Day 02 - Charleston, WV to Evansville, IN

 

We had breakfast and departed around 8:40am. We had an easy morning ride as we continued through the West Virginia mountains. Michele noted the tar snakes that are slippery when hot. Best to avoid them! There's been quite a bit of road construction, mostly newly paved roads luckily, and significant bridge work. Rob saw a huge sawblade this morning at a construction site that was 5 feet across!

It wasn't long before we crossed into Kentucky and headed towards Frankfort and Lexington. We did not plan to stop at distilleries since we loaded up during our April Bourbon Trail trip. Around 11:30am we stopped at Midway, KY for the first fuel stop and lunch. There were no tables outside in the shade so Rob set up our table and chairs in the parking lot and we ate our lunch there in the shade of the trees. 

After lunch we kept west on I-64 towards Louisville. The Wing's temp read about 88 degrees in the sun. We could see the clouds starting to form as scattered showers were predicted across the area later in the day. Louisville is one of the largest cities we have driven past on this route so far. 

This is the Belle of Louisville riverboat.

The old drawbridge was up, it looks like there is a house on top. We think that is where the operators control the up and down motion of the bridge.

Michele liked this driver's hood ornaments. She thought maybe he was a former jockey. Rob thought maybe his horses won the derby. 

We crossed over the Ohio River into Indiana at New Albany and had shade from the bridge.

We stopped at a Love's for cold drinks and a break about 70 miles from our final destination for the day. This Love's had parking spots for RVs with electrical hook ups. Inside they had fresh fruit. A worker told Michele that she had just cut up 6 watermelons to make up the to-go cups and it was delicious. We shared a cup and agreed. After this stop, the clouds thickened up and cooled things off a degree or two. Near our hotel we topped off the Wing with gas to be ready for tomorrow. We walked to the only non-fast food restaurant, Pip's Pub, close by to get takeout dinner. It is a newer diner. Back at the hotel, a man from Canada was out front and asked us about our trip. He previously had a 2016 Goldwing and traded it in for the BMW K1600. He said he's not sure he made the right decision!

Our location tonight is at the Kentucky and Illinois state borders in southwest Indiana. We rode about 350 miles today and moved into the Central Time Zone.

 Tomorrow we ride into Missouri.