Catching up on Kentucky

So as I was saying earlier before grumpy librarian dude booted me off the computer, we got A WHOLE LOTTA' PASTRIES in Berea. We ate those nasty things all day and some how didn't feel sick. We ended up staying in this Catholic Cathedral that Amy, our adopted mom from the Breaks, KY got us in touch with. Fortunately we arrived when huge thunderstorms were about to hit, so, seeing us biking along the highway, Mary Jane took pity upon us and let us stay inside the church when we arrived. (the original plan was to camp out back).

The Cathedral was HUGE and impressive. It was also scary to sleep in because of the strange noises we heard during the night. After Mary Jane treated us to taco bell (thank you Mary Jane!), we pretty much went to bed. Felix, the church cat (see pix), got up in the middle of the night to rendezvous with his girlfriend, a sleek black cat. The lady cat waited for him on the other side of the glass doors, but made such a terrible sound, we bolted out of bed. Felix was also cooing and making strange cat sounds as we crept out from under the altar where we were sleeping and went to the door to see what was going on (armed with mace of course).

We survived the night in the Cathedral and set out again the next morning, wet laundry dangling dangerously off our bikes.

We rode into Bardstown.


Bardstown was AWESOME.

So we go into this restaurant, Mammy's Kitchen, because we wanted to freshen up a bit in the bathroom. Jocelyn was just sitting around at the bar, when Stevie, one of the owners, started talking to her. Stevie and the waitress Marley were so friendly and pretty soon they were feeding us soup and cheese dip on the house. We talked about biking and horses (Stevie is a chariot racer) and the good ol' state of Kentucky. Mammy's Kitchen told us to come back around 9 for some free food. While we were waiting for 9, we found Becky Curtsinger, who worked at the Baptist church outreach center. She let us camp in her back yard. We also met Mike, the hitchhiker who is traveling to a rainbow gathering even though he doesn't know its location. He holds up this big sign that says "EAST" simply. He has been coming east because the rainbow children (all 10,000 of them) will be meeting in one of the national forests on the east coast.

When 9 o'clock rolled around we showed up at Mammy's. We had the most amazing conversations with Marley, Stevie, and Dylan (Stevie's cousin), over Heinekens. We also ate some yummy fried Kentucky goodies. We ended up chillin' at Mammy's until 1 or 2 in the morning. We learned all about Kentucky and horse racing and life and everything.


THE NEXT DAY: woke up. Felt gross (bug bites, sweaty, etc). Went to Mammy's for some French toast treats! We had breakfast with Chris and Joe who were on a Bourbon tour. They talked about teaching a lot. How to be a good teacher: ENGAGE YOUR STUDENTS!
They also said that the person you marry does not have to be the ONE, but must be someone you work well together with. There are lots of ONES, so it's more about finding someone who is a good teammate.


BIKED OUT OF BARDSTOWN, but did not get far (Bourbon museum). Again biked and did not get far.


This time we stopped at a little gas station in Howardstown (which consists exactly of 2 liquor stores and one gas station). Mrs. Cecil gave us loads of candy pretty much when we stepped in the door. She is a school teacher but also works in the gas station. She explained we would need the sugar energy to make it up the terrible hill on the other side of Howardstown.

We at our snickers and complained about the big hill to come. Then these two boys came in, one big, one small. They were really friendly and talkative. They also said it's a REALLY BIG HILL and we would need a break when we got to the top. Thomas, the taller guy, offered to get his dad's pickup truck and drive us to the top. We talked some more, realized these guys were really genuine country boys, and took them up on the offer to have some good food at the top of the hill and spend the night if we needed a place to stay.

OK, so this is a long adventure story, but I have to go eat dinner right now (we're in St Louis), so i will tell it later!