The travels of the Rambling Roses: Kentucky Horse Park (Lexington) to Morehead, KY May 3

May 3.....83 miles in 6:38....After five days of not riding, it took my legs quite a while to loosen up and start acting normal. My knees were tight, I felt a twinge in my right quad, and spent a few minutes hoping that nothing pulled, and generally felt like crap for a hour. It didn't help that the first eight miles of the ride were into a headwind, which would later be a tailwind for the rest of the day, and I climbed a couple hundred feet. I was surprised that Lexington was almost at 1000 ft of elevation.

Those first eight miles from the Kentucky Horse Park were on the Legacy Trail, a nice, winding and rolling multi use trail that ended in Lexington. It followed a creek, was being well used on a Saturday morning. I saw many riders, as well as quite a few bikers out on the roads when I got in the countryside east of Lexington. It was nice to finally see some other bikers because there sure weren't any in Texas, Oklahoma, and Missouri.

When I got to the end of the trail, I turned on my GPS girl, and she led me to Rupp Arena, where Kentucky plays basketball. It was downtown, and was locked up tight as a drum. Then I went through the campus of UK, and checked out all the athletic facilities and ride through the main classroom areas. There was no one to be seen, except near the brand new library. There was a lot of construction going on all throughout the campus. It was beautiful with all the trees and flowers being green and in bloom.

As I left town, the GPS didn't take me on US 60 like I had programmed, but I went out through some more rolling horse country. If I hadn't seen the famous farms on the way into Lexington the other day, I would have thought these farms were gorgeous, but they were a step below the big dogs. Still nice though. I got into some real back roads, and saw very few of the towns that I thought I was going to see on US 60. The more desolate the roads get, the steeper the hills seem to be, and I ended up climbing over 4000 ft. Good thing my legs finally came around. It didn't seem like I climbed that much, but the tailwind that I had for the last 60 miles of the ride really helped. After 55 miles of riding, I finally popped out on US 60, and the flattening out of the landscape really didn't happen for a while. I was bouncing around between 800-1000 ft, so eastern Kentucky is definitely hillier than coal country in the west. There is more prosperity in this area, as I have seen zero mobile homes with six cars in the front yard since way on the west side of Lexington.

I had a significant climb into a town called Owingsville, whose motto was 'Heritage on the Hill', and it was up over 1000 ft. On the east side of town, I had just as significant downhill, and US 60 finally flattened out for the last 20 miles of the ride, into Morehead. As I got close to town, the GPS took me off of 60, through some residential hills, and north of Morehead, to a Walmart near I-64, where we spent the night, so I haven't seen Morehead yet.

Before I pulled out of the Kentucky Horse Park, I had to take one last picture of a tornado siren. Hopefully we are done with them!! And fortunately we never heard one go off!

The Legacy Trail in Lexington

Sign at south entrance of the trail

Lexington in the distance

Downtown Lexington

Park in Lexington

University of Kentucky's basketball arena in downtown Lexington

Campus entrance

Bike posing with Kentucky Wildcat. By the way, Mike has informed me that Bike's full name is Mycicle Bycicle. And that is his spelling too! Read the name out loud.....