Bay City Rollers

It was the most unlikely of rides.  To begin with, how unlikely is it to enjoy a February day in the 70's? Secondly, the only expected participants were originally to be Nature Dave Godeke and myself because the ride was originally planned for President's Day.  I had the day off, and as it turned out, so did Dave.  But since rain was in the forecast for Monday, we decided to move the ride up to Sunday.  That allowed Rick Sims and Paula Kolb and Brian and Beth Hirshberg to also come along.  And in the most unlikely turn of events of all, despite the fact Nature Dave was leading, not once...not once, I swear...did we get lost and have to make a U-turn!

The morning started with breakfast at Gene's in Henderson.  From there we meandered along Kentucky backroads through Geneva, Smith Mills, and Uniontown before crossing the river at Shawneetown.

Once in Illinois, Nature Dave led us on some great unpaved roads.  The conditions were excellent. No mud, no dust, and no deep gravel.

Brian and Beth on their dirt-touring bike.

We eventually made it to the first of the day's objectives, the Bay City General Store.  It was used as a location in the filming of the 1998 movie "U.S. Marshals" starring Tommy Lee Jones, Wesley Snipes, and Robert Downey Jr.

Even though the store was closed for the season, it didn't prevent a group of old men from gathering to swap lies.

From there, we high-tailed it to Paducah for lunch, then more meandering on the Kentucky side of the river on the way home.

Thanks to Paula Kolb for contributing photographs for this report.
	Chris Hancock February 2011