Lou/Frankfort

Date: July 5 Sat
Mileage: 60 (Bleriot)
July mileage: 152
Year to date: 1136

The plan all worked out very well. We have friends in Lexington we haven't seen in a long time, too long, so we were to visit them Saturday. We weren't going until the afternoon and there were no Sat a.m. plans either, like soccer or tball, so a ride ensued. I copied a portion of my Lou/Lex ride I did many years ago, and added a rural twist to give me a 60-miler from Louisville to Frankfort. I left earlier in the morning and the fam picked me up in Frankfort on the way, just off the interstate at Starbucks. It all worked out really well and I give the ride a solid 'A'.

Bleriot, with rain jacket affixed to Nelson Longflap and Kleen Kanteen extra bottle in side pocket. I stopped here at this church to put on the rain jacket only 6m from home.

Foggy, misty, rainy. You can barely see the "bike lane" sign in this, and a crappy bike lane it is. I rode to the right, where the pavement was cleaner.

Leaving in the a.m. I was confronted with coolish temps- 63F- and lots of fog. Fog quickly begat drizzle, which quickly begat rain. I stopped 6m in to put on my rain jacket, one of those horrendous polypro clear jackets, you know, the shower curtains. I also pulled out the RBW cap for rain purposes too. The first 10 miles was mostly getting through Louisville, but once you hit Rehl Rd. just outside J'town, the ride became a purely rural ride of the best kind. This route also follows the old "farm" ride.

At corner of 148 and Clark Station Rd. I'm sure other places have epic vistas, but central KY is awfully pretty to bike in.

My parents owned a ranchette in Shelby Co. outside the 'Ville. I rode this house-to-farm route several times when they had it. It's 26m or so, and back in the day I made the trip in well under 2hr. Now,.... They divorced and it was sold, but what a piece of heaven: 36 acres, nice house, fields, tractor rides, hiking, biking, mom's garden, solitude, parties, holidays. This place had it all.

Entrance with no improvements, except additional "No Trespassing" signs. I always had problems with this thick gravel, but I was riding 25c tires back then.

At around mile 26 I passed by the gate of the farm. The terrain along this route is pretty indicative of much of my area of the Bluegrass. It's just constant little dips and rollers and creek downhills and uphills. To conserve energy and maintain form I made sure to spin up the hills. It was strange, the setup. Because the fam was scheduled to pick me up at a certain time, I had to manage my time, pace and form differently than normal. I've often bitched, moaned and complained on this blog that I'm a 1-2hr cyclist, much to my dismay. I rarely pop off longer rural rides even though I would like to more. So, I didn't know what kind of form or pace I would have. I didn't like being "under the gun" until I arrived at my store stop. I knew at that point that I was making good time and not taxed. If I need to speed up, I could've, but I didn't.

Creek near 'farm', accessible from the rear corner of the property

The twisty roads around my drink stop in Waddy also displayed some really strange rural art. I saw 7 or 8 of these weird pieces. I really don't have any clue what they are, but it was sort of fun to see them.

Miles 40ish-55ish were my favorite for the new terrain and generally qualities of the ride. The skies cleared up. The roads were very empty, curvy, twisty, shaded, not too steep. I just rolled along. At first I was surprised to see such a (gaudy) manse on S. Benson Rd. in the middle of nowhere, but I then encountered other estates and deduced that, hey, it's near the capital and that lobbyist and road contractor $$ has to go somewhere.


Once I neared Frankfort Evergreen Rd. was a bit busy. I turned on to Lawrenceburg Rd., which is the old road that 127 now replaces. I expected this to be pretty busy, being near civilization and the interstate, but this 2-3 mile stretch was again devoid of traffic and very scenic. The last 2m was along a very busy 127 into fast food alley. I stayed on the shoulder and hoped for no flats. I also had to negotiate the every present death trap of the interstate interchange. These are diabolical, but I didn't hit too much traffic and pulled though. Per plans, I found the Starbucks and obliged myself one of their free tables outside. I listed to the iPod and read a little of of the Best of World Cafe, a compendium of interviews from that excellent NPR music show. And to finish the day, we had a great visit with out good friends.