Incarceration Tour Day 4

Home!
Total mileage for the trip:  1068.7

On the previous two mornings of the trip, we had a lot of lollygagging around since the Rotary Prison didn't open until 10:00AM and our Prison Tour in Jefferson City didn't start until 9:00 AM CT.  This final day of the trip was more typical of a motorcycle vacation as we were on the road by sunrise.
Light rain had moved through the area very early in the morning, but mercifully, there was little rain as we packed up and the morning temperature was quite tolerable, if still a little humid.

Once on the road, I was really glad we stopped the previous night when we did.  Early morning is the best time to ride and this day was no exception.  Temperature was really quite nice and there were almost no other cars on the road.  I think it was nearly an hour before I even had to pass a slow moving Sunday driver.
The clouds in the area painted a subdued sunrise as we motored toward home.

The motorcycle ride through Southern Indiana hill country is very pleasant.  Lots of hills, beautiful green trees and enough straight stretches that we can still make good time.
In a predictable amount of time we were getting fuel at a gas station not too far from home.  Home by 10:00 AM, we had plenty of time to unpack and get settled before getting the dogs back from the kennel.

I prefer week(s)-long trips across country on the motorcycle, but these long weekends definitely do make a few days feel like a real adventure.
As far as trips go, this June quest on the Goldwing has to be one of the hottest and stickiest motorcycle tours ever, especially given the trip length.  June is usually cooler with a bit more rain expected, so I'll count myself as lucky that we only had at most 2 hours of rain.  Areas around us got deluged and much of Southern Illinois smelled like a marsh from all the rain.

As a bit of an aside, shortly before leaving on this trip, I replaced the windshield on my Goldwing with a Klockwerks Flare.  The stock windshield had cracked and I always hated how the top of the windshield could sometimes be right at the sight line.  The 14" Flare at the lowest setting is perfect.  There probably isn't quite as much wind protection when ambient wind was high, a little more during calm winds and it works quite well during heavy rain.  Baptism by storm.  Being firmly of the belief that looking through a motorcycle windshield is very, very wrong, I really like the Flare windshield.

Overall, what a great trip.  We rode through some really nice parts of the Midwest and saw some amazing, if somewhat tragic, historical aspects of the United States.  The tours were both interesting and the time away from the daily issues of life was a nice break.

Incarceration Tour Day 3

Total mileage for the trip so far:  886.0 Miles

June 13 was the scheduled day for the Missouri State Penitentiary Tour - the reason for the motorcycle tour to Missouri.  The tour didn't start until 9:00 AM, but I was up early as usual so I took advantage of the time to do some walking and to see the State Capital.  Jefferson City was almost scary quiet on an early Saturday morning which gave me time to walk around the Capital grounds some.  The only other person I saw was the woman in the guard shack who appeared to be doing laps inside the shack as exercise or something.
The Capital building itself is impressive, but I could not get inside at this early hour.  There are many statues around the building, most commemorating the territorial acquisition.

The Capital sits right on the Missouri River.  Unfortunately, a set of train tracks separates the city from the river so it is not possible to enjoy it.  It did look like it might be more accessible farther down the river.  The sunrise over the river was still very pretty.

After the nice morning walk, it was back to the hotel for more hotel waffles saturated in syrup before heading out for the very short drive to the Missouri State Penitentiary.
The building itself is imposing and looks like several other prisons.  The tour group was already congregating when we got there.

Once inside, our tour guide Ray gave some stories on the history and mayhemic background of the prison.  Gretchen, the other tour guide, was nice enough to allow our motorcycle coats to be put up in the Guard Control Room for the bulk of the tour.
The Missouri State Penitentiary was built in 1836.  It was added to multiple times after opening, typically using inmate labor.  Interestingly, inmate labor was also used to build prestigious houses in the area.
The prison grew over the decades to, at one time, become one of the largest prisons in the US, if not the largest.  It seemed to ebb and flow from being progressive to regressive in treatment of inmates, but like many prisons of the times, inmates were often seen as a lesser form of human.
One of the most notable inmates was "Pretty Boy" Floyd.  It was also notable for female inmates and being the site of Missouri executions.  Since for a time, the US government did not have its own facilities suitable for executions, the Missouri State Penitentiary was used for federal executions.  It is noted as the only site where a woman was executed by lethal gas - any personal feelings on the death penalty aside, I'm not sure there is any reason to treat males and females differently with respect to punishment for  similar crimes.  Women's Lib?  Take your medicine...
James Earl Ray was housed in the Missouri State Penitentiary.  After numerous escape attempts, he finally made it out about a year before assassinating MLK.  If there were "numerous" escape attempts, one wonders why he wasn't watched closer ... conspiracy theorists, have your say!

Like other prisons I've previously visited, the structure is an imposing stone building which I'm sure is designed to serve as a mental imposition to the imprisoned.  It was in use from being built in 1836 through 2004 (seriously? - yes, only about 10 years ago - yikes!).  It was the site of a major prisoner riot in 1954 and was labeled as the "bloodiest 47 acres in America" by Time Magazine in 1967 - an achievement noted on the tourism web site for the prison.

