Leitchfield Ky to a Bardstown, Ky April 26

April 26.....51 miles in 4:05.....The morning broke warm, with a sweet little tailwind. US 62 didn't change much. No shoulder, pretty busy, rolling hills, plateau areas, plenty of residential property, a little corn farming, a few moo cows. As I left Leitchfield, I thought traffic would back off after I passed a huge soccer facility, where every little kid in Leitchfield and surrounding towns were gathering. There were a few Saturday morning garage and lawn sales going on, but nothing special. My legs felt a lot better than I expected them to, so it was a pretty pleasant ride. We went from central time to eastern time somewhere shortly after I started, so there was one hour lost. A fifty miler seemed like a short ride after what I've been doing, but I still didn't finish until almost 4:00, eastern time. US62 finally relented and gave me a shoulder about five miles west of Elizabethtown. This was another town with a traffic circle around their county courthouse. This is a phenom I've never seen before, but the same was true when I got to Bardstown, where we stayed in a nice little campground. The houses became nicer on this stretch, and it didn't seem quite so 'Appalachian'. I rode along a flat prairie like stretch, called the Big Clifty Prairie. Who would have ever thunk it, a prairie in Kentucky.

As soon as I got out of Elizabethtown, US62 shrunk back down to two shoulderless lanes with a complication. Something must have happened on the Western Kentucky Turnpike, where Pam drove, which pretty much paralleled US62. For about a half an hour, I had a steady stream of traffic and tractor trailers, including double tractor trailers that only travel interstates. It got so bad, that I just started pulling into driveways to let the trucks go by without killing me. I now know what face I'm gonna make if I ever get hit by a truck, because I made it, involuntarily, when a truck came really, really, close. That's when I decided to start using the driveways for relief. This craziness went on for about a half an hour, then stopped, just as suddenly and completely as it started. The rest if the ride into Bardstown was pleasant. It turns out that we have stumbled onto the Kentucky Bourbon Trail, which is a loop where people tour bourbon distilleries. Bardstown is known as the bourbon capital of the world, and Pam toured a distillery  here before I was able to pull in. After mass in the original cathedral in Kentucky, complete with 'first communion' ceremonies, we went out for dinner and drinks at the Old Talbot Tavern. This place has been around since the Revolutionary War, and Abraham Lincoln, Daniel Boone, and many politicians of national importance have stayed there. The service was terrible, and the food wasn't much better, but the bourbon was good, and hey- Abraham Lincoln slept there, as well as one of my favorites, Daniel Boone.

Everything is UK around here

This sign explains why it is flatter than expected

Elizabeth town is a pretty big town

I don't think they meant this kind of bike, but Bike didn't know that!

So while I was driving along the Western Kentucky Parkway, I spotted black smoke up ahead - I figured it was a grass fire alongside the road.

Looking ahead at the smoke

It turned out to be a car fully engulfed!  Crazy!

Once I set up camp, I went to the Barton 1792 distillery

The main part of the distillery - this housed the still

Their tractor trailers all had this add.

At the top of the still we got to sample the "white lightening" before it goes into the barrels

The guide said the difference between moonshine and white lightening is that white lightening is legal, moonshine ain't!!!

This is where everything is fermenting before it goes through the still

One of 8 or 9 warehouses that store the barrels of whiskey

Barrels are here for 4-10 years

Showing us how the kegs are marked with dates

Showing us how the barrels are charred before filling

Bottling area