West Baden,French Lick Ride

 

 

I've wanted to visit the French Lick/West Baden area for years, so we decided that it would be a great ride destination. Getting there from east central Indiana took us south and west on Indiana Highways 9 through Greenfield, 44 through Franklin, 37 past Bloomington, and 56 into the Hoosier Forrest. The hills, curves and forest make for excellent riding scenery. You will pass through the Limestone Capital of the world, Bedford Indiana, and you will know it by the signs and rock formation displays. The limestone mined around Bedford is of the quality that has made it good enough to be used in the Pentagon, the Empire State Building, the Builtmore Estate and the Washington National Cathedral.
Many have been draw toward this area of southwest Indiana over it's more than 100 years of rich history. The mineral springs were believed to be curative to bath in and drink. Several smaller hotels sprang up, but the two large hotels now standing, West Baden Springs Hotel, and French Lick Resort, are fully renovated and worth some time to stop and take a look to stretch your legs from the ride. Here's a bit of history. The 1855 Mile Lick Hotel burned in 1901, and was rebuilt at great cost in 1902 with the famous 'world's largest dome.' After the stock market crash in 1929, business declined and the hotel closed in 1932. In 1934 Jesuits bought the hotel for $1 and used it as a seminary until 1964. After years of neglect and attempts at preservation, it reopened in 2006-2007 as resort and casino.
You will definitely want to park in the designated motorcycle parking behind West Baden Springs Hotel and walk through the gardens and paths. Also, a short ride down the street is the French Lick Resort. Across the street is a square with restaurants, French Lick Harley Davidson store (no Harleys, except one on display) with T-shirts, other clothing and merchandise. We parked just beyond the square on Maple Street at a Bar and Grill called 22 Brink street, and enjoyed a pork chop  dinner surrounded by sports memorabilia, including much from Larry Byrd. If you haven't had enough riding in by the time you've seen all this, take and extra loop through even more the Hoosier National Forrest by going around Patoka land and the hills and twists by taking 145 South, 164 West, 545 North and back on 56 East. This is the perfect ride and destination for lots of relaxing and getting away from it all, so you may want to take a few days here!





 

 

Review: Firehouse BBQ & Blues

 

The Firehouse BBQ & Blues is quite the combination of food, atmosphere, and fun. It is housed in a two story 1860 Firehouse in the middle of old downtown Richmond, Indiana. Richmond firefighters Tom Broyles and Rick Bolen began the painstaking renovation of the building in 2009. The firehouse still has all kinds of nostalgic touches, including the fire pole (sorry, you can’t slide down it!) There’s a dining room with stage, where live music was playing the evening we were there.  The bar is in the next section, and there is a 2^nd floor banquet hall just up an open antique oak stairway. The old building and atmosphere alone draw a crowd, but sit down and get ready for outstanding BBQ smoked on site in a traditional ‘low and slow’ method. The brisket was tender, juicy, with a great smoky flavor. The ribs were just as tender (fall off the bone tender) juicy and flavorful. I haven’t found better anywhere. You will want to go here several times, and get in on the other items: pulled pork, wings, wraps, BBQ chicken breasts, Jalapeno sausage, firehouse chili, loaded baked potatoes, salads, and homemade sides like cheesy potatoes, baked beans, scalloped cabbage, and potato salad. The Firehouse is also biker friendly. It has biker nights on some Tuesdays, with food and drink specials and a blues band. There were about 2-3 dozen bikes the night we were there, and the outside seating was the perfect place to meet and greet, while those not arriving on bikes tended to eat inside. All this is served up by a great friendly staff intent on making your time here so enjoyable, you’ll find yourself wanting to stay long and return soon. You can find the Firehouse at 400 North 8^th Street, Richmond Indiana, 47374.  Open 11-9 Monday –Thursday;  11-12 Friday and Saturday, closed Sunday. Carry Out Available 765.488.0312









 

Review: Carol's Cornerstone Cafe

Nostalgia surrounds the Historic National Road, US Highway 40, which cuts across the center of Indiana, and this is especially so at Carol’s Cornerstone Café. It’s located just two blocks east of the Hancock County courthouse in Greenfield, at Main Street (US 40) and Spring Street. The Antique cars, Gas Station signs, fireplace and memorabilia set the tone for a comfortable place to eat, relax, and even listen to homegrown gospel and bluegrass music on some evenings. The menu is large, the food reasonably priced, the evening buffet well stocked, and the help will make you feel at home. The fried chicken is juicy and tasty. As you can see from the picture, the tenderloin may not be huge, (it’s just right) but it’s obviously freshly cut, hand breaded, juicy and extremely tender. And it’s just $7.75 including two homemade sides or salad bar. The salad bar has several homemade salads, and the buffet has plenty of homemade items, like chicken and noodles, fried chicken, ham, and sides. Our server, Charity, was very friendly and let us know that when they had music in the evenings, people were known to fill the center isle dancing. With its comfortable nostalgic setting and wide assortment of freshly made entrees reasonably priced, we will be riding back to this gem of a Café often!

