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.
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.
