Father's Day/Summer Solstice

[oldironnow]

Good on all of yous!

Should have ridden today, but that will come later.

Cheers!

[Fatfatboy]

I hope you all had a happy fathers day.
It was a beautiful day here.The daughter and I rode the Fatboy to meet the family for lunch and then went for a ride after.
Just slow paced back road putting with the princess. Got to love it.


Doughboy and I took advantage of the longest day of the year and did a sportster ride to the tip of Kentucky at the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi River's. Stayed dry for the most part.

We rode on the Illinois side of the Mississippi river following the old Muddy for much of the journey. Nice route. The only problem is Illinois is still in the shutdown so finding food, other than gas station grub or drive-thru food there ain't much available.

Really weird. In the eastern central part of Illinois close to St. Louis there are places open with outside seating. We were heading south. Seams the further south we went the less opportunity for real food there was. The BBQ place he had planned to stop at on our route was closed. Even their outside seating. Lost opportunities for these places. My guess is employees are making more off unemployment and the extended unemployment than they can working so they are taking vacations.

Here in Missouri everything is pretty much open with tables, both in or out, further spaced. All of Illinois, besides Chicago, really hates their governor right now, His decisions are killing small town Illinois farm communities.

We did up finding a guy with an enclosed trailer and a smoker selling vittles so we sopped for a smoked turkey sammich. Served it's purpose.  

Kind of ironic that here we had a guy smoking meat out of a mobile unit and he had a NO SMOKING sign tapped to the side of his trailer. I couldn't help myself to point out the irony.




 After a bite we continued south and got lucky at one point. We pulled into a station for fuel. As soon as we pulled in one of those heat and humidity heat induced popup storms popped up. After fueling we pondered if we should reroute because of the rain.
Thankfully because of modern technology I was able to pull up weather radar on my cell and seen the patch of rain was heading north. The way we came.

After a couple smokes and bullshitting each other the rain let up, sun popped out, roads dried instantly and we were off south again.

 We made it to southern most part of Illinois called Cairo. Cairo is one of those towns at one time was a thriving community with hustle and bustle going on but as since declined to a depressed area with very little population. In 1920 they had 15,000 population. In 2010 2,000.

Their prosperity started in the Civil War because of its location at the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers and was a naval base. Place prospered until a couple RR bridges and then auto bridges were built which directed traffic away from the town then in the 1960's racial issues arose between the white politicians and police and black population and the National Guard had to be deployed. Hard to believe we are still fighting this so many years later.

Real depressing ridding through town with everything barred up with a huge beautiful Catholic church and a three story Post Office that were both built in the early 30's.
Seems the only businesses are Dollar General, a few BBQ joints, that are closed, and several liquor stores that are open.

After passing through Cairo we crossed the really old long bridge was under construction with half of one lane closed so they had a temporary light set up in the middle of the bridge to split the bridge up in one lane half way across,

On the other side of Cairo is Whittcliff KY. Our turn around and a stop of the scenic view that overlooks the confluence.







eAfter a couple photo's we hightailed it back north following crossing that old ridge again and sitting on it feeling it shake waiting for out turn to finish the crossing.





After the crossing we hightailed up the Great River Road highway 3 until we made it to our split off where we finally found something opened for a parting shot of bourbon and a chaser of beer.



A great day with a great friend.  
 




 
 
 

 

[Allred]

.

Excellent report and pics FatFat, good to read of your and Doughboy's ride!

[oldironnow]

Congrats on getting out there.
Great story and ride!