Rather than give a stone by stone account of the prison, below are some pictures from the tour:

One of the cell blocks.

A prison cell.  Can you imagine spending years in this?

Another prison building off of "the yard."  All these stone and metal buildings are so metaphorically cold, even on the hot and humid day that we were there.

The Honor Building.  This is the oldest prison structure and served various purposes over its life.  In the last incarnation, it was used to house inmates who had proven themselves to not be troublemakers.  This building is different from previous tours I've been on in that the cell blocks are on the outside wall, not free standing.

Inmates were even allowed to decorate their cells to some degree.  There were many murals painted, some of which remain.  Apparently, some decorations that no longer exist were very ornate.

This is "The Hole" which is also known as the Dungeon.  Much mistreatment of inmates went on down here.  It was dark, dank and hard to imagine staying a few days down in it, let alone years.

Death Row.  It was actually not as unpleasant as some of the other cells, but the reality is, it was probably the worst - mentally if nothing else.

The death chamber.  They said they needed a two seat chamber since they had four double executions, but I still think it is odd in a scary sort of way.

Overall the tour was well done.  I thought it was longer than it had to be since we didn't see that much.  Much of the time was spent with Ray telling stories of the prison which did help bring the tour alive and bring some perspective to the event.  There were some times when the talking did get to be a bit verbose.  And some of the "ghost" stories were somewhere in the silly realm.  It actually felt a bit rushed at the end, where we all drove to the Death House - which is where the tour ended.

Overall the tour was enjoyable.  Having toured three prisons (and a jail the previous day), these prison structures are probably in the best shape of the ones that I've seen.  There were 33 people on the tour which was a bit too many.  I guess I would have liked it to be shorter, with not quite as much talking and a few less people.  As it was though, hanging back when the group walked on allowed some really great pictures without a lot of other people in them.

The three prisons I have toured; Mansfield, Ohio; Rawlins, Wyoming; Jefferson City, Missouri do paint an interesting historic picture of incarceration.  My plan is to only see these things as a free, motorcycle-riding tourist.

Once the tour was over we hit the road.  The plan was to ride down 2-lane roads except for right around St. Louis.  We hit some really heavy rain before St. Louis, but muscled through it.  There wasn't any thunder and traffic was light.  The rain only lasted about a half an hour until we were back into the heat.

We continued on through Illinois for the afternoon.  I didn't hit "the wall" during the ride, but I did find myself wondering where the Indiana border was.  

Eventually we did find the border.  We were chasing rain through much of the second half of Illinois and into Indiana.  Rain could be seen in the distance, and in some places the road was not dry yet.  We stopped a little way into Indiana in the town of Washington.  We didn't make reservations, but found a very nice reasonably priced independent hotel with a pizza and wing place next door.

Now that we are out of prison, it is time to head home.

Incarceration Tour Day 2

Total mileage for the trip 566.0 miles (I think)

The day started out normal enough for a vacation day with an early rise.  Since we left the previous night, we were less than an hour from our first stop of the day and they didn't open until 10:00AM.  So there was some putzing around the hotel room before leisurely leaving and taking the slow roads up to Crawfordsville, Indiana to see the Rotary Jail there.

The rotary jail in Crawfordsville, Indiana was the first of many rotary jails built.  It is estimated there were in the low double digits of them built in the US with several still standing.  The rotary jail being visited is reported to be the only one that still works (ie it still rotates).

The "innovative" design was patented by William H. Brown of Indianapolis.  The primary feature of the jail was that it increased safety and strict Victorian hierarchy by only allowing one inmate in or out at at time.

I really see two issues with the rotary jail.  First, if there is ever a fire or any other kind of structural or natural disaster, getting inmates out to safety will be slow at best.  Perhaps in the 1880's, when this first rotary jail was built, this was not seen as an important aspect; people in jail were a lesser version of human.  The other main issue was that inmates may get limbs, or other body parts stuck in the rotary aspect of the jail, causing mangling (or worse).  Similarly, I do wonder if an inmate bent on malfeasance could stop the jail from rotating by wedging something in place to prevent rotating.  Now throw in a drunk inmate and things can really get interesting.

Despite the innovative nature, the concept of the rotary jail did not last too long and by 1939, all rotary jails were either no longer in service or modified to no longer being rotary - making them just a pie shaped jail.  The Rotary Jail in Crawfordsville stayed in operation as a non-rotating jail until 1973 (seriously).  Apparently, it was in dire condition by then and required extensive restoration to turn into a museum.

The tour started with the Sheriff's house.  The Sheriff lived on site and his wife did most of the cooking for the inmates.  The house itself is pretty typical for Edwardian/Victorian architecture.  What was nice about this structure is that it was turned into a museum very shortly after it was closed as an active jail so it didn't fall into more disrepair or vandalism.

