January 2019 road trip -Sikeston, Missouri to home (3 days)
Sikeston was a brief overnight, not a destination. Still, between the novel dinner the night before and the surprisingly great breakfast place the next morning, we could do worse. Except in terms of weather. The cold rain was really coming down as we headed out of Missouri and into Illinois on US-60.
The goal for the day was to get to the state park in KY. But the lousy weather made Harrah's casino in Metropolis IL seem like a good diversion. It was a fun stop over and we got on the road in time to do what needed to be done. Strangely, in the 3 years I lived in TN, my visits to Kentucky were always near I-24 or I-65 or maybe once or twice along US-31. I had never had any reason to go very far on Kentucky's parkways. As I understand it, when the Interstate system was being planned, Kentucky didn't get nearly the network of limited access roads they hoped for and the parkways were their solution to filling out the road network of KY. This trip included travel on several of the parkways including the Bluegreass, the Cumberland, the Bert T. Combs Mountain Parkway and the Western Kentucky Parkway. All of them were very well maintained and useful roads with minimal traffic. Lexington looked very interesting and attractive but we didn't really stop there. By the time we got to the state park hotel, it was quite late. The lodge was very inviting with Brady Bunch era architecture and we slept very well. Unfortunately, as the view out of our room the next morning shows, it was a little old and icy the next day (and had rained a lot the night before) making even getting to the trail head we had planned a challenge. Ultimately, we did not succeed at being able to get to even the backup trail head I had looked at and we pressed on towards West Virginia.
The country music highway wasn't an intentional route but it was a lovely and expedient road to drive on. We went through a relatively small section of West Virginia then up VA-43 and PA-43 on our way to Altoona PA for the night. The next day we pretty much just drove like heck (I-99 and I-80) to get home. This provided part of one day and one night at home before flying to LA for work the next day.
It was a good road trip. Long drives, not as many hikes as we'd like but a nice break from the day to day grind for sure.
The goal for the day was to get to the state park in KY. But the lousy weather made Harrah's casino in Metropolis IL seem like a good diversion. It was a fun stop over and we got on the road in time to do what needed to be done. Strangely, in the 3 years I lived in TN, my visits to Kentucky were always near I-24 or I-65 or maybe once or twice along US-31. I had never had any reason to go very far on Kentucky's parkways. As I understand it, when the Interstate system was being planned, Kentucky didn't get nearly the network of limited access roads they hoped for and the parkways were their solution to filling out the road network of KY. This trip included travel on several of the parkways including the Bluegreass, the Cumberland, the Bert T. Combs Mountain Parkway and the Western Kentucky Parkway. All of them were very well maintained and useful roads with minimal traffic. Lexington looked very interesting and attractive but we didn't really stop there. By the time we got to the state park hotel, it was quite late. The lodge was very inviting with Brady Bunch era architecture and we slept very well. Unfortunately, as the view out of our room the next morning shows, it was a little old and icy the next day (and had rained a lot the night before) making even getting to the trail head we had planned a challenge. Ultimately, we did not succeed at being able to get to even the backup trail head I had looked at and we pressed on towards West Virginia.
The country music highway wasn't an intentional route but it was a lovely and expedient road to drive on. We went through a relatively small section of West Virginia then up VA-43 and PA-43 on our way to Altoona PA for the night. The next day we pretty much just drove like heck (I-99 and I-80) to get home. This provided part of one day and one night at home before flying to LA for work the next day.
It was a good road trip. Long drives, not as many hikes as we'd like but a nice break from the day to day grind for sure.
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