We capped off our first century (100 mile day) in a scortching Kentuky sun and it felt like the best day of the trip. After leaving Carter Cave state park I continued on route 60 the whole way into Lexington. Kentucky is absolutely gorgeous and perhaps my favorite state so far. Long rolling hills, tall grass along the roadside and green pastures for most of the day.
I got my rhythym early on and kept it for the rest of the ride, taking short breaks every two hours to eat a pb&j sandwich. I flew at an 18 mph pace over the last 20 miles from Winchester into Lexington, exhilarated from the day. My arms from my sleeves down where fire truck red by he end.
A gory note about Road kill. I've seen a lot. When you have an uncomfortable amount of time to inspect the animal. You see the expression of death on it's face. The mouth, if it's still discernable, is almost always wide open with horror. I've seen deer hide torn off the carcas, it's golden hair dusting the side of the road. I've seen turtles, snakes, possom, raccoons, skunk, birds as small as a finch and as large as a turkey all in repose. And today in kentukey I saw cats and dogs. It was horrible. Judging from the amount of unchained dogs that chased me this kind of thing happens a lot. The last fatality I witnessed was on foot in the city A woman on knelt over a still cat, stroking it's fur, a small pool of blood trickling from it's nose. I asked to help. She replied "it's gone"
Back to the good stuff ... We decided to treat ourselves to a comfy hotel and a rest day in town to recover from a week on the road. I went out to DeSha's for a plate of scallops over cheese grits and a Kentucky burbon ale. Delicious!
In the morning my first order of business was to head to Pedal Power, a local bike shop open since 73. The experience was 5 star. Alan, one of the mechanics, dismanteld my right shifter and discoverd a spring had split. He offered to get a replacement part under warranty but
I didn't have enough time in town to wait so Im using it as a friction shifter now. He also replaced my chain. which had prematurely worn out due to the climbing with heavy load and rail trail riding. My bike is riding like a dream again.
After all the work was done on my bike Alan called a friend to squeeze us into a progressive dinner ride tonight sponsored by Bike Lexington an organization which hosts bike events through out the month of may. Tonight we started with beer and appetizers in a local park and then road critical mass style over to a evening of bluegrass music on a lawn next to a bowling lane. Nothing could beat this ending to the day, sitting in the grass, drinking a beer and listening to the sounds of the band play.
Everyone we met was excited for our trip and happy to talk about good safe routes, which just so happened to run along the Burbon trail. Special thanks to Tim and Shane, two of the organizers who let us roll with the group.
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Location:Nelms Ave,Lexington,United States
yay, a pic of the scallops. just what i needed to rescue me after the tough, albeit interesting, roadkill section...
ReplyDeleteBluegrass and Beer! Here Here!!! That sounds like a great time.
ReplyDeleteIt's a nice switch; the popular image from Easy Rider of two hicks in a pickup taking out their shotgun and shootin' hippies to hicks in pickup trucks offering beers to cross country riders; the Hollywood myth proven wrong.