Day 31 - Charlotte

Miles today: 326

Miles total: 10,759

Rode along the Kanawha River on US60 through Gauley Bridge.  Then south on US19, a bit of US64 through Beckley, and WV-20 along the New River.

Picked up US460 to Pearisnurg and then followed VA-100 to Dublin ... followed by 3 hours of interstates to Charlotte.

Fin.

Day 30 - Charleston WV

Miles today: 401

Miles total: 10,433

First stop today was the Cave Hill Cemetery in Louisville KY, to visit The Colonel.

When I pulled in I was stopped and told that motorcycles aren’t allowed in the cemetery.  But the security folks were super nice and proceeded to give me a personal tour in their car.  My “tour guide” Chris pointed out that Colonel Sanders’ grave was just two doors down from members of the Beam family (as in Jim Beam).  Seems to me there’s some sort of cosmic symmetry in that fact.  

He also drove me to the other side of the enormous cemetery to visit Muhammad Ali.

Next stop was the state capitol in Frankfort.

The unusual fact I learned about this capitol is that the four murals surrounding the rotunda were part of the original design of the 1910 building but not actually installed until 2010.  The reason? The original artist died on the Titanic. 

I also determined that, until recently, this one building simultaneously housed statues/busts of 1) Abraham Lincoln, 2) Jefferson Davis, and 3) Colonel Sanders (Jefferson Davis moved out about a year ago).

Next stop was Pikeville KY, the heart of Hatfield-McCoy country.  The Big Sandy Museum was closed but, after quite a bit of riding around, I eventually found the grave of Randolph McCoy.

 

I like how the monument has “Famed Leader Hatfield - McCoy Feud” etched into it. Presumably if you went through the trouble to find the grave you’d know who Randolph McCoy is.

Last stop was the capitol building in Charleston WV.

I give it bonus points for the nice gilding on the dome.

Day 29 - West Baden Springs IN

Miles today: 415

Miles total: 10,032

Riding I-74 was unavoidable today ... it went pretty much exactly where I needed to go (for the first couple of hundred miles anyway)  and there aren’t any obvious interesting alternatives. I rode it to near Peoria, then exited and took back roads from Pekin to around Champaign.  From there I was back on 74 until just past the Indiana border.

After that it was a complicated zigzag through Terre Haute and rural southwest Indiana. Started running into issues again finding gas. Had to stop at 4 stations before I found any, and when I did I was lucky because I was the last one to fill up before the station closed its pumps.  I heard there might be gas shortages this weekend ...

I got to within 15 miles of my destination only to find the last critical bit was closed. Which forced me to take some more bad local roads (reminiscent of Napa).  At least I was able to dodge the rain for another day.

The West Baden Springs hotel is a pretty spectacular building. The rooms surround huge atrium beneath a 200 foot diameter dome - the largest free-spanning dome in the US when the hotel was built in 1901.  It held that record until the Charlotte Coliseum was built in 1955.

Day 28 - Le Claire IA

Miles today: 346

Miles total: 9617

Basically I just followed the Mississippi River all day, along the Great River Road. 

About halfway down I stopped at the Effigy Mounds National Monument. After checking the hiking trail map it was clear the only thing I had time for was a visit to the Little Bear Mound, but the park ranger was eager for me to take an extra 10 minutes and see to the Great Bear Mound too. “It’s the biggest mound in the park.”  There’s a nice 3D model in the visitors center depicting the whole park; here are the Little & Great Bear Mounds.

So I huff and puff my way up the trail, in all of my riding gear (about a mile long and 350 vertical feet up), and this is what I saw.

Nothing but some weedscapes.

Moving  on ...

As a regular viewer of  “American Pickers” I figured I’d stop in the Antique Archeology store in Le Claire. 

They had a few interesting things from their picks but it was mostly a collection of TV show-themed t-shirts, stickers, refrigerator magnets, coffee mugs, aprons, beer glasses, and hats.

Day 27 - River Falls WI

Miles today: 402

Miles total: 9271

Today was supposed to only be about a 300 mile ride.  But the radio mast thing was bugging me, so I went back to the KRDK TV tower to take some photos.

(The short mast next to it was a temporary antenna used after the original one collapsed when a helicopter collided with a guy wire.  The big one was rebuilt in 1997 to its original height).

