{"id":938,"date":"2015-07-06T20:57:12","date_gmt":"2015-07-07T00:57:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wherearemomanddad.com\/?page_id=938"},"modified":"2021-06-16T13:57:12","modified_gmt":"2021-06-16T17:57:12","slug":"2015-ride-across-the-smokey-mountains","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/wherearemomanddad.com\/?page_id=938","title":{"rendered":"2015 Ride across the Smoky Mountains"},"content":{"rendered":"
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This summer’s motorcycle trip will take Mr. Smith, our riding buddy, Kev, and I back across the Smokey Mountains in hopes of adding another five states to our list of eventually 50 U.S. States.\u00a0 The round trip will likely take about 12 days.\u00a0 Of course we’ll be blogging our adventure daily.\u00a0 Day 1 was pretty boring.\u00a0 We rode for 10 hours, traveled 330 miles and WERE STILL IN FLORIDA!!!.\u00a0 This includes a 1 hour rain delay to allow a thunder and lightning storm to pass us by.\u00a0 We’re spending the night in Gainesville, planning to make it to Georgia by mid morning.\u00a0 The plan is to head north to catch some of that fun mountain riding and then head west to the Mississippi.<\/p>\n

\"Day<\/a>DAY 2 We left Gainesville, Florida under beautiful skies and headed north on Route 441 towards Georgia.\u00a0 Route 441 north from the University of Florida is a pleasant, tree-lined hilly and curved road, that is a joy to be on.\u00a0 We stopped for breakfast in Fargo, Ga, just north of the Georgia-Florida boarder at a locals place where we had scrambled eggs, bacon, toast, grits, and coffee for $7.00!!!.\u00a0 Too bad it’s so far away from home.\u00a0We followed Route 441 for 360 miles to Athens, Ga and the University of Georgia.\u00a0 This trip seems to be turning into the “College Tour” ride. Dinner was in downtown Athens, at a top rated restaurant called “the Last Resort Restaurant”.\u00a0 Great food!<\/p>\n

\"Day<\/a>DAY 3 Partly cloudy this morning when we left Athens and jumped back on 441 North through the Smoky Mountain foothills.\u00a0 We stopped for breakfast\u00a0in Clayton, Georgia with Kev’s sister- and brother-in-law.\u00a0 From Clayton, Ga, we continued on 441 into Tennessee and over the Smoky Mountains.\u00a0\u00a0 Out of Seveir,\u00a0we jumped onto 411\u00a0north to 25E into Middlesboro, Kentucky.\u00a0 It was a short day of only 287 miles, but lots of fun curves and hills we were able to enjoy at a nice clip.\u00a0 Unfortunately, we’re spending the night in a dry county \ud83d\ude41<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>DAY 4 We were met by partly cloudy skies when we left Middlesboro, Kentucky and jumped onto Route\u00a066 North towards Ohio.\u00a0 The ride on Route\u00a066 was EXCELLENT!\u00a0 This is not the “famous” Route 66, but Kentucky 66.\u00a0 Plenty of twisties, and curves along this country road that parallels the Kentucky River and the Coal Rail.\u00a0 So what if we caught a little rain around midday.\u00a0 That’s what rain gear is for.\u00a0 We road through some great small country towns; part of what made America great.\u00a0 From Route 66, we cut over to Route 11 which took us into Ohio and then followed Route 52, followed by Route 50 along the Ohio River to Lawrenceburg, Indiana.\u00a0 Some great riding at a nice clip with little to no traffic.\u00a0 A total of 300 miles today.\u00a0 Tomorrow we head west towards Missouri.<\/p>\n

\"Madison\"<\/a>DAY 5 It sure was cloudy when we left Lawrenceburg, Indiana.\u00a0 We headed west on 56 through Aurora, Indiana (cute little town by the way) and stopped in Madison, Indiana for a cup of Jo.\u00a0 No sooner did we suit up, then it started to rain and continued to do so for much of the day.\u00a0 We however continued undaunted, jumping onto route 50 through much of Indiana and Illinois.\u00a0 We passed through the home of Larry Bird…NBA star of the Celtics…you’ll have to look in the photo album for the name of the town.\u00a0 It’s a winner!\u00a0 From Route 50 in Illinois, we jumped onto route 150 which took us into Missouri and a slight diversion on interstate 64 to visit Mr. Smith’s Mom.\u00a0 She’s looking as spry and she is as witty as ever!\u00a0 After 400 miles of mostly rain, but some good riding, we called it a night in St. Louis, Missouri.<\/p>\n

\"rt<\/a>DAY 6 300 miles of great riding!\u00a0 Finally, the sun greeted us as we left St. Louis on Route 70, which took us to Route 270 and eventually Interstate 44 west to Route 66 west (this is the famous Route 66) and finally Route 19 south towards Arkansas in Cuba, Missouri.\u00a0 Route 19 is a do-over from last year’s Route 66 trip.\u00a0 We loved it so much that we had to bring Kev for a taste.\u00a0 This time we did 150 miles of Route 19 and you could have seen our smiles from outer space!\u00a0 This is easily one of my favorite rides.\u00a0 Full of curves, twisties, and hills.\u00a0 Not for the faint hearted, since most of the speed limits are around 50 MPH regardless of the curves!\u00a0 But the fun stuff wasn’t over when we left 19.\u00a0 We then turned onto 62 which took us to 9 south which was just as much fun as Route 19!\u00a0 We’ll definitely be coming back to this again.\u00a0 We’re spending the night in Mountain Home, Arkansas.\u00a0 Tomorrow we continue south in Arkansas.<\/p>\n

