The Great River Road 2026
  
 

Day 01

May 25

  
   
   
   
  This was the trip I had planned on doing last year with my riding friend from Scotland, Les. But a deer decided otherwise on June 1, 2025 resulting in the destruction of my beloved BlueBelle and some serious medical damage to me. Les was not able to come back over this year, so I am headed out by my lonesome on SweetTreat.  
   
  This is one of those foggy mornings that keep you on your toes. It is exactly the time and kind of cover that deer love to move around in.  
   
  Though there is lots of fog as I leave my Holler there is not very much traffic on the slab this morning.  
   
  This is just a 'get there' day where I will be spending most of my time plying the interstate, starting out on I24 which quickly takes me to ...  
   
  my first state of the day, Kentucky. As I have said before, there are days in riding where you just motor along as quickly as you can to get where you need to be. Not exactly a 'Then Came Bronson' moment, but my head is in the wind and that beats being in a recliner.  
   
  Since there is only one Bob Evans in the Nashville area, I try to stop at them when I am on the road and in need of a good breakfast. They still are very family oriented and I really appreciate that. There's one right off I24 in Paducah so it's my first destination of the day.  
   
 

I decide I'll do it up right this morning and go for my usual 'traveling' breakfast - a pig meat and cheese omelet. I figure I'll go for broke and add some wonderful gravy and biscuit just for good measure. Service is good and quick and I devour what is before be. As I go to the front counter to settle up, I strike up a conversation with lady checking me out. She asks me -

"Where you headed on your motorcycle?"

"I'm up to Minnesota to the headwaters of the Mississippi River and then I plan on chasing it all the way down to the Gulf."

She says with a long sigh -

:"I've never been anywhere."

And as always, my response to that is -

"Don't wait too late. Take that trip you've always wanted to take while you can."

I direct to her my website and let her know I even have a section on how to plan a trip.. She thanks me and I'm out the door and back on the road.

  
   
  Just across the river I enter my next state - Illinois not 'Illi-noise'.  
   
  And as usual I wave to Superman as I go by Metropolis, his home town.  
   
 

I'm making pretty good time and then I encounter what I call an 'elephant dance'. This is where one semi is trying to pass another semi but just doesn't have quite enough power to pull it off in a timely fashion. I've seen these things go on for miles and mile before one driver gives up or the other driver lets himself get passed.

  
   
  Soon I'm at the end of I24 and onto I57 which will be my companion for a while as I head north and west.  
   
  I don't know how many times I've ridden this way over the years, but I always appreciate the sight of the cross here. There's another one on I40 forty miles east of Amarillo that is 190 feet tall.  
   
  I gassed up in Paducah before I ate breakfast but it's time to feed the beast again.  
   
  Gas has gotten outrageous in price and $4.79 a gallon is a bit of sticker shock. The question I would like answered is if only 20% of oil comes through the disputed Strait of Hormuz, why does 100% of our gas go up in price before any of it ever hits the pumps?  
   
  Soon I leave I57 behind for I39, my last section of slab for the day.  
   
  I like to look around as I cruise along and see that this land appears to be prepped for planting.  
   
  Finally I reach my last state for the day, Wisconsin, land of the Cheeseheads.  
   
  I know it won't be to much further and I'll be off and on 2 lanes again. I make my way to Stoughton for the evening.  
   
  The city has got the main roads tore up for construction so it is a real trick to try to get to my motel. I finally figure out a 'backdoor' way to come in the parking lot from behind the building.  
   
  It's been a longer day of over 600 miles, so SweetTreat and I both are ready to rest for the evening.  
   
  I try to pick motels with restaurants within easy walking distance from my room. There is a sit-down restaurant right across the street but it is closed today. So much for the plans 'of mice and men'. There's Subway within reasonable walking distance so I light out for it, working my way around the ever present road construction barriers.  
   
  I get a footlong for supper and figure I might as well get a footlong for breakfast. I have Subways usually do a pretty good job of keeping their ingredients fresh and this store lives up to that nicely.  
   
  After I dispatch my vittles, I determine that I do not want to wrestle my way back through all of that construction. Since I have everything loaded up on my laptop, I figure a new route out of town that will avoid the mess. And while I am at it, I calculate that I should have enough time to go ahead and visit the Mississippi headwaters tomorrow rather than wait until the following day. After much noodling and rerouting I put my stuff away and begin to seek a route to the land of dreams.