Honest...Abe, Wild Turkey

Thursday I packed and headed down Hwy 110 not knowing how far I'd go or where I'd spend the night. The roads where pretty good and the traffic was light. Along the way, pretty much in a place you wouldn't expect, I passed a great resort area for golfers called Rough River Dam State Resort Park. There were a couple of hotels to the left and small airfield to the right. The night before R.D. said it was one of the best courses in the U. S. I am not a golfer and wasn't familiar with the course but from the road it looked like a golf course to me. If you have an airplane and like to golf, Jack, you might want to check it out. As the Kentucky sun rose higher and started baking my brain I had a moment that I can only describe as "road trance". This part of the trip has a lot of turns to different roads, both numbered and named. So I was constantly checking the map making sure I was making the right turns. Somewhere in there I zoned out. I am not sure what happened but I can only describe it as road trance a kind of blank thought. Anyway, when I snapped back, I convinced myself I had missed a turn and I even remembered passing the numbered road. I turned around and started retracing my route. Right after I climbed a fairly big hill I met Mack and Zack coming down the trail. Mack and Zack were two of the six bikers I had stayed with in Sebree. At first they didn't recognize me. When Mack realized it was me his next question was where are you going. I asked if they had passed Hwy 79 and of course they hadn't. I know I sounded like a total idiot when I described my out-of-body experience and they probably wondered how I made it that far by myself. I rode with them for a couple of hours but their twenty something legs were too much for me and during one fairly long and steep climb, they dropped me like a bad habit. When I got to the top of the climb, there was a store on the right and I decided to take a break. The store is a combination grocery/hardware and restaurant and meeting place for locals. I had traveled about 45 miles, most of it up and down and was thinking about stopping for the day. On the map there was a camping icon at the intersection so as I got something to drink and asked the lady, Karen, where I could camp. Right here she says, they do it all the time. The store, The Double L Grocery, is owned and run by Arnold and Lucy. They allow biker/campers to pitch tents behind the store and treat them to dinner. OK, twist my arm, I decided to make it a short day and get out of the heat. As I drank my Gatorade Arnold showed up and welcomed me to stay and started making plans for supper. Apparently he has had lots of people stay at the store and right away started introducing me to all the locals that came in. One of them was Carl who hung out there most of the afternoon. Arnold suggested we play a game of "Toss the Corn". A game that apparently in rural Kentucky has replaced horse shoes. What the hay, I'm game. The game is played with four people (we only had three) with two on a team. You toss square packets of corn into a hole cut into boxes about thirty feet apart. Scoring is similar to horseshoes in that you get points for landing on the box or in the hole and can cancel each others score. Having spent the best part of the day in the sun it was a little demanding to pitch packets of corn for an hour but it's the journey. Finally we got back inside and dinner got underway. Lucy works as a family counselor and didn't arrive till around seven so Arnold fixed dinner. We had roast beef and potatoes and corn on the cob. After dinner and some small talk it was time for bed. Arnold said I could pitch my tent or sleep under the awning of the store. Then Lucy suggested I drag the recliner outside the store and sleep in it. At first I thought she was kidding. Realizing she wasn't I thought I'd give it a try. Didn't work. Outdoors, in a recliner, in the summertime even in Kentucky is probably not a good idea. Around midnight I pitched my tent. It was a clear night with little possibly of rain so I didn't need the fly. With just the mesh net it was like sleeping under the stars. Friday morning I drug the recliner back into the store, had a sausage biscuit and hit the road. I had one goal in mind, get to Bardstown and a hotel. My last rest day was with the Fishers on the 4TH and after three days on the ground and six days biking I was ready for a bed and rest. On the map Bardstown was a 71 mile ride but I was able to trim a few miles by avoiding tourist stops. I did however go by Abraham Lincoln's birthplace near Hodgenville and see the cabin that he supposedly lived in. Later on I topped a hill and enter Bardstown and was greeted with the very strong odor of Kentucky whiskey. After passing the distillery and turning left at the intersection, wham mo there it was a "red dot" hotel. Last night I slept soundly and today is a rest day. There's an all-you-can-eat buffet across the road complete with collards and cornbread.... my my.