Day 21 - Sunday, May 31
Start - Bardstown, KY
End - Bardstown, KY
Miles (on the route) - all off route
Miles (total) - 35.1
Avg Spd - 13.4
Max Spd - 27
Total Ride Time - 2:28
It was another sunny day and we relaxed for a bit around the now smoldering fire pit. Ben and I chatted over some hot cocoa and caught up. He just finished his master's program and Anice is set to finish up her PHD this fall so they are approaching a time of opportunity, for some change that is. I suppose I've been floating in a time of opportunity for some years now, and maybe need to commit myself to something. I could really go anywhere, and do anything at this point. No real strong ties, nothing of necessity. I don't think I would be interested in moving to someplace new, not for the sake of moving anyway. I've been to some different places, and I've left friends and made new ones. I'm not sure there is anything that important in a city that you don't find in the friendships you have there. And while there may be better backdrops than Chicago or Philadelphia, or even Lancaster, I don't know that I have it in me to make another big move again. Unless something takes me to a new place. School perhaps. Anyway, I try to keep an open mind, maybe something will keep me in Portland at the end of this trip. Maybe I just keep biking. We headed into town where we got some breakfast. Downtown Bardstown is defeinitely different. It seems to have been frozen in time without a trace of modern chain stores in its downtown quarters. The streets are lined with small shops, cafes and restaraunts, and mom and pop pharmacies. One pharmacy even had an old time soda fountain and counter. It was a town where you want to go walking.
After breakfast we headed to the Heaven Hill distillery in Bardstown. We got a tour through their rick house where they age the barrels of bourban, and you could smell it in the air. The evaporating bourbon they called angel's share. Afterwards, we were taken into a large circular room and bar and given 12 year and 18 year bourbons to try. "Bourbon and Branch" seemed to be the way to go, adding just a few drops of water to the bourbon to smooth it out. I'm not sure Hannah agreed though with some of the faces she was making. We soon set out for Clermont, the home of Jim Beam. Ben and I suited up and took an easier day with only 17 miles to ride. It was mostly flatter territory but also a busier road, only a narrow bit of smooth shoulder outside the rumble strip. We made pretty good time, and arrived at Jim Beam to find out it was dry county Sunday! Woohoo! No purchases and no tastings! Awesome! So we looked at the gift shop, hung out with the statue of Booker Noe (grandson of Jim Beam), and drank a beer on the lawn. It was finally time for them to return to their lives in Columbus, which meant I had to go back to solo trecking. It was great to have friends around for the weekend, and share a bit of the riding. But it was certainly difficult, sad, to have them leave. I was a bit jealous to know they got to go back to friends and familiar surroundings, but maybe they had similar envious feelings. I suppose everybody is often at least a bit curious about being somewhere a little bit different than where they are at the moment. I guess that's how I got here in the first place. I know I just need to get back out there and ride again, fall back into the routine and I'll regain my focus.
I rode back to Bardstown and had some dinner and a beer at the old tavern by the town square. It was an old inn with a long list of historical figures who had stayed there including Abraham Lincoln and Daniel Boone. I talked to a local cop for a bit and made camp in the town park. Back at it in the morning.