Day 20 - Saturday, May 30
Start - Lawrencebug, KY
End - Bardstown, KY
Miles (on the route) - all off route
Miles (total) - 39.5
Avg Spd - 11mph
Max Spd - 26mph
Total Ride Time - 3:36
I awoke this morning to a treat. Ben, Anice, and Hannah were already awake and got breakfast going. These guys brought all sorts of goodies for the weekend and at least for a few days I wouldn't have to be slumming it. After some oatmeal, we got the bikes prepped, Ben reassembling his and I adjusting my tire. We looked like two power rangers in our riding gear, myself the red ranger and Ben the blue. Now Ben is no pro biker either, and he hasn't had the pleasure of on-the-trip training these past three weeks so there was some curiosity as to how he'd handle being thrown into a 40 mile day. I was glad we were past the mountains, but it wasn't exactly flat terrain either. And our start out of the campground was a series of steep hills so we would get warmed up quick. We made a good pace on a day that was a series of inclines and declines, taking our first break at 17 miles. The roads had little traffic and winded us through farm hills and scattered ranch houses. You'd like to ride side by side and chat the whole trip, but you do have to watch for traffic. The second half of the ride to Bardstown introduced more hill climbs and slowly started to wear us thin. But with perserverance, we rolled into bardstown after 3.5 hours of riding and in good shape. Ben did pretty well considering his previous long ride was twenty miles. We stopped for 25cent bubba cola at the local Sav-Alot and rode through downtown Bardstown on the way to the My Old Kentucky Home State Park. Anice and Hannah had driven there and already got the site setup. We planned to make a real fire this day and I finally got to put the HATCHET to use. I felt alive with that thing, pwerful, chopping up the wood. Imagining if those mountain dogs would attack again I would bury that thing deep into..... sorry. That HATCHET brings out another side. Finally Ben got the fire going and Anice made quite a fine dinner of pasta and sausage. This beats my ramen and chef boyardee canned goods! More beer and a fine dinner, and then smores around the fire, mine sans marshmallow. Weird, I know. I showered and all was right with the world. The scattered clouds during the day broke and let the sun shine for the evening. This was finally a fine vacation from the supposed vacation I've been on. P.S. A little contest here! Best caption for the above picture of Ben taking a roadside rest gets an official pair of TransAm socks, worn by me! Keep it reasonably clean!