Coast to coast in the US -third time!

[mr west]

Day 8, Sunday 25th

As usual we got started around 7:30. It was a bit wet in the morning, but the mist in the forest looked nice as we took off.

We rode some really beatiful roads through Ohio towards Kentucky. A state neither of us have been to before. Right after crossing the river we stopped at Frisch's Big Boy buffet at around 11. We are in Kentucky! It feels a bit like a different country. All of a sudden there so many big farms and horses everywhere. Today we did the most miles today so far, which would be fine, but my back is hurting a bit. Not sure what to do about it.

We reached a paid campsite in Shelbyville around 4 which was really nice along some water. Set up the tent perfectly and started to prepare for the night. Until we had a closer look at the weather at around 6..... The guy from the campsite came driving and showed us the radar images on his phone. Tornado alert, 2" hailstorm and damaging winds coming right at us within one hour!

We packed the camp together at record speed and drove off in about 10 mins. I was not keen to hang around for tennisball sized hail.. As the thunder clouds came rolling in across the sky we tried to make it to a nearby Red Roof hotel.

Nothing really happened, and we were thinking that maybe people were a bit dramatic. But we met one guy in the reception that just arrived from Indiana, coming through the storm. He picked up a fist size hail on the way here he said... After checking into the room, THEN all of a sudden it broke loose! It was raining sideways. They let us park the bike under the roof in front of the reception but I was worried the wind would tip it over. After the worst passed we went to check on it, but it was fine!

[mr west]

Pics

[mrs west]

Just adding on some pictures from the beautiful the camp ground, Wayne National Forest, and the beautiful ride down Ohio and into Kentucky!

[mrs west]

And then of course the campsite at Lake Shelby and the tornado skies coming!

[Fred Camper]

Sure am glad you road to safety and did not have to sit in a tent during that big storm. Another smart move for both of you. Keep the reports coming as it is fun to tag along via ti's thread.

[Brant]

Good to see you on the road again. Thanks for sharing your trip.

[Whiskerfish]

Sounds like you made a wise decision!!

[mr west]

Day 9 (monday 26th)

The bike was ok after thunderstorm!

We drove to meet a friends parents for breakfast in Louisville. It was really great meeting these lovely people and we had great conversation and food. They insisted on sending us off with lots of snacks in the different compartments of the bike. We had the room since staying in a hotel haf allowed us to repack, and we found 10 pounds of useless stuff that we decided to send by post to LA!

Kentucky passed way to quickly and before we knew it we were in Indiana. We went a bit out of the way and saw the lakes of Hoosier National Forest. And the the backroads to Red Hills Lake State Park where we pitched the tent by the resorvoire.

We went for a pizza at caseys nearby which is like a gas station with a kitchen in it. It seemed the guy behind the counter didnt get many international guests and was very fascinated about Sweden and Europe, he suggested the other state park nearby where better where there would be white squirrels?. Anyway, we had a great talk until the pizza was finished and we returned to the tent. It was a beautiful sunset over the water and everything would have been perfect if some kind of frog or strange animal wouldnt have made these super loud noises that kept us awake most of the night...

[mrs west]

Pictures from the roads around Hoosier, Red Hills State Park campsite, which was such a delight. It really came out of nowhere and was so breezy, shady, and overall gorgeous, and signs welcoming us into new states!

[mrs west]

Red Hills State Park campsite. Really loved this place!

[mr west]

Day 10, tuesday 27th

In terms of driving it was not a very exciting day. We mostly took the old highway and the new highway into St Louis. We reached around noon and Amanda was really excited to try the special St Paul sandwich that originated in the chinese restaurants in the city. She has been making this sandwich at home for about a year but to visit the birthplace is special! We went to a take away place where it was supposed to have been invented, picked up two of them, and then sat down in a park to eat. Excellent. After some more online research we found another place that was supposed to be the actual first place. Also excellent! By now we had enough sandwiched as had some time to kill before a meeting with one of Amandas old professors from Umass. But it was getting really hot in the afternoon and not very pleasant to walk around. So we tried to find a place with AC to sit down. But its really strange, in St Louis every restaurant was either closed or didnt have any tables or chairs for sitting... The best we could do was to hang around in a mini market until it was time to meet the professor in his home. Its getting really hot now. We also like to wear proper bike pants, helmet and jackets as opposed to most people on bikes in the south so riding around in a city with stops all the time becomes almost unbearable.

We had a great time in the professors house with snacks and conversation and Amanda even played a bit of sitar for him and his niece.

Around 7 we went to a campground quite close to the highway but it was quite good. Sun was setting and everything was cooling off. But we felt a smell that reminded us of India. Like something was burning somewhere nearby. After checking online we understood it was smoke all the way from Canada wildfires! Air quality: Unhealthy

[mrs west]

Driving in cities is way less fun than the back country roads! St Louis was so hot.

Highly recommend Cherokee Lakes Campground! They even had a gym!

[mr west]

Day 11, wednesday 28 june

Woke up, had long due shower, got going.

It was a quite cloudy and nice morning. Not to hot as we hit the back roads through the corn fields. We even got some rain on us, but it just felt nice. The plan was to take some nice roads to a chinese buffet, and then highway the last hour to a free camping near Missouri River.

But in the afternoon it was getting so hot! By the time we reached the campsite the heat was very uncomfortable... In the sun youre just sweating to much, in the shade there were lots of bugs. We put the tent up in the shade of the forest, bit if you go in air is standing still and yourr just soaking in sweat. We found that walking around was the only way to get some airflow around the body to stand the heat. It was around 40c and the idea was to wait until sunset for everything to cool off. But it was just unbearable. At least for a swedish person..... After checking the weather, seeing the heat advisory and understanding that it would only go down to 27 at 5 am, we decided to pack up and look for a hotel with AC. We could have made it, but just surviving is a pretty low bar for a nice vacation.

Finally in a hotel with AC, shower and fridge it seems the choice was right, no doubt.

For tomorrow we will try to get going early to Kansas City and continue and then probably it has to be hotel again. We are right on the edge of either the "heat dome" or "severe thunderstorms" so now we are looking forward to Colorado for more pleasant weather!

[Sagebrush]

I noticed that you are wearing solid leather jackets, way, way too hot in the summer here in the US for that kind of attire. If you can find a motorcycle shop that carries mesh jackets and you can find one in your sized you'll be way more comfortable. You can even get mesh motorcycle pants that you can wear over shorts the give full protection but is much cooler to ride in. Cycle Gear is a good source and have multiple locations around the country, maybe one will be close to your route.

https://www.cyclegear.com/

[mrs west]

Oh wow thank you for that recommendation! I would love mesh pants. My jacket is mesh so I’ve been pretty ok, but KG’s jacket is very heavy! We’ll find the first cycle gear shop we can. Looks like they have a big sale for the 4th. Speaking of, I can’t wait to see where we end up for the 4th! It’s KG’s first 4th in the US and one of my favorite days to be with friends and watching fireworks. I generally throw a party on my roof in NY to bbq and watch the fireworks, so I hope we can be somewhere nice and enjoy something similar!

Our plan is to keep pushing on for Boulder where I have a couple of friends then move south to LA. This weather feels crazy to ride in but it feels good we made the choice to stay in hotels til we’re in a more reasonable climate.

It was really nice to ride along the Missouri River basically from St Louis to Kansas City. Windy and pretty roads. Not enough glimpses of the actual river but nice scenery.