Rode US10 across Minnesota, through Detroit Lakes and Little Falls to Saint Cloud, then picked up MN-95.  Crossed into Wisconsin at Osceola, then followed the Saint Croix river through Hudson to River Falls.  Had to contend with on-and-off rain for the last few hours but the temperature was fine (upper 70s).

Day 26 - Fargo ND

Miles today: 420

Miles total: 8869

Overcast skies when I left at 6:45am.  That’s a good thing when riding east over flat open ground in the morning, otherwise the sun is right in my face.  After about 100 miles on US2 I started getting into the fringes of some light rain, near Minot.  

Passed near the geographic center of North America ... sort of.  In 1928 the US Geographical Survey put the center 15 miles from Rugby ND, and in 1931 the city erected this obelisk. Supposedly if you take into account the earth’s curvature the center is actually in Center ND (ironically named because it’s the center of the county).  But Rugby has the obelisk, and that’s what matters.

To dodge some thunderstorms I zig-zagged through Devils Lake.

Headed to what was once the tallest man-made structure in the world, the KVLY TV mast. It held the record from 1963-74 and again from 1991-2010 (2063 feet).

It’s still the tallest structure in the Western Hemisphere ... or so I was led to believe until an hour ago.  After I got to Fargo I learned that, in 2019, the top VHF antenna was removed and reduced its height to 1987 feet.  Heck the WBTV antenna near Charlotte taller than that!  What’s frustrating is that I saw what’s now the tallest structure in the Western Hemisphere — the KRDK a antenna (2060 feet) is only a few miles from the KVLY antenna. But I didn’t stop to take a picture.

Day 25 - Williston ND

Miles today: 455

Miles total: 8449

Rode northeast out of Great Falls on US87, then back on US2 eastbound at Havre. Compared to my 2018 ride through eastern Montana on MT-200, the US2 route is way nicer, roughly following the Milk and Missouri rivers.  The again it was 25 degrees cooler this time which might bias my opinion ...

Stopped in Malta MT — and yes it’s named after that Malta.  Originally nothing but a rail siding, the town  got its name when a Great Northern Railway official spun a globe and randomly ended up pointing at Malta. 

A number of dinosaur fossils have been found in the Malta area.  There’s a small dinosaur museum there which has a cast of what is allegedly the best preserved dinosaur ever found (“Leonardo”).

Took a minor detour to see the Fort Peck Dam on the Missouri River.  The earthen dam is a bit underwhelming but the spillway and power plant were interesting.

Day 24 - BMW Rally

Miles today: 16

Miles total: 7994

Not much to report today ... spent the day at the national BMW motorcycle rally in Great Falls.  I’m guessing 3000 or so motorcycles showed up today. 

The rally is being held at what used to be the Northern Montana State Fairgrounds. Turns out to have a nice collection of fairly well-preserved late 1930s Art Deco buildings, constructed during the WPA.

Day 23 - Great Falls MT

Miles today: 394

Miles total: 7978

Rode north on US95 up to Ponderay, around the north side of Lake Pend Oreille, then followed the Clark Fork into Montana down to Missoula.

Saw this odd collection of old cars neatly lined up on a steep embankment.  The whole thing was about a quarter mile long. 

From Missoula took MT-200 all the way to Great Falls.

Hit one rain shower as I crossed the Continental Divide ... helped clean a weeks worth of dead bugs from my windshield. 

Day 22 - Coeur D’Alene ID

Miles today: 343

Miles total: 7584

Headed out of Seattle east on US-2 ... overcast and low 60s ... up through Steven’s Pass, then followed the whitewater of the Wenatchee River for a bit.

Stopped at the nice little faux Bavarian village of Leavenworth.

Shortly after that, between Orondo and Waterville, the mountains abruptly end and the geography turns into the dry plains of eastern Washington. Temps are now around 90.

Which then leads to coulees (trenches) formed at the end of the last ice age.

Took a slight detour north to see the Grand Coulee Dam on the Columbia River.  A contemporary of the Hoover Dam, it’s almost 4 times as massive and produces over three times as much power (6800 MW). It’s the largest hydroelectric producer in the US. 

Day 21 - Seattle WA

Miles today: 286

Miles total: 7241

Somewhat boring ride up I-5 to Seattle.  Stopped in Olympia to see the state capitol.

Interestingly the governor’s mansion is literally right next to the capitol.  Can’t really see the house through the foliage though.

Sunset over Lake Washington, with Mt Ranier in the background.