Brown County State Park

Autumn in Indiana is just not complete without a ride to Southern Indiana’s Brown County State Park. Just 60 miles south of Indianapolis on IN 135, and 22miles east of Bloomington on highway 46, these 15,766 acres are a destination for thousands, including plenty of bikers. You can log onto http://www.browncounty.com/leaf-cam before you go to check and see how the colors are turning on their leaf cam (no joke!). You could spend the day here, with picnic tables ready for you, two small lakes, and hiking trails. But you also could easily combine your trip to the park with other nearby bike-friendly places: Nashville, IN only a mile to the west on 46/135, Gnaw Bone (see Oct. 27th post) 4 miles to the East,  Columbus 18 miles to the East on 46 or Story, IN (see post April 18, 2012- Southern Indiana Loop ) 6 miles to the South on 135. There is the Abe Martin Lodge right in the park, where you can eat and stay, open year round. The nearly 20 miles of roads in the park often follow the hills peaks, making views stretching out for miles on both sides. There are plenty of places to stop and put your kickstand down, and a few towers from which to take pictures, not that you can’t get plenty of scenic shots without climbing them. One suggestion, during peak fall colors, go during the week, since weekends will often end up in miles of vehicles waiting to get in the gate. There are fees, but reasonable, $5.00 for an instate vehicle (car or motorcycle) and $7.00 for an out-of-state vehicle. It’s a small price for the experience.  This destination will not disappoint any time of year, but the fall colors are the gem that bring people from great distances to see the spectacular panoramas.

Review: Gnaw Mart

What do Patrick Duffy, Gourmet magazine, and NBC’s Today show have in common? They all have noticed a particular food at a GAS STATION in Indiana! Not just any food, but the hand-breaded, fried-to-order Tenderloins that keep people coming from all over Indiana and the nation. It’s been out of business twice, but for the last two years the gas station which is now called Gnaw Mart, has been back open for business. It’s in the town of Gnaw Bone, just 5 miles east of quaint and motorcycle-friendly Nashville Indiana, on Indiana highway 46. If you don’t mind eating in a store room, ordering your tenderloin beside people paying for super-unleaded gas, then you’ll find the juiciest, most flavorful tenderloin this biker has ever tasted! Tell your non eat-and-get-gas friends to shop next door at the antique mall while you pig out, but do what you must to not miss this treat! Though there are other items on the menu, the $6.50 full size tenderloin is the one to get, and do eat the chips that come with it. I’m no fan of potato chips, but these homemade chips are really good. The help is friendly, the atmosphere is humble, but if you’re a tenderloin fanatic, make the trek to Gnaw Mart!

Port Dover Ontario Ride

September is a perfect time to ride through Michigan and Southern Ontario. My travels this time through Ontario included downtown London, which is not terribly large, but it does have plenty of local and chain restaurants and bars. There are four parks, including Victoria Park on the north side of the downtown area.  Ivey Park on the west side is small but beautiful, and including a kid’s water fun area, the Splashpad, by the Thames River (of course!) After enjoying riding though the country towns of Salford, Woodstock, Holbrook and Norwich, it was time to head South toward Lake Erie. Overcast skies and mild weather followed us to Port Dover. With historic roots in railroad and shipping industries, Port Dover now has the claim to fame of hosting one of the biggest Biker rallies in the region. Every Friday the 13^th, thousands of bikers will fill the streets, some of which are reserved only for motorcycles. There are a couple of Leather shops, T-shirt shops, Clare’s Harley Davidson’s store, a beach, and several restaurants. Knechtel's at Port Dover has fish fresh out of Lake Erie, but I chose the chicken strips. They were very juicy and nicely seasoned. They came with the salad bar, which had very tasty homemade cucumber salad, tomato salad, pasta salad, and garden salad. The restaurant walls are covered in nostalgic photos from Port Dover’s historic past. The trip back toward Indiana took me through Potterville, Mi, where I found Charlie’s Bar and Grill (see Review on separate blog.)  This time of year is a great time to ride through Michigan and Southern Ontario, so put it on your ride list!

Review: Charlie's Bar and Grill

Potterville, Michigan may be a small town, not far from Lansing, but it has a fun Bar and Grill worth stopping at! Charlie’s Bar and Grill has an outside bar, complete with swings (no joke!) instead of barstools. Inside is another bar, with large screen sports television, and a separate dining area that’s family friendly. Something for everyone seems to be the theme in the menu, too. They have reasonable prices on dinners, Pizza, Mexican, Sandwiches, Wraps, salads, burgers, and a kid’s menu. With all these options, I’m glad I chose the burger, because it tasted hot off the grill with outdoor smoky flavor. The help is friendly, and so is the atmosphere. When I asked for a take-out menu, the waitress was nice enough to give me the only copy left, the one on their wall! If heading toward or away from Lansing, don’t miss this fun spot!