Gap+Motorcycle+Resort,+Tapoco+Road,+Robbinsville,+NC,+Uni​ted+States+to:Robbinsville,+NC,+USA+to:Nantahala+Outdoor+Center,+W+Hwy+19,+Bryso​n+City,+NC,+United+States+to:35.4202406,-83.7287448+to:Deal%27s+Gap+Motorcycle+Resort,+Tapoco+Road,+Robbinsville,+NC,+Uni​ted+States+to:Robbinsville,+NC,+USA+to:35.3613583,-84.279459+to:35.1221968,-84.5589083+to:Chattanooga,+TN,+USA+to:Nashville,+TN,+United+States&hl=en&sll=35.083956,-83.358765&sspn=1.98679,4.22699&geocode=FWICfwIdGuDG-inty_TQPCwOiDEAwMAJrabgrw%3BFXi4UwIdfNT4-im5sLV0Oa9BiDFOyvL4S5FzlQ%3BFRqcTwIdfSz--ikrXiNDk2tBiDHtXzBetWvkaQ%3BFV_dUAIdO3L4-ilXvP5VdaJBiDFKhk_auFH5eQ%3BFfecRQId81r7-ik7Y5MyJLRDiDFtUxsrgdw5Fw%3BFfpKPwIdPqL--imD2v7gVQxDiDENv_3734BI6A%3BFVwkOwId4Ur--iklrHjf2RdDiDEZHU1KdAak1g%3BFb89PQIdubH5-imlJf0Al-FCiDFKSwdH7YAXig%3BFdvKMwIdlMj8-ikv8UMPjEVDiDF0oeKkwWy4yw%3BFWQbMgIdpgP5-iHUY94dayIJbym1xS6UkiFdiDHUY94dayIJbw%3BFQ7fJwId9A_8-inZccbnAUlciDGIk6jGBTlCdg%3BFa8sHQIdeXz_-iEwGrFPgjTibylR1WlCML5eiDEwGrFPgjTibw%3BFfL7GgIdWTMB-ymhFrijXsZeiDFDnNdSoDE46Q%3BFY4cGwIdoXwE-yES8ZKywIZ6KCl5FHSyyjRZiDES8ZKywIZ6KA%3BFVB4HAIdmGYC-yn1_XdlzrdeiDHdm8TBAKc9Jg%3BFa8sHQIdeXz_-iEwGrFPgjTibylR1WlCML5eiDEwGrFPgjTibw%3BFfL7GgIdWTMB-ymhFrijXsZeiDFDnNdSoDE46Q%3BFU6SGwIdXf_5-il1LduJW19eiDEBBpy0W3G9Rw%3BFRTsFwIdxLv1-im1POe6G0teiDHfPxPh_mhmPg%3BFf7AFgIdEEfq-imF54OKQGBgiDGqKIeJHyZxJA%3BFQvcJwIdm8rT-ik9kOsTMuxkiDGg2umh0Lk_fQ&oq=NAshville&mra=ls&via=1,3,4,5,7,10,14,17,18&t=m&z=7]like this, although I've had to redraw it to reduce the number waypoints so Google Maps can cope at the end of a long day.

Looking forward to the next bit.

[emptysea]

Another great report, Empty Sea. I was relieved it was a temporary separation.

