Day 20: Bardstown to Lincoln Birthplace

May 30, 2006

Pepsi at the fountain that had only two things for breakfast

The men's coffee club was giving the waitress a tough time--the way people do when they've known each other for a long time and would do anything to help each other out.

Then off to the library where I stretched an hour and a half out of my one hour time limit before getting kicked off, but didn't get any new pictures loaded. And a trip to a tourist town wouldn't be complete without getting ripped off, which happened at the nearby Chevron station where ice is 17 cents in the 20 or 32 oz. sizes, but 60 something in the 44 oz. cup (not marked anywhere...). I should have gone and dumped it into a 32 oz cup, but I didn't want to waste the cup, so I took one for the environment. Ends up it tasted kind of like soap or something anyway, so nothing in my Camelbak has tasted the same since. Darn Chevron.

Then back to the campground to pack up and eat a quick snack before getting back on route just after noon and just after dumping cold shower water on my head and shirt since it was already super hot. It had been 75 at 7:30 a.m., and must have been pushing 90 by then.

Just down the road from the campground was a local distillery and the Bourbon Heritage Center. I looked at some displays but didn't really have time for the tour (sadly, you didn't get any samples unless you took the tour) and I didn't want to waste my cold shower letting my shirt evaporate in an air conditioned building, so off I went.

a new friend I found by someone's mailbox

From the distillery to the abbey...no really. My next stop was the Abbey of Gethsemani, a Trappist monastery about .75 mile off route/ I ended up in the gift shop where I met Brother John and Father Seamus. Father Seamus had all sorts of questions about my trip--what I was eating, where I was staying, etc. He apologized for all the supposedly dumb questions, but I'm sure he gets dumb questions about being a monk all the time. I came away with a heavier pack from a pound of the famous fruitcake they sell to support themselves.

I don't know--this just struck me as funny, being at a monastery and all...

Later had a nice little climb out of Howardstown--amazing how people think bikers can't make it up the "huge" hills in their area ("Whoo boy, you got a biggun' a comin' Biggest hill this side of the county line that one is. You'll be a'walkin' that un fur shur.") And it was probably longer than most I've had in the past couple of days, but it wasn't bad. Except for the dead baby deer one local warned me about and the nearing rumbles of thunder.

I wanted to get to the top of that hill quickly and down the other side, but it was one of those roads that meandered along the tops of rises instead of going back down right away. At the top, I saw Raine Road and thought, "I should take a picture of that, because I think I'm going to get wet, ha, ha." Not 30 yards later the heavens opened their gates and dumped water all other me. And I hadn't even taken the picture.

There's not much point putting on rain gear when it's hot because the wet coolness of the rain feels so good after you've been climbing in 90+ heat, but this rain kind of hurt. Then it came so hard it really did hurt and I had to look closely to make sure it wasn't little hails, but by then I was already wet and didn't want the inside of my jacket soaking wet, so I kept riding until I found a church overhang to duck under, but I got cold just standing there in the breeze and headed out into the wet again when the lightning (never really close to begin with) stopped.

The ride to Buffalo was chilly--from the 90s to the 70s and I was soaked, so I asked the gas station attendant there if I could dry off and change somewhere. And then I'd buy food. I struggled to get my dry shorts onto still-damp legs (and you think putting on a wet swimsuit is tough?) and finally decided to hit the Cruise Inn motel just a few miles up the road, as scary as that sounded. But the women at the gas station said it would be ok and that getting a room wasn't a bad idea since the storms were supposed to come back later in the evening. Buffalo Baptist, if your awning had been a little bigger, you may have had a visitor for the night, but the Inn was right near the Lincoln Birthplace memorial so I could see that first thing in the morning.

my hands are all wrinkly, but ricky is mostly dry

I ate my fried chicken at the gas station, confirmed the location of the motel, and headed away into MORE SPRINKLES that had caught up with me while I was eating. They seem to follow me.

The Cruise Inn seemed to be associated with a store that had already closed for the evening (at 7?), so I went banging on a door that looked somewhat office-like. The owner said he'd just let me in my room and have me pay up in the morning--for just under $25. Well worth it to be dry for the night. My chicken, on the other hand, was having some disagreements with my digestive system, so I gave up on organizing and repacking things, ignored the Weather Channel and its forecast for more rain and crawled into sheets I really hoped were clean without even disturbing the spider in the bathtub to take a shower. I'd seen enough rain already today.

Imagine that...more rain in the forecast

Today's ride: 46 miles (74 km)
Total: 915 miles (1,473 km)

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