Clarksville TN
Miles = 711
It was kind of sad that in the first full year of both of us being retired it was already June and we had not taken a trip yet. While it wasn't going to be a big ride we had a two-day window where we had nothing scheduled and we decided to ride. We wanted something different which isn't easy with only two days but we looked at the map and noticed some uncovered areas southwest of us in middle TN. We decided on Clarksville TN which we had ridden through before on a trip down Natchez Trace before we began documenting. We left on Friday and would return the next day.
Day One - 368 miles
We started out in very familiar territory as we rode through eastern IN taking IN62 all the way to Madison where we stopped on the river for a brief rest. It was only 8:30 so we were already doing well on time. We moved on IN56 towards Salem but hit a detour that forced us to bypass the town which wasn't a big deal and we continued south on IN135. We started on some backroads so we could stop on the Blue River near Milltown. The stop was at the Totten Ford Bridge and much to our surprise it was a put-in spot for canoeing. There weren't any canoeists when we arrived but there were a couple of teenage workers waiting for the customers. They said it was private property but they didn't care if we stopped and walked around and up on the bridge which we did. We continued south and rode through the town of Corydon which was the first Capital of IN and the old statehouse still exists. We rode past it but didn't take any pictures. We stopped again on the Blue River at Breeden's bridge. This was a fairly big bridge and one with an interesting history. It is actually two different bridges that have different truss types are were relocated from different places back in 1959. Today it has no deck but will be refurbished to allow pedestrians to cross. We continued riding west spending a few short miles on I-64 before taking IN145 due south. We stopped at Huffman's Mill covered bridge where we had previously stopped back in 2013 and were very surprised by how it had deteriorated. We continued south on IN145 until we hit the Ohio River which we followed into Owensboro KY. Once there we stopped at Brew Bridge Brewing for lunch. South on KY189 took us to Hopkinsville which was a little seedy but we stopped at Hopkinsville Brewing Co which was very nice. It was after 4:00 by the time reached there so we had a quick pint and rode the short distance to Clarksville. The hotel was just up the street from the Star Spangled Brewery so we stopped to check in, changed clothes and went to the brewery for dinner. The food truck there had really good food so we enjoyed our evening and the setting sun as we sat outside to eat and drink.
Day Two - 344 miles
Not to much to choose from for breakfast so we decided on Waffle House. We rode north on KY79 which paralleled our route into Clarksville. We stopped at Falls of Rough which was another carryover from the 2013 trip, but this time it wasn't freezing. We wound our way east towards Elizabethtown on some nice roads and stopped in Bardstown for lunch at the Scout & Scholar Brewing Co. They served some pretty good wings. We hit some new roads as we travelled east of Louisville but nothing special. We stopped at General Butler state park in Carrolton KY on the river where we were treated with some really nice views. On the way back we followed the Ohio on the IN side which we have ridden too many times to count. Our last stop was on the old Triple Whipple bridge on old IN56.