Henry speaks of the river run we made. Every once in a while you can stumble across a great motorcycle road. The locals call this the river run, or the river road. This is one of them. There is about 30 miles of twisting hilly two lane road that is perfect for HD's. There's only one curve on it that is bad & it has great warning sign. The first time I rode this road, big Ed led the way. I remember his comment. Don't let off the throttle. These are perfect sweepers and you have to just trust me. Keep the throttle twisted. There are blind curves just over the hills that make you want to back off the throttle. But, they are sweepers, nothing eratic. The road seems to always lean in the right direction. There's no towns or cities and the houses are far and few between. The hay fields were being cut off the hillsides. The corn is brown and ready for harvest. Occassionally you get a great view of the mighty Ohio river. An occassional fox or rabbit may be running alongside the road. After making this run, we stopped at a red light, looked at each other and commented. it just doesn't get any better than that.
We crossed the Ohio river at Paducah on I-24 to Metropolis, the home of superman. We took the first exit and went East towards Brookport. Just on the west side of Brookport there is a sign, Ohio River Scenic Byway. It's a few miles to New Liberty where the good roads start. From there we headed North to Bay City, and Golconda. From New liberty to Golconda is the stretch of road that I speak of.
Southern Illinois reminds me of the old west, lawless. I thought Kentucky was backwoods, but Southern Illinois is more so. Like good sex, the river road made us thirsty so we rode up to Elizabethtown Ill. There's an old hole in the wall bar there that is a favorite to the locals. Illinois has passed a no smoking law since the last time I was there. No Smoking signs were all over the doors and walls inside the bar. Being a smoker myself, I was not happy to see those. We sat down and the waitress came over to us. She's about 55 y/o or so and covered in tattoos. She had a cigarette hanging out of her mouth and asked what she could get us. Her voice was raspy from years of smoking and a rough life. I asked her what the state of Illinois thought about her smoking in this fine establishment. Her reply: "Phuck em." I looked over to Henry and said..Welcome to Southern Illinois.
We rode on over to Cave-In-Rock Ill. where the free ferry is. There's a cave in the rock (dugh) there. Back in the old days pirates used to live in the caves and rob flat boaters as they made their way to New Orleans to peddle their goods. We crossed back into Ky at that point. We had to re-arrange our trip since we were running low on gas. Typically I'll turn back West towards home following the Ohio river. You'll pass through little communities of Tolu, Carrsville, Joy, Bayou, & Birdsville before finding getting back to civilization at Smithland Ky, which is just outside of Paducah.
What a great ride! THAT's what it is all about, not politics or religion.
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Topic: Thumper's Invade the Hogbreath's (Read 5909 times)