I've led motorcyclists on various day rides in central IL, but never tried it with autos. I would like to gauge interest in a day-long road trip, staging from Springfield IL on a weekend morning and ending there in the evening. The route is a mix of smooth clean river road, and not so smooth and not so clean, but exquitely curvy backroads in the hills flanking the lower Illinois and Mississippi Rivers. Most of the twisties have minimal engineering, like a gravel road but with asphault surface - very few potholes. If your paint has to stay perfect and you can't tolerate the sound of sand and small stones on your under carriage, this drive is not for you.

Round trip travel time from Springfield to the start of the good stuff, and back again will be about 2 hours on I72. The curvy stuff will last about 5-6 hours, in two phases.

1. I72 & Hwy 100 to rest stop at Grafton IL, along and through the hills of the East bank of the IL River.

2. Cross on the Brussels ferry to the West Bank, then work our way up to Pittsfield IL, in the region between the IL and Mississippi Rivers.

Chow down in Springfield after the drive.

Anyone want to try this next spring or summer?

Steve

Additional Info: The date for this will be Saturday, May 5, rain or shine.

 

I was down until I read the part about loose gravel.

My car is an 01 and the paint looks like its from 07.

I do not want to mess that up.

 

My car is in storage until around March-April. Otherwise I'm in.

Those guys who are worried about their paint should check this out:

http://www.duplicolor.com/products/shield.html

 

We could make this into FTW'07. Minus the loose gravel, it sounds like fun.

 

im up for it.

 

I drove the route today - first time doing it straight through without new exploring.

The Interstate 72 part from Springfield (Veterans Parkway) and back, ~109 miles, 1 hr 40 min

The twisty part, 247 miles, 4 hr 37 min

The twisty part I drove more aggressively than I would with a group, and with short stops.
For a group, with one meal and a gas stop the fun part would probably be ~6 hours.
Pretty intense driving but what a blast! I'm bushed. At one place I stopped to count wild turkeys that were poking around in a field and there were nearly 60 of 'em.

Steve

 

How were the roads? Loose gravel?

 

As I mentioned, they're all asphault-surfaced. In some counties they lay down a light dusting of gravel in the hotest summer months to deal with tar seeping to the surface. Most of it gets blown off or worked in by traffic, but some remains.

If you're worried about your car this is not for you.

Steve

 

We will give this some thought. Any problem with some vintage folk joining in? We also like to drive the dragon and Rt 26, 555 in Ohio. Have you been there? Not such long drives but soooooooo much fun!

 

I hope Vintage folks are no problem, since I'm one. Did the dragon once on my cruiser motorcycle and Eastern OH once on a Ducati. Both are nice places I'd like to do in my S2000.

Steve