The map is, I think, looking a bit [url=https://maps.google.com.au/maps?saddr=Chicago,+IL,+USA&daddr=39.041144,-84.3559722+to:Augusta,+KY,+USA+to:38.853983,-84.3811255+to:38.116599,-84.190477+to:37.7023946,-83.9756186+to:McKee,+KY,+USA+to:37.5679356,-84.2993353+to:Corbin,+KY,+USA+to:Cumberland+Falls+State+Resort+Park,+Kentucky+90​,+Corbin,+KY,+United+States+to:36.1674383,-84.1441403+to:Deal%27s+Gap+Motorcycle+Resort,+Tapoco+Road,+Robbinsville,+NC,+Uni​ted+States+to:Robbinsville,+NC,+USA+to:Nantahala+Outdoor+Center,+W+Hwy+19,+Bryso​n+City,+NC,+United+States+to:35.4202406,-83.7287448+to:Deal%27s+Gap+Motorcycle+Resort,+Tapoco+Road,+Robbinsville,+NC,+Uni​ted+States+to:Robbinsville,+NC,+USA+to:35.3613583,-84.279459+to:35.1221968,-84.5589083+to:Chattanooga,+TN,+USA+to:Nashville,+TN,+United+States&hl=en&sll=35.083956,-83.358765&sspn=1.98679,4.22699&geocode=FWICfwIdGuDG-inty_TQPCwOiDEAwMAJrabgrw%3BFXi4UwIdfNT4-im5sLV0Oa9BiDFOyvL4S5FzlQ%3BFRqcTwIdfSz--ikrXiNDk2tBiDHtXzBetWvkaQ%3BFV_dUAIdO3L4-ilXvP5VdaJBiDFKhk_auFH5eQ%3BFfecRQId81r7-ik7Y5MyJLRDiDFtUxsrgdw5Fw%3BFfpKPwIdPqL--imD2v7gVQxDiDENv_3734BI6A%3BFVwkOwId4Ur--iklrHjf2RdDiDEZHU1KdAak1g%3BFb89PQIdubH5-imlJf0Al-FCiDFKSwdH7YAXig%3BFdvKMwIdlMj8-ikv8UMPjEVDiDF0oeKkwWy4yw%3BFWQbMgIdpgP5-iHUY94dayIJbym1xS6UkiFdiDHUY94dayIJbw%3BFQ7fJwId9A_8-inZccbnAUlciDGIk6jGBTlCdg%3BFa8sHQIdeXz_-iEwGrFPgjTibylR1WlCML5eiDEwGrFPgjTibw%3BFfL7GgIdWTMB-ymhFrijXsZeiDFDnNdSoDE46Q%3BFY4cGwIdoXwE-yES8ZKywIZ6KCl5FHSyyjRZiDES8ZKywIZ6KA%3BFVB4HAIdmGYC-yn1_XdlzrdeiDHdm8TBAKc9Jg%3BFa8sHQIdeXz_-iEwGrFPgjTibylR1WlCML5eiDEwGrFPgjTibw%3BFfL7GgIdWTMB-ymhFrijXsZeiDFDnNdSoDE46Q%3BFU6SGwIdXf_5-il1LduJW19eiDEBBpy0W3G9Rw%3BFRTsFwIdxLv1-im1POe6G0teiDHfPxPh_mhmPg%3BFf7AFgIdEEfq-imF54OKQGBgiDGqKIeJHyZxJA%3BFQvcJwIdm8rT-ik9kOsTMuxkiDGg2umh0Lk_fQ&oq=NAshville&mra=ls&via=1,3,4,5,7,10,14,17,18&t=m&z=7]like this, although I've had to redraw it to reduce the number waypoints so Google Maps can cope at the end of a long day.

Looking forward to the next bit.

You're very close to accurate. A few corrections (from North to South):
We took 294 to 394 to Exchange Rd. to 41 and had breakfast at Greenfield's in Morocco, IN. We took US52 from just south of Kentland all the way to Cincy (and we stayed in Sharonville, OH at the LaQuinta).

We took 25W south from Berea to Corbin. We accidentally took 90 west from Cumberland Falls to US27 North, then South (U-turn) to 92 east back to I-75 then to Clinton.

Most everything else is correct (except for "Mickey's Route" after the ferry). So glad that you're following along with the home version.

[Cormanus]

Grrrr!! I'm so anal I'll have to fix it.

[emptysea]

Wait. It's 300 Miles FROM Nashville TO Nashville?!?

Our visits to our primary destinations, Deal's Gap, Chattanooga, and Nashville, were complete. Now began our journey homeward.

I am not sure if you know much about Illinois and Indiana, but most of the roads there are flat and straight, usually not well paved, and often windy. Sure, we'd have a little more of Tennessee and Kentucky to ride through, but we were not looking forward to 500 miles of mostly interstate boredom over the remaining two days of our trip. As an alternative, we planned a 600 mile route that would first take us through The Hoosier National Forest and Brown County State Park to Nashville, Indiana and then, the following day, home by a somewhat more direct route.

Out of Nashville (Tennessee) we went, heading out on US31E, but only after I took a wrong turn (shut up, Mickey) that allowed us the opportunity to see a bit more of downtown Nashville than was previously planned. US31E to US25W neither of which took us particularly E or W, but rather more N toward Kentucky, where we would pick up US231 at Bowling Green. All nice roads. We came to love the US highways because they were fast (enough), but still took us through some interesting small towns.

