Smoky Mountains Trip; Day 2

Thursday, May 7th (Trish’s birthday – though I won’t say how old she is):  We departed the motel in Mt. Vernon, IL at 8:30 am under blue clear skies.  It was already 75 degrees.

Highways 142 and 13 took us southeast to Shawneetown, IL.  These highways were designated as part of the Lincoln Heritage Trail.  I took several pictures since I’m a proud resident of Shawnee, KS and we were in Shawneetown, IL.  I thought the old (vacant and unused) Shawnee Chief Motel was cool (in name, anyway).  Though I was not willing to pay the $125,000 asking price.Shawneetown, IL (for sale for $125,000)

We then visited Old Shawneetown located behind a tall levee on the bank of  the Ohio River.  Shawneetown was originally located here but due to flooding the town decided to move to its current location further from the river.  There is a cool old bank building in Old Shawneetown.DSCN6629Shawneetown was the first town established in Illinois (in 1789) according to a sign here.

We crossed the Ohio River into Kentucky and made our way to Henderson, where we enjoyed a picnic lunch in a park by the Ohio River.picnic lunch in Henderson, KY by the Ohio RiverIt was a beautiful day.

We rode through Owensboro, Fordsville, McDaniels, Hardin Springs and Sonora on our way to the Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historic Site only to find it closed a few minutes earlier.  So we took off north to Elizabethtown, KY, where we found lodging in a Super 8.  We celebrated Trish’s birthday at a Texas Roadhouse restaurant . . . . . .fixin to put the feed bag on; celebrating Trish's birthdayand then had a dip in the motel pool before bagging it for the day.

260 miles (some very slow and congested roads today along with the pretty scenic ones) and a high of 88.

For more pictures from today click on the following link: https://plus.google.com/photos/104542123131082631220/albums/6146319898714118785?authkey=CJyGqoSSp8r2Ag

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