Knoxville
Miles = 776
We had a two-day window so we made a route where we could see some different things and Knoxville seemed to fit the bill. We decided to stay on the outskirts and not downtown so we would be riding mostly from sun up to sun down. The downtown Knoxville hotel is nice but we stayed out on Merchant Drive to simplify the process and also allowed for an easy and early exit in the morning.
Day One - 452 miles
We started out on I-75 down to Lexington where exited onto US60 and the fun began. Our first stop was planned to be a view of the High Bridge over the KY river. We had been to the park on the east side of the river and it was quite a view so we thought getting a different view would also be good. We saw there was a road leading down to the river, but what we didn't know was that it was inside a park which didn't open until 9:00 or so, and we arrived before its opening. It looked like it was going to open shortly but we also didn't want to wait around and see if it did or not. From our vantage we couldn't see a thing. The good news was the road was quite nice. We took KY33 down to Danville where we connected to US150 and eventually US150. Our next stop was the William Whitley House State Historic Park. I had seen these signs for the house and this guy's name more than once but never thought to visit the site. It was very worthwhile. William Whitely was a pioneer who moved from Virginia to Kentucky in 1775. He fought in the Revolutionary Was under George Rogers Clark and eventually settled and built his home sometime between 1787 and 1794 as a fortress against Indian attacks. It was the first brick house in KY and became part of the park system in 1938. The most interesting thing about the house to me was he built Sportsman's hill on his land which was nothing more than a large hill surrounded by lower fields that allowed for anyone standing on the hill to have a view of horses racing around the hill and thus was born the KY tradition of horse racing. We continued down US150 and stopped at Laurel River Lake which wasn't much but we stopped anyway. Before long we were at Cumberland Falls State Park and we stopped there for some lunch we picked up at a nearby Subway. The park was so crowded we just parked in the lot at the very end and viewed the Edward Moss Gatliff Memorial Bridge. Since it was Sunday I guess everyone was out. After the falls we stayed on KY90 which is a really nice road and headed south on US27 but we first made a short detour over to the Natural Arch Scenic Area. This is a real hidden gem and the views were really quite good given a seemingly unknown area. There looked to be lots of hiking trails in the area and this might be worth another visit in the future. It was already 2:30 and we knew we wanted to ride the Devil's Triangle so we got moving. We stopped at Brushy Mountain Penitentiary which we had been previously but it is a good stopping point before heading out on the triangle. The triangle is always good and we turned it up to make it to Knoxville before it got dark. We didn't quite make that, and we stopped at Hexagon Brewing just as they closed and missed adding a brewery to our list. Either way it was still a good ride and we wouldn't have done anything different.
Day Two - 369 miles
We rode less than a mile to Waffle House near the hotel which we have visited in the past for an early breakfast. We ride up to Rocky Top where stopped for some gas and rode north on old TN63. This road is a little dicey but it beats the Interstate. Old TN63 eventually meets up with TN297 and the road improves to some extent but again this beats the Interstate. As we got sown into Elk Valley and approached Jellico the fog was super intense and our speed dropped dramatically. Once in Jellico we crossed over I-75 and hit the backroads up into KY near Frakes. We stopped at the top of the hill for a brief respite and quickly moved on. Our next stop was another hidden gem, Flat Lick Falls. We had to do a little hiking back to the falls but on the sMonday there was no one there and it was a nice area to walk. Our next stop was another re-visited place which was the bridge at Irvine and south of the KY River. Our final stop was at Franklin Sousley's grave in Elizaville KY. Franklin was one of the six flag raisers at Iwo Jima in February of 1945 - Semper Fidelis! It was already 4:30 and we were boring daylight so we continued on and rode through the northern hills go KY on roads we really have never ridden. It was a very enjoyable ride and end to a very good day.