Weather was a little chilly, but rain wasn't a worry. We ate a light breakfast at the hotel in Nashville so we weren't getting hungry until just outside of Morgantown, KY. As the lead rider, it was going to be my decision where we would stop to eat and that's a lot of responsibility! We try not to stop at chain restaurants as we like to pick up some of the 'local flavor'. Still, many of these towns didn't have a cute little roadside cafe in them; mostly just McDonald's and Hardee's. Then I spotted a cute little cottage-looking building with a couple of those "OPEN" flags hanging off it and I thought "Perfect" and started to extend my left arm to signal a turn. NOPE. It was a satellite TV and cellular phone store.

Not too far up the way, in the heart of Morgantown, I finally did find a place. Quite a place. I mean...how can you NOT stop at a joint called....


I don't recall what everyone ate, but Laura had the fried chicken livers (gotta love a place with THAT on the menu!) and I had what they called The Chuckwagon, which turns out to be a chicken-fried hamburger and was delicious. Although, I think you could chicken-fry a shoe and it would be delicious.

Shortly after Morgantown, we turned north off of 231. We did 69 for the next 45 minutes or so until we crossed the Ohio River into Indiana. We were supposed to take 66 (The Ohio River Scenic Byway) into Hoosier national Forest, but the road was closed, probably due to flooding, so IN37 was the detour. We eventually reconnected to 66, took it to IN135 and took that into Nashville, IN for our stay at the Brown County Inn. The roads we took through Hoosier Forest and Brown State Park were absolutely beautiful: rolling farmland, streams, forests. You should plan a visit to the area. We are going to try to get back there this fall.

We did get a little lost somewhere along the way (shut up, again, Mickey). While trying to get our bearings, a gentlemen came out from his front porch, walked over and said in a voice that, to me, sounded like Strother Martin in Cool Hand Luke "What you'll want to do is take this road up to the stop sign. Turn right. Head down to the next stop sign and turn left and you'll be right where you want to be." He did not tell us, though, that the first stop sign was about 6 miles away and would take us down progressively narrower roads until I was not the only one that thought that were were about to be victims of some sort of Criminal Minds-like serial murder--I was waiting for a guy in overalls to pull his truck into our path, hop out and reach into the bed to get his chainsaw. His directions were right on, though, and we got back on our way to Brown County Inn.

[We were in a little bit of a hurry, due in part to the detour, some issues with finding a gas station, and taking "Strother's Route" (still shut up, Mickey). Therefore, I didn't take any pictures of this leg of our trip. Some of the others may have, though, and I will add them to this thread if I obtain any]

We arrived at Brown County Inn about an hour before the dining room would close. Arriving at 8:00pm turned out to be perfect timing and I kept my promise to Laura not to make her ride on unfamiliar back roads in the dark.

The Inn turned out to be the perfect stopping place for us. No one wanted to ride someplace else to eat and they have a very nice dining room. They also have a bar that had a young man playing guitar and singing which made our night-cap very pleasant. The Inn is rustic and comfortable and walking distance to a row of small shops (although we got there too late and were leaving too early to take advantage of this last part). It is, I want to reiterate, a great motorcycle destination.

The only picture I have of the Inn. The dining room. The people in the picture are not us. They are a group of professional anglers in the area for a fishing competition.


After an after dinner cocktail, we headed down the corridor to our rooms. The next day, our last day, was to be a long one.... (to be continued...)

[the Ferret]

My favorite section of your report so far...know why? .................It sounds like a great day, which often seem to be going so wrong, but end up being so right!

[Cormanus]

This must have been a great trip. Thanks again.

[emptysea]

The Long And Windy Road That Leads To Your Door

Breakfast buffet at Brown County Inn--yet another benefit of staying at a resort rather than a motel. Plenty of food to fuel our bodies and 275 more miles to fuel our souls.

We decided to hit the road right after breakfast rather than hanging out in Nashville, exploring the little shops and such. It turned out to be a good decision to get on the road. The road was IN46 into Bloomington on a windy, sunny, and cool, and windy Saturday. A relaxing, curvy, and mostly tree-lined ride. I believe it was the most pleasant start to any of our riding days. Just one of those roads that makes you love motorcycling. Did I mention that it was windy?

It was to be 46 through Bloomington, picking up US231 and then a left and a right and we'd wind up on US41 North which would take us the bulk of the way back to the Chicagoland area. We would stop for lunch someplace, but I was not going to take full responsibility for where--too much stress. If I saw a place, I decided I would stop and ask for a consensus. 46 was pretty straight after Bloomington, but both it and US231 have enough curves to make things a little more palatable. Nice ride, but it was windy.

We turned off of 231 (the aforementioned left) onto US36 west toward Rockville. Rockville was looking like a good place to stop for food. 36 was pretty much straight as an arrow west into the 20+mph wind. I don't know if I mentioned it, but it was windy.

