Cross Country on a Sportster Trip: WI to TN

Welcome to "Ride & Rally with Fix My Hog", brought to you by Dennis Kirk. We shipped today. What's up everybody? I'm Nate Beck, and you're watching "Fix My Hog Ride & Rally" 2021. We're here in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and we just spent the weekend taking in all the awesome Harley history. But it's time to hit the road again. In this episode, we're gonna Lafayette, Indiana, Winchester, Kentucky, and then we'll be getting off the super slab, hitting some back country roads to Maryville, Tennessee. So I'm gonna get suited up, hop on the bike. We'll see you on the road. When we were rolling out of Milwaukee there, the clouds were kind of moving in. I was a little bit worried about rain, and we would be hitting the super slab for most of the way heading down through Chicago to meet up with 65 South to head into Lafayette, Indiana. Lafayette's a pretty, it's a decent-sized town, but it's an older town. And that's what we were looking for on this ride was those classic American towns. Most of this ride was on super slab, but we did find a little side road to hop off and get back into woods a little bit and slow down and enjoy the view before getting into town. All right, we're here in Lafayette, Indiana, and the bike's parked. So it's time to check out the town. We are going into the Knickerbocker, Indiana's oldest establishment opened in 1835 with patrons such as the astronaut Neil Armstrong, Al Capone, going back to President Grant and Mark Twain. We're gonna check it out. Rolling into every town, I pretty much go in, either on a motorcycle or just general travel, I always look for the oldest things I can find. I find the oftentimes have the most character and the coolest stories. With this place, besides the celebrity and infamous clientele, this bar actually is the original, meaning that Capone, Armstrong, Grant all sat here to hang out just like I did. Good morning, everyone. We're here in Lafayette, Indiana. We're gonna head to Winchester, Kentucky today by way of Indianapolis. We're gonna head to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Check all that stuff out. But one thing to keep in mind when going on longer bike trips is the temperature. The temperature dropped about 20 degrees overnight. So I'm here with a air tool just to make sure the bike tires are still up to proper inflation per the recommended specs. And then we're gonna get on the road. Coming out of Lafayette, straight onto the super slab, and it was cold that morning. I had on underlayers, my flannel, and I had my Carhartt on top, but luckily we weren't that far from Indianapolis Motor Speedway. We were gonna go check it out, let the day warm up a little bit, and I was really excited about actually, when you go into Indianapolis Motor Speedway, you actually go underneath the track and up into the middle of the Speedway, which I couldn't wait to do on my Sportster. And it was such an amazing view coming up just like that underneath the Speedway into the infield of one of the most famous race tracks in history. Indianapolis Motor Speedway, actually in the infield when you pull in, they have a museum there dedicated to the history of not only the Speedway, but also just like the history of IndyCar racing and motor sports in general. They have tons of cars that are on display, all the way from like the old school, like '20s and '30s, all the way up to actually this past year's Indy 500 winner. Of course, as wrenchers ourselves, we appreciate anything that burns fuel, gets loud, and goes fast. And stopping here to check all these cars out definitely broke the ride up a little bit, getting off the super slab, letting the day warm up, and just really checking things out along the way. Right here going when you're leaving, you're going back under the Speedway again, but you actually see the track that you're about to go under. That was the highlight for me at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, but we had places to go and more things to see. So I was hopping back on the super slab, put down some miles, head to our next spot. All right, we're here in Winchester, Kentucky. And part of what I love about small town America is also what I love about Harley's. It's that classic American architecture, that classic American feel that really like just ties, again, going back to the heritage that we talked about at the Harley Museum, it ties it all together. And there's nothing better than riding classic Harleys to classic towns. Good morning, everyone. We're here in beautiful Winchester, Kentucky. The sun's out, the temperature is fantastic, and we're getting off the super slab today. We're gonna hit 25, which actually just runs right parallel with I-75, but kind of more in the back hills a little bit. So we're gonna get some good old country riding today. So let's hit it. Coming out of southern Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana getting into Kentucky, that's really when the topographical changes start to occur. Riding a Harley to me, being out in the wind, you see a lot more obviously than you do in a cage, but really experiencing the topographical changes is one of the things that makes riding a motorcycle magic to me. And on this ride, when you get into Kentucky and you're going from farmland up into the hills, as you're climbing in altitude up to the Blue Ridge Mountains, which, that's kind of the Maryville area, that's a town just north of the Blue Ridge that we're heading towards, and you really start to see the roads get twistier. The foliage starts getting a lot more dense. The air starts to crisp up a little bit, and it really made this ride through the Kentucky woods just pristine. So we're here at the Museum of Appalachia in Tennessee. And I was speaking with the museum guide inside, who said all of the buildings on this property were significant historically to the State of Tennessee. And they were actually moved here to be put on display so people can learn through the buildings. Now the building behind us right now is actually one of the most incredible things I've seen thus far on this trip. This is the Mark Twain Family Cabin that they disassembled and moved here and reassembled it for us to check out. I didn't even know this museum existed. And I was actually riding off of the super slab. I got off on the 441 crossing into Tennessee, and we hooked up with the road back to the super slab to head into Maryville and came across this museum just on the side of the road. And it was one of the coolest things that I came across on the entire trip. Sometimes that's how it happens is don't stick to the plan too tightly because then you'd miss stuff like this. This is another piece of absolutely amazing American history, Daniel Boone's Cabin. This museum sprawled on for acres and acres, and we got there late in the day and only had about an hour until they were closing. So we were going through real fast, and they actually still celebrate traditional methods of farming there, really paying homage to everything that is the region of Appalachia. But we did have to get to Maryville to get a good night's rest, so we had to hop back on the super slab, get down to Maryville, and get ready to ride the tail of the dragon. All right, so we're here at the hotel in Maryville, Tennessee after an epic day of riding comfortable courtesy of the folks at denniskirk.com. We're gonna have an early night tonight, get some rest 'cause in the morning we're hitting the tail of the dragon and then heading to Wheels Through Time Museum. And that's gonna all be on the next episode. So until next time, ride safe, wrench safe, and we'll see you on the road. For more information on products featured in this video, visit denniskirk.com.