The Over The Hill Gang: Ride to Bridgeton, Indiana

Six of us rode down to Richard's restaurant, at Elwood, Indiana, this morning. We ate breakfast before starting out on our ride to Bridgeton, Indiana. Larry Miller had places to go so he went home from Richard's.

At Richard's in Elwood, Indiana.

David Payne joined us today on his Honda Shadow

The five of us headed south to Bridgeton.

When we started riding I noticed that my GPS wasn't on and it is suppose to boot-up when the bike starts. I had to do a reset as we rode along (push the "Plus" button and the "Power" button at the same time). After the unit reset, all seemed well until we got to Lebanon where the "lady in the GPS" told me "when possible, make a U turn". That's always a bad sign and it means "she's" lost. I got it straightened out, but not before losing Billy and David. I rode back and found them in the middle of Lebanon and we resumed our ride.

All was well until we got down near Raccoon Lake State Recreational Area. When my GPS unit reset, it went to "factory settings", which is "Shortest Distance" on calculations. We needed "Fastest Time", on calculations. So, the next thing I knew, we were on gravel roads! It may have been shortest distance, but in southern Indiana, that means going down roads that humans haven't traveled in a long time. In all, we rode about 12 miles on loose gravel, but we eventually made it to Bridgeton.

I heard about the gravel roads, as I knew I would! My theory is, motorcycles are meant to be ridden almost anywhere, gravel roads included. In the early days all roads were dirt and gravel. So there! :)

We ate lunch at The General Store before walking over to the covered bridge.

We walked through the bridge and it's a beauty.

Here's the dam and water flowing below the bridge.

Here's a link to the Bridgeton website:

http://www.bridgetonindiana.com/

Be sure to click on "History" at the top of the web page.

Here's from the Wikipedia article on Bridgeton:
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The first Bridgeton Covered Bridge was a 245-foot (75 m) long double span Burr Arch bridge built in 1868 by a crew led by J.J. Daniels. The bridge was closed to traffic in 1968. The first Bridgeton Covered Bridge was burned by an arsonist on April 28, 2005.

The second Bridgeton Covered Bridge was built in 2006 by local citizens and the state of Indiana.
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We left Bridgeton and rode to Rockville where we bought gas. Then on to Frankfort for ice cream, and home.

Before we left Bridgetown I gave my "we have to stay close together to get through all the stoplights" speech. I was so happy, and gave a fist pump, when we rode all the way through Crawfordsville, with all of us making it through town, without losing anyone. Crawfordsville is a hard town to ride through, together, as there's so many stoplights and turns. We always get separated there, but not today! To be honest, there were only five of us and with any more riders, it would have probably been a different story.

Rode today:

Billy Niverson
Larry Miller
John Nave
Art Adrianson
David Payne
Larry Davis

I rode 292 miles and had a nice time. It was a little warm, 84 degrees, but nice weather.

Gravel roads ridden.