Day 10 - Crank Up The Tunes And Head North! - And One Last Cave Too!

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After a great night's sleep and a good breakfast we were ready to hit the road heading north about 7:30 this morning. We're trying to escape the South today and head north to Indianapolis. We will make a stop along the way at our last cave for a while in Bedford, IN. So we cranked up Credence Clearwater Revival on the stereo and headed up KY-185. Ky-85 became KY-79 and they were both just wonderful roads. Two lane country roads between farms with just enough twists and turns, ups and downs to keep ut interesting. The scenery was beautiful, and we passed through all sorts of small towns along the way. There was mostly very little traffic, though we did follow a good old boy in a pickup truck who seemed to know the roads pretty well and was moving along quickly. I knew the bike handled better than the 4WD Dodge pickup, so we just kept behind him and matched his pace. It was fun until he finally turned off.

K7-79 became IN-150 when we fell behind a beautiful 34 Ford Pickup hotrod. It was obviously recently completed and it looked beautiful. He pulled into a gas station just as we were looking for one, so we pulled in behind. I managed to take a few pictures, but the owner was too busy chatting up the cashier at the gas station to us about his truck, so we headed back out. We quickly fell behind a group of about a dozen Harley riders, but were glad when they turned off. They were having trouble on the twisty roads keeping up with even the speed limit of 55. I don't know if was inexperience or just the handling of the bike, but they all seemed to be having more trouble that I was with the Goldwing. Eventually, we turned off IN-150 onto IN-37 and it was getting close to lunch, so we stopped into McDonald's for a quick snack. That's when we realized that in moving north in Kentucky and crossing into Indiana, we had crossed back into Eastern time, so we weren't and hour and ten minutes from the cave, we were only 10 minutes from the cave! So we hopped back on the bike and were there in 10 minutes.

Blue Spring Caverns is the last cave we plan to visit for a while. As we move further north, we move out of cave country, so we don't really expect to see more of these traditional caves until we head back down into Virginia on the way home. Blue Spring Caverns is a boat tour flooded cavern. There a some formations, but not a lot even though it is very wet because it still floods occasionally as washes a lot away. It's pretty long as boat tour caves go, 5/8 mile in and 5/8 mile out by small electric boat similar to Lost River Cave yesterday. But the path is wide in most spots and the ceilings are very high, over 24 feet in some spots. There were very few spots where we worried about hitting our heads. We were a little over an hour on the boat itself, and the tour guide was great. We really enjoyed this cave, of the four boat tour caves we have ever visited, this one was certainly the longest.

When we got back on IN-37 for the remaining 85 miles to Indianapolis, the wonderful country road disappeared. IN-37 became a typical 4-lane divided highway, and while it wasn't technically and Interstate, it sure looked like one. As I was cruising down the road, a young guy in a van motioned to me to look out ahead. Evidently some guy moving his furniture in a pickup truck lost a dresser of the back, and it splintered into pieces all over the highway. I slowed down and missed almost all the pieces but eventually I found one I couldn't avoid. It didn't hurt anything, though I worried for the next few miles, hoping there weren't any exposed nails. I don't need any more tire troubles! The last 22 miles to the hotel were all under construction, but mostly just blocked lanes with a little grooved roadway. Fortunately there were no loose gravel sections, though we may encounter some of them as we head further north.

The hotel is a La Quinta on the southwest side outside of town and only 6 miles from the speedway. Luckily there was a local restaurant within easy walking distance, so we had a simple dinner with a little ice cream for desert. The plan tomorrow is to visit the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Hall of Fame Museum in the morning and then make our way to Chicago. We are staying about 20 miles west of Chicago in a place called Downers Grove. Hotel prices in downtown Chicago are ridiculous, and besides we are reasonable close to Jody's cousin Amy who we will visit while we are here.

247.4 Miles Today

1502.7 Miles Total

4.653 Gallons Today

37.690 Gallons Total

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