Rockville is the county seat for Parke County ("The Covered Bridge Capital of the World") and, as such, has a beautiful courthouse in the center of the town square. Adjacent to that is a little restaurant/bar called Thirty-Six Saloon which looked good to me, but I also noticed another bar a little up the street with a bunch of bikes parked in front. I pulled off to the side and, as I previously decided, left the choice to the group and we opted for Thirty-Six as the other bar seemed too crowded to get a relatively quick lunch. It was a good choice.

Thirty-Six does their own BBQ and their brisket was fantastic. As it turns out, we stayed a little bit longer than originally planned because, although it was not spoken, it felt good to be off the bikes for a bit because it was really windy.

Thirty-Six Saloon








After lunch, we hopped on the bikes and made that right turn I mentioned earlier onto US41 north. The section of 41 north of 36 until just past Turkey Run State Park is really a great motorcycle road. Not challenging, but big sweeping turns and some elevation changes made for a picturesque ride. We even crossed a river where I beeped and waved at kayakers who actually waved back! Kind of silly, but kind of neat, too. The curves, the trees, and the hills broke up the wind a little, which was a relief. It was really windy that day.

Shortly after passing Turkey Run, 41 runs north along the Indiana/Illinois border through flat farm country. We passed a few wind farms along the way. Apparently, this section of Indiana gets a lot of wind all year around. This was evident to us as we rode with all bikes leaning noticeably to their left. The Goldwing and F6B had fewer problems with the wind, but we were all getting beat up a bit as we rode the 75 miles to our next scheduled gas stop. That 75 miles at 65mph felt like 150 because, as you may know, it was very windy.

Somewhere close to Morocco, IN, where we had our first breakfast on this trip, someone in our group lost their last lunch. A little stress and a lot of wind caused a little queasiness and we had to stop at the side of the road for a few minutes before the gas stop and then for a few minutes more at the gas stop itself. Boy, was it windy.

We decided that we would take the remaining 100-125 miles home slower and we would stop to check on our distressed rider about every 1/2 hour and at stoplights until we arrived at home. We thought this was best because it was still very windy.

I hesitated to talk about our queasy rider because I didn't want to embarrass that person in any way. I included it, though, because it caused me to realize that me and my friends were were different now than we were when we started riding together. Our universal agreement to stop frequently in deference to our weakened member showed me that we were now a cohesive unit, not 5 individual riders and 1 passenger. One "club" as opposed to a 6 member "group". It wasn't an individual rider in distress. Rather, the club was in distress and it was the club's responsibility to get home as one.

As it turns out, we felt much better after the rest break in Morocco. The rest of the trip was still very windy, but the frequent breaks made us feel better able to cope with that. We made the mistake of taking 41 all the way to I-80 which brought us through two towns with dozens of stoplights. This worked out OK for us in light of our circumstances, but avoid this if you are traveling up US41 toward Chicago--huge waste of time.

Safe at home...






We arrived home tired and wind-blown, but thrilled about the amazing journey we had just completed. Sometimes, after a trip with friends, there is a period of reflection before discussions of the trip or plans for future trips begin. We arrived home, if I recall, at about 5:00pm. By 6:00pm I had emails from everyone in the group talking about the trip and looking forward to the next one. 1800 miles. Eight days. Six riders. Five bikes. One unit. One fantastic ride. Many more to come.














(Thanks, Mickey )

[Damfino_imp]

Sounds like a great trip Matt, you happened to go through my old area on your way home. I lived south of Rockville in Brazil, Indiana for 10 years and travelled Rt.36 & 41 many times between Chicago and Brazil. You would have been better off turning west at Indiana Rt. 2 as it becomes Illinois Rt. 17, then Rt.1, before finally turning into I-394.

[emptysea]

ADDENDUM #1: MAPS

These are pictures, rather than links, but they should give anyone interested a good general idea of the routes we took. Please feel free to send me a PM if you want more details.

Chicago to Sharonville


Sharonville to Paris (portions redacted)


Paris to Berea


Berea to Corbin to Clinton


Robbinsville to Chattanooga to Nashville


Robbinsville directly to Nashville


Nashville to Nashville


Nashville to Chicago (Did I mention that it was windy??)

[OldF7Guy_imp]

Great report Empty Sea. You guys blew through Kentucky on your way back before I knew it. I would have loved to have met up with you guys to show you a few sites and ride a little. Glad you all made it home safely.