I'm looking for suggestions for a route easily and quickly accessible from central Illinois. (IL, IN, eastern MO, northern KY) I'm on the IN/IL state line near Terre Haute. I'd like something that I can start within a 2-3 hour drive from home and would have 8 days available. (St. Louis is ~3 hours west and Indy is ~2 hours east) I'm an experienced touring cyclist and will be riding solo..I prefer camping over hotels and don't mind high mileage days. An out and back or loop would be ideal so I could get back to my vehicle or pick up point. A point to point route is ok as long as the drive to the end isn't too outrageous as my wife will have to pick me up. I've considered a few options.
1) Doing the Katy trail out and back. Starting point is about 2 1/2 hours from home. Pros are no traffic, lots of camping available and plenty of places to stop. Cons are riding close to 500 miles with no pavement, which is only a small issue to me.
2) Route 66, starting in the Bloomington, IL area and riding somewhere west of St. Louis. I would have my wife drop me off at the start and pick me up at the end. Pros are lots of history, restaurants and no lack of sights to see. On the other hand, I've heard traffic and road conditions through Illinois are not optimal. I also haven't looked much into camping options.
3) Riding through Brown County, IN. Haven't looked into this much, but have spent some time there and it looks like it would have some great cycling opportunities.
Thoughts and suggestions?
