Mississippi River day trip

[1moreroad]

Mississippi River Run Day Trip
 
Took the opportunity for a day trip up the Mississippi River to see a few places I have been wanting to visit. This was more tour than sport. It was a good day. Good temperatures and good weather.
 
First stop was a little coffee shop on South Main in downtown Memphis. Nice building; nice location; good coffee. From there I headed north through and next to the Shelby Forest, just outside Memphis. Better twisty roads than I expected. Here is a web page photo (not mine):

 
My plan had been to cross the Mississippi at the Dorena-Hickman Ferry, one of the few ferries left across the Mississippi. The last time I planned to cross, the water level was too high and the water flowing too fast. This day the water was too low and their pier was beached. So a brief detour through Union City, TN...
 
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(Discovery Center in Union City founded by the Kirkland family of "Kirkland Signature" brand fame in the US)
 
...through Kentucky, and north up the river to cross a bridge into Cairo, Illinois. At the Kentucky line, I was taking a picture of the state sign when Merlin, a nice guy from Paducah, pulled up in his car, explained that he was a motorcyclist, too, who liked to take pictures of his bike when crossing states. He was nice enough to take a picture of me with the motorcycle.
 
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Cairo looks like the town of the future (as in, Cairo is the town of the future and it always will be). Located at the southern tip of Illinois, Cairo is at the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. According to markers near the confluence, in 1721 it was going to be a town of major importance in trade in the US. Instead the town seems to have a history of unfortunate events from the Mississippi River jumping its banks in 1821 to the Recession of 2008 closing many businesses. The little park at the south end of town is barren but still a nice place to spend a few minutes.
 
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(looking at Kentucky from Illinois across the Ohio River)
 
From Cairo, I headed south through Missouri to New Madrid, site of a series of earthquakes that may have been the largest in the continental US. The Mississippi River flowed north for a time because of the upheaval. They have some historical markers and a nice little museum. They have regular earthquakes - about 2 dozen in the past two months - some as large as magnitude 3.4 or about what we used to feel when I lived in Los Angeles.
 
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(The Mississippi River on the New Madrid fault line in New Madrid, MO)
 
After New Madrid, it was time to head home. On Streets and Trips and on MapSource, there was one little twisty road that didn't look like it added too many miles but did keep me closer to the River than the "Great River Road", so I added it into the GPS along with the routing option, "No Unpaved Roads". Well, probably 1/2 of its 12 miles was unpaved. The road surface deteriorated from rough pavement to good gravel to deep coarse gravel to double track to single track to just plain grass along the top of a levee. Finally I made it back to a real road. Whoops. Another hour saw me in Covington, TN for dinner and then headed back home.
 
I was gone ~ 13 hours and rode 529 miles, with ~ 100 miles of interstate and ~ 10 miles of unpaved road (and just plain grass). I started the trip with the rear tire not quite at the wear bars in the center and finished with almost as much tread left. Overall a good trip.
 

[dad4]

Nice write up. I am from Cairo. There is a lot of history around that area. 
I have taken the dorenna ferry many times heading to union city.
 
 

[crimson04]

What kind of 1 piece suit is that? I'm looking to get some touring gear.

[backslider]

Aerostich from Rider Warehouse 

[crempel]

You should check out the Firstgear Expedition suit as well. I had wanted a one piece suit for years but didn't want to pay over $1000 for it. Motorcyclegear.com has this $649 suit on close out for $299 so I thought I would give it a shot. I've had it about 4 months, and used it everyday since and I love it. Maybe not a nice as the Stich but for the price it's great. I put it on and take it off 4 times a day for commuting and I find it easy to use. Not as easy as the Stich, but easy enough. Totally waterproof except for the top of the hip pocket zippers which is easily fixed by pulling it up and tucking it under the waist belt. Good venting too. I've actually been tempted to,buy a second one to stash for when this one wears out. Seems very well made and is very comfortable. Can't beat it for the money IMHO.
 
 

[1moreroad]

You should check out the Firstgear Expedition suit as well. I had wanted a one piece suit for years but didn't want to pay over $1000 for it.  

There is a big market for used 'stiches on the internet, too.  The BMW rider marketplace, ADVRider (where I bought mine), and Ebay are 3 places to check.  I think I paid $600 for mine about 5 years ago and it included the hip pads and upgraded hard armor.  I added the velcro'd back pad for ~ $75 (IIRC) shortly after I bought it.  This year I sent it back to Aerostich for refreshing - fixing a small tear in the liner it had when I bought it, a few frayed seams, and some abrasive crash damage, and upgrading the zippers to the new design.  I think all that cost ~ $300.