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When a household pal determined to rejoice a milestone birthday in Nashville, our curiosity was piqued. Being large music followers and suckers for seeing new locations, particularly these with famously good motorcycling roads, my spouse, Cheryl, and I made a decision to tag alongside. Others dealt with the seek for lodging and leisure alternatives for the journey, so I used to be left to deal with an important job: securing a bike for some adventuring.
Not one of the rental corporations in Nashville had a bike that matched my standards, so I searched the Riders Share peer‑to‑peer rental web site and located a BMW F 750 GS. I had by no means used this sort of rental service earlier than, and after some straightforward backwards and forwards with the bike’s house owners, our rental was safe. The house owners even agreed to ship the bike on to our lodging for a small charge. All we needed to do was pack driving gear.
Scan QR codes above or click on Day #1 or Day #2 to view routes on REVER
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After a late‑evening arrival in Nashville, we settled into our rental condominium downtown. About midday the next day, a clear, blue GS rolled up. The pleasant house owners, Madison and Tim, gave me some nice native information suggestions for our first afternoon of driving.
Day 1: Leiper’s Fork and the Natchez Hint Parkway | Tennessee Bike Journey
We didn’t have time on this journey for the whole 444 miles of the famed Natchez Hint Parkway, however I knew we needed to trip a part of it. Tim gave me a method for seeing some nice places and sampling the parkway in a day of driving. Nashville is a hive of vacationer exercise, and leaving the metro space went how you’ll anticipate. We weaved round occasion buses and thru the dense site visitors, lastly abandoning the neon lights, blaring music, and bar‑hopping exercise for a Tennessee bike trip via the countryside.
We headed northwest on Interstate 40 via farmland and beside spectacular southern mansions, each historic and fashionable. Our eyes, conditioned by the muted pastel hues of our house state of Arizona, have been dazzled by the colourful greens of the Tennessee panorama. After exiting the freeway at McCrory Lane, completely furrowed crops and geometrically mowed property lawns lined the sweeping corners. On State Route 96, the Natchez Hint Bridge, with its sweeping, whitewashed double arches, grew on the horizon.
See all of Rider‘s Tennessee touring tales right here
A bit extra driving introduced us to Leiper’s Fork. The quaint village, as soon as a just about unknown dot on a map, has emerged as a small, thriving arts and leisure middle. It is usually close to sprawling estates owned by music and leisure superstars like Religion Hill, Tim McGraw, and Nicole Kidman.
In town’s quick foremost avenue, we dropped a kickstand on the Fox & Locke Restaurant, a historic institution with a standard characteristic at any bar or restaurant on this neck of the woods: a stage for reside performances. Cheryl ordered the traditional BLT, and I selected the catfish sandwich – flaky white fish topped with a medley of slaw, grilled onions, and pickles – which was a culinary spotlight of our total trip.
After a stroll by the retailers and galleries of the small city, we rode onto the Natchez Hint Parkway. It was virtually surreal how the site visitors dropped away, the street turned easy, and the terrain morphed into an undulating delight. Mowed grass lined the sweeping corners of the parkway, and wooded thickets added to the feel of the trip. I didn’t should gradual for site visitors as soon as on our option to the Parkway’s northern finish, which included driving over the large bridge that we rode beneath earlier. Everything of the Natchez Hint is now on my bucket listing of rides.
After exiting the Parkway, we handed one other famed native eatery, the Loveless Cafe, however I used to be too full from lunch to indulge of their legendary biscuits and gravy. We made our option to the Belle Meade Property and Vineyard for a short tour of the historic property earlier than rolling again into Nashville.
We spent the evening sampling what has made Nashville well-known – music. I doubt there’s a Broadway Road music corridor that we didn’t go to. Evening golf equipment sporting the names of well-known nation stars teemed with vacationers as music blared from each course. Multi‑leveled bars supplied performers on every flooring. We opted for the rooftop settings as they tended to be much less intense and crowded. Removed from a lazy Southern metropolis, Nashville is a frenzy of individuals and music also known as “Nashvegas.”
