It looked like it was going to rain on us from the very beginning. We got on 275 heading north and exited on 28 east. We had some heavy traffic for about 5 miles and then traffic thinned out. We rode 28 into Blanchester and fueled up there. We rode on 28 a few more miles and took 68 north east heading into Wilmington. In Wilmington we connected to 22 east towards Lancaster. We got lunch in Lancaster and then completed the 800 mile trip without getting wet as we were quite a ways ahead of the heavy rain. We ran into some mist a couple of times but not enough to get us wet.
Overall, it was another fun trip, no one broke down, although we had a few worries on Day 3 and no one was hurt, although a bike and helmet got some minor scratches on Day 1.
It rained all morning in Louisville and we book a tour of the Michter’s Fort Nelson Distillery in Louisville. After the tour is was still raining and got lunch close by and then got a lyft back to the hotel where we started packing and putting rain gear on as it finally stopped raining. We were heading in the direction the rain went, so we slowly packed the bikes and got ready to leave Louisville. We missed a turn in Louisville and got about 3-4 miles off track. The first time of the trip. We regrouped and found a road that would lead us back to 42 while taking us right along the southern bank of the Ohio river. We caught 42 and took that east. We caught up with the rain around Warsaw and decided we needed a break off the bikes anyway while allowing the weather to get ahead of us again. After a short while longer Deb’s bike stalled a couple of times as we slowed down. We did a quick check of her bike and couldn’t recreate the issue and luckily she didn’t experience it after it did it twice to her within about 15 miles. We did catch the rain again in Florence just before we connected with 25. Before we got to 275 the rain picked up quite a bit, but it was also getting dark and we needed to find out hotel. We took 275 at about 55-60 MPH in the heavy rain as traffic worked their way around us. We got to the hotel around 9 located just north east of Cinicinnati.
We took 127 South out of
Frankfort until we caught 62 West around Lawrenceburg. 62 was a really nice ride through rolling
hills and winding curves. We caught 53
South and it was more hills and curves.
We got on 555 South and that was a nice wide state highway and eventually
turned in 55 South from Springfield into Lebanon. We then his 68 West out of Lebanon and stayed
on 68 to Geensburg where we fueled up.
We backtracked a mile to catch 61 north for a few miles to catch 88
West. 88 West full of rolling hills and
curves and we caught 436 West to 218 West to 31E South. We turned west on 70 and rode that all the
way to Cave City and Mammoth Cave National Park.
We booked the 12:45 tour of the cave which lasted 2 hours and then got a bite to eat back in Cave city. It started pouring and it looked like there was no way out of riding through it so we got on our first interstate of the trip and rode I-65 up to Louisville where we spent the night. Luckily we passed out of rain around Elizabethtown and were able to stay ahead of the north heading front the rest of the way to Louisville.
We rook off from Granville
down 37 into Lancaster and headed west on 22.
We took 753 south just before Washington Court House and then hit 41
south all the way to the Ohio River.
We then crossed the river and grabbed a bite to eat before getting abck on 68 south in Kentucky to 165 East. After a few miles we caught 32/57heading south towards Lexingotn. We missed our left turn on to 57 and pulled into a convenience store parking lot to turn around. Deb stopped with both tires on high spots as we were getting ready to pull out of the parking lot. Her feet didn’t touch the ground until her bike was leaning past the point of no return. Somehow she gracefully tipped over and bot herself out from under the bike and performed two reverse somersaults. I was off my bike hoping I wasn’t going to have to lift the bike off her before she finished her somersaults and sat up and yelled, “I’m Okay!”. After we lifted her bike and got her back on her bike we broke off on 57 west towards Lexington. Deb didn’t appear rattled and handled the rest of the trip with no more mishaps. 57 ended up being a single lane road and after coming head on with several cars that were going 65 and never slowed down to pass us leaving us about 3 feet on our side fo the road, we decided it was time to change plans. We took 460 west towards Frankfort and the scenery going though the north Lexington horse farms with miles and miles of flat stone walls and rolling hills was worth the detour/shortcut. We ended up at the footstpes of the State Capital Building.
We were just a few short miles from where we stayed in Frankfort.
