Southern Indiana: IN Route 66 - WOW!

[jimcor]

Anyone interested in recreational opportunities in Southern Indiana ought to get the free brochure "Ohio River Highlands Visitors Guide" from the Perry County, IN Conventions and Visitors Bureau. www.perrycountyindiana.org

Also the state of Indiana has a new free road map available, along with the usual tourist info books at www.VisitIndiana.com

Sometimes it's downright amazing what you can find in your backyard. :-D

[witttom]

Chiming in so that I can keep track of this topic/thread as well.

[oramac]

This is one of the rides I plan to take sometime soon. Thanks for the write-up!

[bwringer]

Watch this space -- Al and I (and hopefully a few others) are tentatively planning an early-season low-budget short-notice weekend camping trip to this area.

We'll probably pick out a couple of possible weekends in April and/or early May, then see what the weather does. If the first weekend is tolerably warm and dry, we go. If not, we wait and see what the second weekend looks like.

[bwringer]

Ride scheduled for May 2, 3, 4. Check the Meetingplace forum for all the details, although there really aren't any yet.

This is a total low-dough, make-it-up-as-you-go, no-plan, just-go-ride type of deal, not a GS Rally.

See you in Corydon!

[bwringer]

Got back earlier today.

Man oh man oh man. Lordy, that was fun.

We meant to leave Friday night, and I packed my waterproof camping and riding stuff, but in the end, we wisely decided to wait until Saturday morning.

Aside from some wicked crosswinds Saturday, we felt about three drops of rain Saturday morning. Otherwise perfect weather.

Along the way there and back, we explored some Brown County back roads Al hadn't seen before.

Saturday, we arrived at the campground, O'Bannon Woods State Park (formerly Wesselman Woods) in the early afternoon, set up the tents, chucked our gear inside, and headed for the hills.

As advertised, these roads are sublime -- lots of fast sweepers on 62, and tight technical sections on 66. The pavement is in excellent shape, although often littered with dried mud or gravel as is common in Indiana -- for some reason, Hoosier road builders are a stingy lot, and rarely add shoulders to our roads.

They also don't waste taxpayer funds banking or radiusing curves -- odd cambers, reducing radius curves and even several random double apexes are just what you get sometimes when the road follows the land in a mostly flat state. Not that I'm complaining -- Indiana's nonsensical twisties hone your rapid riding skills and reactions like no other place I've ridden. If you can ride fast here, you can ride fast anywhere.

We took IN 62 and 66 to Cannelton. We happened to pass the Cannelton locks when a downstream barge was headed into the lock, so we hung a quick u-turn to go watch from their visitors center tower. Pretty amazing to watch something that massive slowly sink 38 feet.

Cannelton turned out to be pretty much a creepy little ghost town -- we circled around a few times looking for an eatery or even a sign of life, but decided to cross the river and try our luck in Kentucky. It turns out the KY side is even less populated, and devoid of gas stations. Luckily, we made it to Brandenburg on the fumes remaining in Al's tank (my G model has a good bit more range than his GL). Despite the promise of the maps, there weren't many twisties in that area at all. It's mostly a plain tucked into a loop of the river.

Dinner was in Corydon, at a small mexican joint. The restaurant was a little run down, but the food was good and the waitress looked like Salma Hayek's younger sister. Better, actually. Salma better watch it if this girl ever gets a bus ticket.

We hit the Corydon cinema for the 9:30 showing of Iron Man (excellent) and then a foggy, wide-eyed 20 minute ride in the dark to the camp site and bed. Three groups of deer spotted, none hit.

The next morning, we packed up and headed west on 62 again. This time, we stopped at The Overlook in Leavenworth for a late brunch/early lunch, just ahead of the post-church crowd. Good food, great view, and we even got a window seat.

This time, we stuck to 62, and found even more of those wonderful sweeping curves. We finally turned north on 145, then connected to 150 west at West Baden to reprise a few of the finest roads from the Brown County rally -- veterans will recognize 150, 450, 58, 446, and 45.

