After removing the tarp from my bike, I grab the clothes I want for the day and jam everything into the tent. It's like one of those bottomless boxes, the tent seems to still have room after hiding my panniers and guitar inside. Once the bottomless yellow cavern is sealed up I head off for a morning shower to knock off the cold. Ready as I'll ever be now! Ella gets hooked in her basket, I check the campsite one last time, and then we were off to explore Bardstown.
Its a nice little ride to get to historic downtown town; buildings from the 1700's still being used, luscious green golf course, brick lined pathways, and of course, bourbon themed everything! I decide to walk my bike around the town and take in the sights. Its still pretty cold and dark because the clouds haven't lifted but that wasn't going to stop me. A few blocks later I find this little bakery tucked back behind the main strip. Hardon's Bakery had the some of the best doughnuts I have had in awhile. All their pastries were very cheap so I had a variety of different doughnuts, a raspberry danish, and a few chocolate chip cookies to top it off! Breakfast fit for a king!
Now feeling like a slug, I pulled myself along the streets to explore some more. The Bourbon Marketplace appeared before me like The Holy Grail! It was the coolest store I had seen in the town. That is, if you like bourbon. They had bourbon everything, flasks, books, socks, shirts, bar towels, coasters, cigars, dog treats (which they were out of), wallets, barrels, the whole nine yards and then some more! More types of bourbon than you could imagine line the shelves floor to ceiling. After a great conversation on the history of bourbon and how it is made with the proprietor of the shop, I was out exploring the streets again.
All the buildings were beautifully maintained and each bore a plaque with either its history or when it was built. Many are now little boutiques or restaurants. They even still had a carriage shop with horses in town! And yes they had carriages for sale! After awhile I was hungry again and went to find a restaurant that would allow Ella to sit with me. Unfortunately, I found no luck in the restaurants that I wanted to try and had heard about. After a visit to their Old Timey Soda Fountain Shop (which didn't allow Ella), I went to explore some of the local museums. Most of the local museums were closed, probably because it was still early on a weekday. I couldn't get Ella into the Heavens Hill Distillery when I called ahead either. So with those options shot down, I decided I would come back during their annual bourbon festival in the future. 57,000 people had attended their festival earlier this year.
Ella and I finally went back to the park to find the My Old Kentucky Home and visit their gift shop. Cruising around the park, we stopped under a massive pavilion and ate some snacks. Ella was very happy to get out and play a game of hide and go seek around the pavilion and surrounding gardens. Once she was tired, we left the pavilion and walked all around the MOKH property. In front of the old mansion there was a couple playing some era music with a few people gathered to watch. You can only listen to so many Civil War medleys before you quickly have to find something else to do.
Once again, Ella and I were off to explore. This time we rode right onto their golf course by mistake! Oops! But since we were already there, I decided to ride through the rest of it all the way back to camp! It was a very nice ride even though I am sure some of the golf carts didn't appreciate sharing the pathway!
Hunger got the best of me and I rode off to a Subway not to far away. I had a gift card so why not use it? Now that I had food, I rode back to camp. I packed up all my gear and loaded the panniers onto my bike, so I wouldn't have to spend time doing it in the morning. At last everything was ready to go and I still had daylight to burn. After playing a few songs on the ol' guitar, I pulled out my GPS to plan tomorrows route. I got about halfway through planning before I decided to write about my day. Now I must put down the 'pen' and get back to planning! We hope you enjoy out daily adventures and continue reading!
Yes, I enjoy reading your daily adventures. Uncle Dick just walked by and I told him I was reading your blog, and he assail that he has read some of them and thinks you are doing a GREAT job writing about your adventures! That is a huge compliment, btw. Carry on...xo
ReplyDeleteSounds like your experience in Bardstown makes you appreciate that nice manager at the Cracker Barrel a few days back? That's a bummer they won't let you carry the dog in. Although I suppose if you really wanted to try food somewhere you could order it to-go?
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