We finally woke up to the sun shining in our window.  In the last 5 days that just hasn’t happned.  We decided to see a local site of interest while we were visiting Jackson, TN.  We were on Casey Jones Lane, near Casey Jones Village, and even bought gas at Casey’s General Store (OK – maybe that’s something different).  We just had to go see what this was all about.

Before we rolled out, we walked across the parking lot to a local motorcycle dealership and replaced the rainsuit that I destroyed yesterday.  We also managed to pick up a few cleaning supplies to make the motorcycles a little bit more presentable.  At 8:00 it was already hot and very humid but there really wasn’t anything else to do – nothing opened until 10:00.

I was pretty small in the late 1950’s but I remember hearing a song about an engineer (railroad engineer, not the mechanical engineers like me).  It talked about him wrecking a train but they still called him a hero.  I didn’t bother to go look him up in the encyclopedia (ha – do you remember those?).  I just wrote the story off like any other tall tale – Paul Bunyon, John Henry (the steel driven’ man), or even Superman.  Turns out that Casey was a real life engineer who saved a lot of people during an unfortunate train wreck.  His museum and home (and the touristy “village”) are located in Jackson, TN.  You don’t have to go find an encyclopedia.  You can just use Google if you’re interested.

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After learning about Casey Jones, and even hearing the old song, we hit the first gas station we saw and turned left onto US45E North for almost the entire day.  The ride was just the way we like it – uneventful and done under bright sunshine.  It was hot and humid but I’m not going to complain.  The new rainsuit stayed packed away.

We rolled into our hotel in Metropolis, Illinois around 3:00.  Our room was ready and waiting with the air conditioner cranked to a nice temp.  We had plans to run into town for a re-visit to a local site.  After all – Metropolis is the home of The Man of Steel and they take full advantage of the mythical Superman.  The town of 6,500 draws a significant line of tourists just to see the fiberglass tribute to our comic book hero.  This reminds me of the strategy used in Winslow, Arizona when the Eagles mentioned them in their famous song.

The bikes were unloaded and the drive was only about 5 miles into town.  We really were on the hunt for dinner but had to stop and take pictures of the Man of Fiberglass.

There was even a tribute to Superman in his later years after he had stopped working out.

Our hotel desk attendant had recommended The El Toro Loco Mexican Restaurant which was only a block from the Superman statue. If you’re ever in Metropolis, IL, I suggest you give it a try. You won’t be sorry.

Today’s ride was only 130 miles. We figured it was the last chance to do a couple of tourist things before seriously trying to get home. We wanted to take advantage of the sunshine and revisit an old friend even if he is 15 feet tall and made of fiberglass.