All in all, a weekend well spent. We'll definitely be back.

[AOD]

Is it too far to explore on Friday the 16th when we're up in Columbus a day before the official Brown County Ride? I'm game to ride most of the day on Friday before our group dinner.

I'd go for that or consider riding Southeast towards Madison (Hwy 7 out of Columbus) for some fun roads.

Thoughts?

~Adam

[bwringer]

For people coming from the south, I think this area would probably be best enjoyed on the way to or from Columbus.

It's about 100 fairly enjoyable miles and about 2.5 hours down 135 from Columbus to Corydon, then another 65 or 70 miles and another 1.5 hours from Corydon to Cannelton.

That would be 8 solid hours and nearly 300 miles of riding, not counting stops. Add a few more hours if we were to take the "indirect" route back via 150, 450, etc. Probably not practical for a group, especially since we want to be back in Columbus in time for dinner.

I'll post over in the BC thread, but if some folks are coming in Thursday evening, I'd be happy to meet up Friday morning in Columbus or Nashville and show y'all some of the back roads that are difficult to navigate from a map. I'm taking all day Friday off, so it's all the same to me.

That would leave out the traditional pit stop at my house for the northern gang, but I guess they'd manage somehow.

[NDAna]

Did this several years ago. Went across the river IN to KY at the 135 crossing. Took the 1st right on KY 228 and just went for a drive. Was like going back in time 40 years or better. Old country road, barns, tractors and terrapins crossing the road. VERY nice, scenic drive, probably just followed my nose for about 50 miles.

[awjonesii]

Yes, much fun indeed. Aside from my son mildly complaining that his rear was hurting, it was a very sweet trip. The roads were refreshingly new and the views were spectacular in a lot of areas. I did some close to running out of petrol at one point, not enough freaking cheap gas in Kentucky (although its about 25 cents cheaper there than Indiana).

And yes Brian did not understate the waitress, at one point while Brian was in the bathroom I went up and asked her for a phone book to look up the number of the local movie theater. So she come back and hands me a small piece of paper with a phone number on it and Brian thinks I have gotten her number.

Great trip - would do it again. It was a great weekend.

[NDAna]

I'm in Seattle but my sis lives in Nashville. Will have her wave at you guys. Sorry - she is cute (a Mature cute:-D) and very happily married. Have a great weekend. Rode around the park last summer. Great memories of weekends there, visiting from Indy. One of my nephews lifeguards at the BC park pool. Will be with you in spirit.

[Gerald]

This past weekend, my wife and I stayed at a bed and breakfast on the Ohio River in Kentucky. On the way back home to Indy, we drove Indiana Route 66 from where we crossed the river in Cannelton eastward to Corydon.

Hey I hate when people do this cause I hate when it's done to me but Route 66 begins in Chicago not Indiana.

[TheCafeKid]

I missed this...Damn..BUT, Jim and Dale and I did find a nice little road on the way back from BC this year. IND 250. FUN!! some elevation change, quite a few "kiss your butts" thru that section, and then lots of well over the legal limit sweepers to blast.

May be a bit forward of me, But I have plans to go back to that area before the end of THIS season. I'd like to put together a day trip out of it, maybe, and some how combine these two routes...anyone game??

[Griffin]

I missed this...Damn..BUT, Jim and Dale and I did find a nice little road on the way back from BC this year. IND 250. FUN!! some elevation change, quite a few "kiss your butts" thru that section, and then lots of well over the legal limit sweepers to blast.

May be a bit forward of me, But I have plans to go back to that area before the end of THIS season. I'd like to put together a day trip out of it, maybe, and some how combine these two routes...anyone game??

Nope.




I hit that road a couple weeks after the BC Rally (66 that is, and 62). No traffic, well maintained, well posted, full sized two laner, with beautiful scenery and dozens of 50-75 mph sweepers.

Not my kind of road at all......

[jimcor]

Hey I hate when people do this cause I hate when it's done to me but Route 66 begins in Chicago not Indiana.

Ah, Indiana Route 66, doesn't begin in Illinois...