Day 6 - Dover, TN to Bloomington, IN

We awoke to a slightly foggy, but dry morning after all of that rain the night before. We headed in to town to use the McDonald's wi-fi and upload our info from yesterday. After that, we began our day by driving the Land Between the Lakes. It was a beautiful road and we saw more wildlife in the first 20 miles than we saw on the entire 400+ miles of the Natchez Trace. We saw bambi's frolicking on the side of the road several times, along with wild turkey's crossing in front of us. Steve saw Bison off in the distance. About 20 or so miles in to this ride we crossed back in to Kentucky, which meant that Dad and Steve could take off their helmets. You'll see their celebratory picture in the slideshow.

After we finished up that 40 mile stretch, we wound our way through the back country of Kentucky. Leroy, the biker we met yesterday, had told us about a free ferry that crosses the Ohio River in to Illinois. We checked it out earlier and taking it only added 20 miles to our route so we opted to go for the experience. Steve had impeccable timing and as we drove up they were loading it up. We rolled right on and in a few minutes we were being ferried across the river. That was really neat!

Off the ferry and in to Illinois, we headed East. There was a toll bridge that crossed the Wabash River in to Indiana and it was under construction. We had to wait in line and inch our way across to pay the toll at the other side. After the bridge collapse in Minnesota, we weren't too thrilled about sitting on a half torn apart bridge with semi's and all the other vehicles but luckily we made it across in three pieces. We stopped for lunch at Dairy Queen, thanks Steve! It's now officially a summer motorcycle trip now that I've had my Blizzard :) We continued following the Ohio River Scenic byway along through Evansville and along the river. Took a nice break at a roadside park in the shade.

We then took State Route 37 up North which took us through the Hoosier National Forest. It was a wonderfully curvy, hilly road and the scenery was beautiful. Followed this all the way up in to Bloomington where we stopped for the night. Dad took us out for a birthday dinner for Steve and now it's off to bed.

Tomorrow is our last day of the trip (and Steve's birthday!) and Dad will head back to Ohio while Steve and I head to his house in Illinois.

Click here for pictures from today.