\"Route<\/a>DAY 7 Another great, sunny morning as “Reed Mapwell” led us from Mountain Home, Arkansas, west along\u00a0Route\u00a0412 to Route 7 south over 300 miles through the Ozark Mountains (they’re actually a plateau!)to Eldorado Arkansas near the border to Louisiana.\u00a0 What a great ride!\u00a0 We started out gentle with the fog lifting over the Arkansas River and then quickly headed into curves, twisties, and hills through trees and small towns of 1000 – 2000 people.\u00a0 This snip is just about 20 miles of the 300 miles we rode today on Route 7.\u00a0 It was hot!\u00a0 Just under 100 degrees most of the day; plenty of hydration and sun screen.\u00a0 We’re spending the night in Eldorado and heading into Louisiana tomorrow.<\/p>\n

\"boat<\/a>DAY 8 There wasn’t a cloud in the sky when we left Eldorado this morning, but boy was it a hot one!\u00a0 Today is essentially a transition day so we can get to the Gulf coast and ride along the Gulf for a few days.\u00a0 We jumped onto Route 167 south to Route 9 at Junction City, Louisiana, followed by Route 79 south which led us onto Interstate 20 west and then Route 27 south which took us all the way to the Gulf coast of Louisiana.\u00a0 We clocked over 330 miles today, most of it at 70ish miles\/hr.\u00a0 Not the most exciting biker’s day, but the rest of the trip should be very scenic.\u00a0 No more twisties.\u00a0 We’re spoiled I guess.\u00a0 We’re spending the night in Sulfur, Louisiana.\u00a0 Good news, it doesn’t smell anything like sulfur here.<\/p>\n

\"new<\/a>DAY 9 A little cloudy as we left Sulfur, Louisiana towards New Orleans and we caught a little spotty rain here and there.\u00a0 We started out on Route 27 south towards the gulf, jumped onto a ferry and followed the Gulf coast east towards New Orleans.\u00a0 Route 27 was fun, but once we got onto Interstate 90 the ride was boring\u00a0 We white knuckled it about 200 miles of the 300 mile trip to New Orleans on Interstate 90.\u00a0 Once we got to New Orleans, it was all good.\u00a0 We had some roasted oysters at ACME Oysters and then had a great dinner at Mr. B’s Bistro.\u00a0 Lot’s of fun as well.\u00a0 There’s only one New Orleans!\u00a0 Tomorrow we head to Biloxi, Mississippi.<\/p>\n

\"Capture\"<\/a>DAY 10 Whew, it was a hot one!\u00a0 We left New Orleans bright and early in the morning and took Interstate 10 for an exit or two to get to Route 90 south again which eventually got us to Route 23 south along the west bank of the river that leads to the south most point of the delta.\u00a0 We rode though little towns like Bohemia and Port Sulfur all the way down to the Delta National Wildlife Refuge.\u00a0 Unfortunately, the damage from hurricane Katrina is still evident as several homes were missing walls.\u00a0 To get back, we took a ferry across the river to get onto Route 39 North which actually turned out to be a fun ride.\u00a0 Route 39 north eventually brought us back to Route 90 east along the Gulf Coast passed Gulf Port and Biloxi to Ocean City, Mississippi (no room at the inn at any of the hotels in Biloxi!).\u00a0 All-in-all 260 miles today. Tomorrow we head to Apalachicola, Florida.<\/p>\n

\"ship\"<\/a>DAY 11 We were back onto Route 90 east as the day started off hot and only got hotter.\u00a0 We learned last time it is best to avoid Mobile, Alabama on Route 90 because it backs up to a crawl.\u00a0 Therefore we shot over to Interstate 10 east until we were close to Destin, Florida.\u00a0 BIG MISTAKE!!!!\u00a0 Traffic on Route 98 through Destin crawled for what seemed like an eternity in the 100+ degree temperature.\u00a0 God was looking down on us though and created a nice sized downpour which cooled us and our bikes off.\u00a0 The sun came up again just before Apalachicola to dry us off.\u00a0 Essentially\u00a0a transit day of about 290 miles as we rolled into the Coombs Bed and Breakfast in Apalachicola, Florida.\u00a0 We had dinner at Boss Oysters on the water.\u00a0 Tomorrow we continue south towards Tampa.<\/p>\n

\"dirty\"<\/a>DAY 12 Finally partly cloudy skies as we left Apalachicola on Route 98 south towards Tampa Airport.\u00a0 It was a pleasant, gentle ride most of the way until Mr. Smith pointed out that I lost one of the windshield bolts on my bike.\u00a0 Good news! There was a Harley Davidson Shop in Crystal River who hooked us up in no time.\u00a0 Why are there so many Harley Shops across the US?\u00a0 So that you can keep riding when parts fall off your bike, of course!.\u00a0 Anyway, 290ish miles into Ybor City (just outside of Tampa) where we stopped for the night before we head home in the morning.\u00a0 Great dinner at La Terrazza and a night cap at Bad Monkey and into bed.\u00a0 We’ll put another 300 miles on the way home tomorrow for a total of about 4000 mile for this 13 day trip.\u00a0 Great friends, great time, great ride, great food.\u00a0 God Bless until next time.\u00a0 We love you Dave Mosier!\u00a0 RIP Gone to early.\u00a0 Until we meet again…<\/p>\n

Check out the other pictures from our trip in the photo album below.\u00a0 Either click on the “slideshow” or arrow down to page through the pictures one at a time.\u00a0 Enjoy!\u00a0 Don’t forget to sign in\u00a0on our Guest Page! \u00a0

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