Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Brandenburg to Louisville, KY



Yea!! I'm at the Marriott in downtown Louisville, in a comfy chair, legs stretched out on an ottoman, clean from a 15 minute shower, and not too hungry yet. JUST had to ride my bike 51 miles to get here, but after that killer day yesterday, today seemed easy. It was almost cold when we left Brandenburg this morning, after a rain last night. We crossed the Ohio River into Indiana soon after we left the motel, and GUESS WHAT!! Indiana has hills, too! Not as bad as yesterday, but they just kept on coming. On some of the downhills I could get up enough speed to ALMOST make it over the next one. I still had to stand up and crank near the top, but not as often, and not as long as yesterday. Our cue sheet was three pages long today, something like 50 turns, so we had to be careful to stay on our route. We missed a turn early on and had to back-track about a mile, and believe me we DON'T want to add extra miles to our day, so we were more careful after that. We rode through the Indiana countryside for about 40 miles, then got into the urban area and had to navigate our way into downtown Louisville. We crossed over the Ohio River into Kentucky again, and saw our hotel was waiting just beyond the bridge. I toured the cute little town of Corydon, Indiana with the group in the first part of today's ride, but then skipped a museum stop and just rode on the the hotel. Kathy came with me. All either of us wanted to see at the end of today's ride was the Marriott! We beat our luggage here, so although we were able to check-in, we couldn't shower because we didn't have our clothes. We chatted a while with a local guy who asked where we were going, and went on to ask a lot more questions. We stopped by a bike shop and just looked around like for a few minutes like bikers do, then Marilee and I rode along the Riverfront for three or four MORE miles while we waited for the van to get here with our bags. Since there was not a good place for our usual parking lot dinner at Cafe Trailer, we all went out to eat at The Spaghetti Warehouse which is just behind the hotel.
Now, I'm back where I was when I started this note, but this time I'm not one bit hungry. I'm planning a lazy day tomorrow, but there is a "Welcome to Louisville" guide on the desk in my room, so .......
Today 51 miles - So far 1,060 miles - 16 Days of riding - 4 Rest Days