Day 39 - Sonora, KY to Bardstown, KY

47 Miles / Day 39 of 50 / Sonora, KY to Bardstown, KY

After a great off day, we were doing it Willy Nelson style and were on the road again.

We said goodbye to Tom, Seth's dad, and Ruthie, his pup, and bid them adieu for Iowa. This was the first day in the last four that we were riding with all of our weight again, and it honestly felt good to be back in the groove again. Tom + a rest day makes for a great formula.

It was so humid today it felt like you were covered with a blanket. The sun wasn't that hot, the air was just so humid.

We were riding today through Abraham Lincoln's backyard. His birthplace, his boyhood home, etc were all on our route today. It made me laugh thinking about it, as we had just come from Illinois and they claim to be the "Land of Lincoln" even though he was born and grew up in Kentucky. Made me think of the fight over the Wright Brothers for Ohio and North Carolina. They were born and had their shop in Dayton, so Ohio claims "Birthplace of Aviation" but made their first flight in NC, deeming it "First in Flight".

Never really known what side to pick on that considering both are "home" to me, but I'm partial to my Midwest roots.

Anyways, it was cool thinking about Lincoln romping around as a kid through the Bluegrass back country.

We were riding along and I noticed a highway continuously jumped on and off our official Adventure Cycling Association route. We were doing mostly stepping-stair like crisscrosses through back country roads around the foothills of the Appalachians. After so many turns, I started to get bold and for once, decide whether to (gasp) go off the official route. Dun dun dun.

For those of you who don't know, Seth is the handy one and the mechanic and I am the observant one and the navigator.

We went off route because it looked like we could take a country highway that was much more direct to Bardstown. Sure enough, the wind was behind us and we were flying all afternoon, in addition to taking 12 miles off of our route. Equal to another hour of our life off the bike. Awesome!

We were biking into the outskirts of Bardstown, Ky and I was on cloud nine. Known as the "Bourbon Capital of the World" there are plenty of distilleries in the town, and the town centers around the production and manufacturing of bourbon. Two distilleries in production found my nostrils as we were coming into town, and I knew we were in a good place for the night.

We got a late start to the day (around 1 p.m.) so were happy with a shorter day, as we are trying to plan it to see my sister in Berea, KY on Sunday.

Off of the high of finding our own route, we decided to take the last 10 days (gasp!) of our trip and plan our reroute. We've been looking for an alternate route through Virginia, as we'd like to deal with the 15-20 % grades of the Appalachians for as little as possible. The official route also has us going in a bit of a bell-curved shape through Virginia; starting in the southwest, working our way to Northern Virginia and snaking our way back to Southeast Virginia. We looked at that and thought wasted miles.

Instead, we rerouted our trip through northern North Carolina and will work our way northeast out of Roanoke Rapids and end at a beach in Norfolk, VA.

Lesson #79: Not all who wander are lost. Sometimes the best way to find yourself is by forging your own trail.

That said, we'll be on our own route for the last 500 miles

A few bonuses of this route:

1. About 100 fewer miles
2. Less time climbing the Appalachians (known as the most difficult part of the whole trip).
3. Going through North Carolina, seeing teaching friends in Eastern NC, and being on more familiar terrain.
4. Actually ending at a beach that looks over the Atlantic.

We'll have more information about this reroute, as well as where and when we'll be at the finish line for all of our NC teaching friends who have nothing to do but see us jump in the water? That'd be special.

Stay tuned for our route changes!

After having our eye on the prize, we ended the night camping at a state park in Bardstown. The good life.