Day 2: Burning Barns and Bowling Inexperienced | Kentucky Bike Journey
With nation music nonetheless ringing in my ears, I equipped for a solo trip north of Nashville as Cheryl opted to sleep late. I headed northwest towards Ashland Metropolis on State Route 12, a easy and nice roll via sweeping corners on a street which lived as much as its designation as a state scenic parkway. From Ashland Metropolis, I made my method onto State Route 49 on a northeastern path towards Kentucky.
I used to be absolutely engulfed in farmland. Finish‑of‑season cornfields dried within the September solar, and varied different crops have been inexperienced and thriving. An surprising sight led me to cease and attain for my cellphone. Smoke was wafting from the gables and overhangs of a giant crimson barn. I couldn’t assist however take into consideration the quick story “Barn Burning” by considered one of my favourite Southern authors, William Faulkner. Simply earlier than I did my civic responsibility by calling 911, I observed one other barn on the horizon emitting the identical white smoke. A fast Google search set me straight.
It was tobacco curing season, and farmers have been drying their crop at 135‑140 levels with fastidiously managed fires inside these barns. What was, at first, a regarding sight was now a supply of intrigue and training for this Arizona boy. After passing by these smoldering buildings, I noticed one other sort of tobacco curing: enormous crimson barns had doorways opened large, and tobacco hung from ceilings. If I hadn’t already completed my roadside analysis, I’ll have mistaken the tobacco leaves for drying animal hides.
See all of Rider‘s Kentucky touring tales right here
The trip via farmland continued as I handed from Tennessee into Kentucky, one other tobacco‑producing state. The street carried new signage as Kentucky Route 383. I rolled into Franklin, a traditionally wealthy small metropolis with a phenomenal brick and stone downtown space, the place Johnny Money and June Carter have been married on the First United Methodist Church. There may be a lot to do in Franklin: thoroughbred racing and gaming at The Mint at Kentucky, excursions and reside dueling reenactments on the Sandford Duncan Inn, and Kentucky’s largest sunflower maze in August at Ruby Department Farms. Kentucky is legendary for its whiskey, and the Dueling Grounds Distillery is on the Kentucky Bourbon Path Craft Tour.
On my method out of city, I finished at The Fork In The Highway, an artwork set up of a Paul Bunyan‑sized utensil positioned on the nook of Bunch and Uls roads. Persevering with north on U.S. Route 31W towards Bowling Inexperienced, I handed Octagon Corridor, an eight‑sided brick house inbuilt 1847 that’s now a museum of Civil Battle artifacts.
Bowling Inexperienced is not only a bustling and vibrant Southern metropolis; additionally it is the one place on this planet the place Corvettes are made. I rode previous and beside a number of of the glossy Chevys as I made my method via the town, which can be house to the Nationwide Corvette Museum. I motored via the engaging Western Kentucky College campus with its white‑columned and crimson‑brick buildings. The campus additionally preserves a number of historic buildings just like the spectacular Felts Log Home, which was constructed by a Revolutionary Battle veteran round 1810 and relocated to its present location in 1980.
After WKU, I made my option to the downtown district. The city sq. is a full of life metropolis centerpiece. A backyard‑like central park sits within the shadows of historic stone buildings, and a phenomenal fountain sits as the center of the setting. My stroll across the metropolis middle included a number of traditionally important buildings and memorials. The realm is nicely price a go to.
The fast route again to Nashville from Bowling Inexperienced can be Interstate 65, however the place’s the enjoyable in that? I rode U.S. Route 231 south via southern Kentucky and northern Tennessee till I made the southwestern flip onto U.S. Route 31 towards Nashville. It was a pleasant, stress-free finish to my “publicity” of this a part of Tennessee and Kentucky. We ended the evening again on the streets of Nashville, visiting the famed Ryman Theater, listening to nation music, and sampling Tennessee whiskey.
Nashville, Bowling Inexperienced, and the opposite smaller cities I visited all exuded their very own Southern appeal. This was my first go to to the world, and it received’t be my final. I plan to trip your complete Natchez Hint Parkway, and the Nashville space will probably be both the staging location or the tip sport to that journey.
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