...and the fun continues!

Day 6 Thursday, April 22, 2010

Jan was my roommate last night. Chuck was with C.E. and Ken was with Bruce. My alarm went off and I got up and got dressed. Jan got up soon after and got dressed. We packed our bags and then went downstairs for breakfast. When we arrived, C.E. was already having breakfast. He had already been out to his Motor and had it packed. Bruce and Ken joined up soon after and then Chuck snuck in. While we were having breakfast, JB Henderson (you all remember JB, he's the stranger who went with us on the first two rides: 4 Corners and Route 66) called Chuck on the cell phone. The spoke for a while and Chuck walked out to his Motor and got his computer. Chuck sat in the lobby and had JB on Skype. We all had a chance to speak with him. JB hasn't been with us because he is helping out in Iraq with training their Police Officers. He is training the trainers with K-9's. (dogs for those who don't know what K-9's are. I'm not referring to teeth. although dogs, or K-9's, do have teeth...) anyway, he will be there for another year. We were done talking with JB and we got ready to leave. The Motors were all packed and the map came out. Chuck asked that I find a place about 30 miles away so that the Harley's could gas up. I found a town called Wickliffe in Kentucky that we could stop. C.E. and I entered Wickliffe in our navigation systems. We left at 8:56 AM.

C.E. was leading again and we needed to ride north to the stop sign (about 200 yards), turn right and go one block to I-55, ride about two miles and turn left onto US 60. The rider positions were: C.E., Chuck, Jan, Bruce, Ken and me. We stopped at the stop sign and turned right towards I-55. C.E. didn't turn onto I-55, but instead, continued east. After passing our turn, Chuck rode up to C.E. and told him that we missed the turn and that we were supposed to go south on I-55 to get back to US 60. C.E. made a u-turn and we all followed. We all got onto I-55 and were headed south. Good! Us 60 came up and we made a left and now we were eastbound on US 60. Good! We needed to go 12 miles where there is a turnoff for US 60. There was a big sign indicating: Paducah US 60 East. The exit was soon after. About 6 miles later, Chuck passed C.E. and took over the lead. Chuck pulled into a truck stop and we stopped to discuss our situation. I had told Chuck that we had passed a sign indicating that Cairo, IL was in 9 miles. we had passed the sign about 2 miles prior. We decided to drive to Cairo and get gas. Jan took over the lead and led us to Cairo. We passed Mississippi River, Ohio River and the Tennessee River before we got to Cairo. We stopped at a gas station, however we left immediately. We didn't like the way the area looked nor the gas station. Jan continued to lead up and we finally rode out of Illinois and into Kentucky. We pulled into a gas station at 9:48 AM after riding 15.5 miles. We gassed up, took a little break and talked about the huge rivers that we had just crossed. It had warmed and we took off our jackets and put them away. The bottom line about missing the exit is that we still ended up in the town that we had said earlier that we were going to stop. We just went a little longer distance. No harm done. We left at 10:16 AM with Chuck leading.

We rode for 41.3 miles and at 11:12 AM we stopped in a small town named Ledbetter, KY. It was time for a pit stop. We didn't stay long and we were soon on our way. We left at 11:31 AM.

Another 38.0 miles went by and we stopped in Marion, KY at 12:12 PM. It was time for lunch and we stopped at a Subway. While we were eating, a biker stopped at the Subway and walked over to our Motors and was looking at them. He came inside the Subway and started talking to Chuck. Go figure! He told Chuck about his prison time and his parole and his personal story. How does Chuck attract this kind of people? The guys think it's because of the way he looks. I don't know. Anyway, We finished our lunch and no other biker or felon came up to us or Chuck so we left at 1:03 PM.

Now we are post-lunch. We need to stop soon after lunch to take a break. We don't want to fight the sleep-monster while we ride our Motors. Chuck pulled into a mini-mart/gas station in Waverly, KY at 3:26 PM after riding 66.3 miles. We couldn't make a pit stop inside the mini-mart so we used the j-jon that was outside. I guess it was the owners way of telling us that they didn't want us to use their facilities. As we were in the parking lot on our break, Chuck's friend, the felon biker, rode by us on his bike. We figured that he missed Chuck and wanted to see him again. I think Chuck either has a new friend or a stalker. We left at 3:50 PM before Chuck's friend had time to realize that he had just past his new friend and turn back.

We continued on US 60 with Chuck leading. We stopped at a gas station 66.3 miles later at 3:26 PM in Lewisport, KY. The Harley's needed has again for their "peanut tanks." We didn't take long. Jan asked for the map and we studied it to see where we could stop for the night. We plotted a route and entered Louisville in our navigation system. We weren't going to stop there, but, we were going to stop close by where there was a Best Western. We left at 3:50 PM. Soon after we left Lewisport we lost an hour because of the time zone change.

We rode on and as we got closer to Louisville, the traffic was heavier. We took a road that was a short distance from Louisville and didn't go into town. We stopped in the outskirts of Louisville at 6:27 after riding 98.3 miles. We needed to check the map to see where there was a close Best Western. We found a Best Western in Shelbyville, about 22 miles away. C.E. and I entered the address on our navigation system and we left at 6:44 PM.

Jan lead us to Shelbyville and , thanks to the navigation system, we found the Best Western. We arrived at 7:07 PM after riding 23.4 miles. We checked into the motel, rode our Motors close to the rooms and took our bags to our rooms. We asked the clerk for a place to eat and he directed up to a place called the Cattleman's Roadhouse. It was not far from the motel. We ate and returned to the motel where we tucked our Motors in for the night.

We rode for 344 miles today. We also rode in three states. As usual, I am not sure what tomorrow brings. If we are lucky, we might ride into West Virginia. We shall see...