eLIFELIST.com Bike Trip

First things first Lexington was awesome, just wanted to get that out in the first sentence.  Having Lexington to look forward to was a great morale booster and gave us some serious initiative to get there on time, especially for me since my wife Melissa would be flying in to meet me there.

We stayed with Garyen and Bethany Denning at their beautiful house, with the most manicured perfect yard you’ll ever see.  Garyen was roommates with Brent and I at Wake and Bethany is definitely his better half.  We had a great time at their house and they were so generous to put up with us for what was supposed to only be two days but we extended it to three! 

Spending time with Melissa really refilled my spirits, she and I were glad to extend our visit together one more day.  Tons of napping, eating and resting was going on the whole time and you could just feel your battery meter raising. 

The first night Bethany’s parents Craig and Madonna Turner came over for steaks, chicken, potato salad and for desert brownies and pound cake.  We had a great visit with the Turner’s and look forward to seeing them in Colorado, we are stopping in at their place out there and can’t wait to get there. 

Thursday night the five of us went to dinner at the Merrick Inn which was a lot of fun.  Tons of people were out in the perfect weather and then we topped the night off with some ice cream from Graeters.  Seriously, all we did was lounge, sleep and eat, oh yea and tour the Woodford Reserve Bourbon Distillery.  Turns out “Bourbon” is only made in Kentucky, partly because of the huge limestone shelf 75 feet below the ground in Kentucky.  Bourbon is basically a form of Whiskey but it is distilled three times and then aged a minimum of 2 years in a white oak barrel, usually Woodford Reserve is shelved in the barrel between 4-7 years.  The bourbon goes into the Barrel clear and over the years the white oak caramelizes and mixes with the clear bourbon.  Pretty interesting process and a really thorough tour.  The drive out there was all horse farms, the perfect vision of Kentucky, a much better one than southeastern Kentucky that’s for sure. 

Bethany took us to see one of the sites where Garyen is building a “Raising Canes” franchise right in the heart of the University of Kentucky.  If you don’t know what Raising Canes is, it is restaurant based out of Louisiana and focuses on really tasty Chicken Fingers and Fries.  We learned the term “Dropping Bird” which is what they call it when they are about to drop the Chicken into the fryer.  Garyen had the chance to work about 5-6 shifts on the floor to get a feel for Raising Canes before bringing two Franchises to Lexington.  Pretty exciting and we wish him the best of luck.  Personally we think it’s going to be great late night food for college kids after partying. 

We hated to leave Lexington as it is the last place we will see familiar faces for about 4 weeks.  Thanks again to the Dennings and especially to Melissa for coming in to spend a few days with a smelly tired biker.

Also, if the blog isn't updated for a few days we promise it's not because we're lazy, it's because we don't have any service.  Keep checking back regularly and feel free to leave comments/advice etc.  We will be putting out a new edition of the newsletter soon.   Cheers!

Pictures from July 11th

Pictures from July 12th

Pictures from July 13th

I can't deny my home state.  The Lincoln Highway just looked so straight forward and easy, that was the problem.  We've gone back to thinking we'll start in North Carolina again, and 99% sure we'll start there.  We'll still end up in San Fran.  It just seemed too easy to do the Lincoln Highway (famous last words).  We want to do something a bit different.  The plan (for now) is to ride across NC then head north through Kentucky and up through Nebraska, then Colorado, Moab Utah, Salt Lake, The Sierras and then on to San Francisco. 

Starting in North Carolina makes me more excited about the route, I'm really looking forward to riding across the state I grew up in. 

Brent and I had a long conversation on the phone today about tackling the trip.  It's difficult to not get bogged down in all the details of it, but I think it will be that much more fun when everything's laid out.  I'm all about some spontaneity but I like to have deadlines and guidelines too, especially when we establish them. 

We've been hitting the web pretty hard to research what the best things are to do and see on the trek.  If you know of anything we should see or do along our route please send us a message biketrip@elifelist.com  We plan on stopping at a lot of college, Wake Forest being one in particular.