From there, we went into the jail.  As expected, the jail is a cylinder shape with two stories.  Each story has 8 wedges.  Each pie wedge could hold two inmates for a total of 32.  

In addition to the rotating part of the jail, there was also a woman's cell (could hold four), plus an infirmary which was also sometimes used for juveniles and/or a high security cell.

Throughout the tour, Dillon, our tour guide, gave lots of information and history of the rotary jail.  I will say that the $5.00 admission with personal tour was very well worth it.  Not only was the information great, but it also allowed the tour to move at a pace that was appropriate for us.

While the jail is restored, there is still evidence of its history.  In the picture below, the deteriorated floor can be seen below where the toilet used to be.  I guess inmates were not necessarily good at aiming?

There were 2 people executed by hanging at the Rotary Jail, but one required three tries.  If there was ever a case for cruel and unusual, that must be it.

As the only rotary jail that still rotates, I was glad they still do rotate it as part of the tour.  The effort it takes to spin the jail is considerable and didn't look like fun in the day's early heat and humidity.  I was surprised at the spinning rate of the jail as I had previously pictured something with much more gear reduction.

From there, we went down into the basement of the jail to see the actual workings of it.  The mechanism juts out of the wall.  The brick wall supports the bars of the jail.

The jail "pie" is actually supported entirely on this large metal post.  The post goes all the way up through the cylinder that is the rotary part of the jail.  Surprisingly, the support also holds the waste plumbing for the cells.  The incoming water for the jail was a cistern on the roof.  And this means that during a drought...

While we were down there, someone else started turning the jail as part of an inspection being done.  Seeing the actual mechanism working was very fascinating.

After looking around a few more minutes at the jail, we left to head to prison.  Normal course would be court first, but such is vacation.

We headed out through the flat land of Indiana and Illinois.  We stayed mostly to two lane roads through the day.  While we saw rain in the area several times, the only time we actually hit rain was around the Indiana/Illinois border for about 45 minutes.  It was moderately hard at times, but was almost refreshing in the days relenting humid heat.

We crossed the Illinois River near Hardin by a bridge, before heading south between the Illinois and Mississippi rivers to the Golden Eagle Ferry.  I've crossed rivers on the motorcycle before on Ferries, but never the Mississippi.  The water was up and moving so the ferry almost had to come in at a 45 degree angle.  Actual docking was very gentle though.

Once in Missouri, we headed west again towards Jefferson City.  There was significant traffic, but only for a short time as we got on the Interstate.  We skirted a very large thunderstorm that I was glad we didn't have to ride through on the motorcycle.  We did get to take advantage of the shade and cooling from the clouds.  After about a half an hour on I-70, we got off to take 2-lane roads the rest of the way.  I was really glad we did as the ride from that point was fantastic.  We headed down to near the Missouri River and followed it along all the way to Jefferson City.  The ride was hilly, curvy and with very little traffic was just plain fun.  I actually felt sorry for all those people on I-70 gritting their teeth with a death grip on the steering wheel.

As we approached Jefferson City, I was struck how close to the Capital of Missouri the rural landscape remained.  Jefferson City is a bit odd in that it is presumably close to the flood plain and there are no interstates running into it.

We got turned around a bit as we got into Jefferson City, but found our hotel soon enough.  Dinner that night was at Hoxton's Tarvern and Grill.  Other than one VERY loud patron it was nice and the food was pretty good.

Heavy rain was just moving in as we got back to the hotel to call it a night.

Incarceration Tour Day 1

Incarceration tour?  Yep.  Heading to jail tomorrow and prison on Saturday.

June 11, 2015 127.9 Miles

The day started out normal enough.  Up early, watch part of The Office on TV while getting ready for work and making my lunch.  Head to work...
By early afternoon, I was at a point where I wasn't going to start anything new.  I wrapped up a few final things, sent off a couple emails (immediately shutting down after that), cleaned up the lab and headed out.
I got home and dropped the dogs off in beagle jail.
Back at home, I get the bike packed up and ready to go.  SO got home a short time later, we did final packing and getting ready and headed out on the Goldwing.  I got about a mile and a half away, and then realized I had forgotten my laptop.  I'm not sure how far I would have gotten and still turned around, but at a mile and a half it was a no brainer.  I would have been irritated (and likely whiny and annoying) if I wouldn't have had my laptop.

Back on the road ten minutes later, we went down to the interstate before staying on it all through Indiana.  Traffic was relatively light, but it was very hot.  It was tolerable when the sun was behind a cloud, but I was glad we were only going a couple hours.  The crazy Garmin wanted to get me off the interstate around Indianapolis, and I was going to follow it, but I missed the exit it was telling me to take.  I don't think this is the first time I did that - I don't understand why Garmin routes me off the interstate so much.
So, we stayed on I-74 straight to Brownsburg for the night.
Dinner was Steak-n-Shake and even though I got a birthday cake shake, I still got Zingers for the room.

Tomorrow ... I go to jail.