i'm cured!

...cured for a few days, anyway. today's ride was precisely what i needed to shake the road-jones that's been plaguing me since late november. the cure wasn't in the length of the ride, but the variety of roads traveled. i ran some good twisties and capped off the ride with a high-speed blast back home. the twisties started from glasgow south to tompkinsville and east all the way to cumberland falls. if you're in the area and looking for good roads, they're not hard to find, but i can recommend these:

• sr-63 from glasgow to tompkinsville
• sr-953 through judio, stalcup and littrell
• sr-449 between sr-61 and sr-90
• sr-92 between monticello and stearns
• sr-700 between marshes siding and cumberland falls state park
• sr-90 between youngs creek in the east and us-27 in the west

just east of tompkinsville along sr-100 i picked up sr-214. i wanted to cross the ferry at mcmillins landing - a 24-hour free ferry crossing of the cumberland river. the other side of the cumberland is sr-953. i spotted the road on the map last night and found it appealing so i had to ride it.

and i'm glad i did. beautiful road that winds through the on-the-map-only towns of judio, stalcup and littrell. eventually the road dumps you out at sr-61 near littrell. just a wee bit north on sr-61 is sr-449 that allows you to bypass burkesville. another excellent road in the region.

once i was on sr-90 the ride was mostly boring all the way to monticello where i picked up sr-92 all the way to stearns. sr-92 is a sneaky road in that some of the straightaways make abrupt, sharp turns and some of those turns are decreasing radius. excellent road. just don't be a dumbass.

i was going to run 92 to williamsburg and then head north to the eastern end of sr-90 to work my way west to cumberland falls, but while looking at the map last night i saw sr-700 - a road i have never ridden, but a road the map made look goooood. another sweet road in the region that dumped me out right at cumberland falls state park. and a trip to the park wouldn't be complete without a few pics of the falls...

  

because of the high water level, the viewing area right in front of the falls was closed so i couldn't get a good shot, but the sound of the falls rushing over sure made up for it.

the ride along sr-90 west is fabulous. after i got back to monticello i blasted back to bowling green along the cumberland parkway. in the near future, the parkway will be i-66.

so my road-jones is cured for a while. sure felt good to hit the road. life is good. the weather-guessers were wrong, though. instead of a high of 55 we enjoyed a high of 65. it's suppose to get cold again just in time for the work week. life is damn good. ;)

the cure - day two

i'm resigned to rid myself of this road-jones and will leave soon. i've decided to head east to glasgow, south on 63 to tompkinsville, 100 east to 214 and the ferry across the cumberland river. not sure what will happen after that, but i intend to see cumberland falls and then snake my way back home.

here's a map of today's journey...