2006 Kentucky motorcycle trip

Day 3

August 19 We met at 8:00 am for breakfast at the Stephen Foster restaurant. It was a buffet so plenty was eaten. They didn't have any milk or juice though, and the air conditioning condensation kept dripping on us. We packed our stuff and formed up for the 55 mile ride to Harrodsburg. It took a little over an hour for us to get to the Harrodsburg Day's Inn via the Blue Grass Parkway and US127. The innkeeper gave us early check-in and adjoining rooms. We changed from road gear to sightseeing clothes. A scenic 2-lane drive on US68 brought us to Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill. They have a restored Shaker village for touring and a riverboat excursion on the Kentucky River. Unfortunately, the riverboat was down for repairs. We'll have to save that for another day. There were plenty of interesting buildings to explore. They were huge and very space efficient. Many featured craftsmen (and women) doing things in the 19th century Shaker style. It was a learning experience. We decided to pick up lunch from the gift shop. While we were eating lunch the skies darkened. We finished our lunch and made it to another display house before... ...the storm hit. We were in the basement of a house and were able to stand outside in a sheltered area. We waited for 30-45 minutes until the rain lightened. We made makeshift rain coats out of trash bags we found. We continued our tour in the light rain. This added to the adventure. The rain was still sprinkling as we donned our rain gear for our ride back to Harrodsburg. Oops. I knew I forgot something. I kept my trashbag on. It was a soggy ride back to Harrodsburg. Back in Harrodsburg we went to the Old Fort Harrod State Park. The park contains an old cemetery, a replica fort built in the 1930's, a Mansion Museum of Civil War displays and artifacts, the Lincoln Marriage Chapel where Abe Lincoln's parents were married, a memorial dedicated to territorial exploration, and other things. By now the rain had subsided. We parked in an empty lot across the street. We looked through the old cemetery first, visited the memorial, then onto the fort. There were people making crafts as they would have in the late 1700's/early 1800's. One guy had made some wooden utensils. Debby bought some, and the guy told her he would make her a few more pieces she could pick up in the morning. We took a tour through the interesting Mansion Museum. After we finished at the Fort Harrod park we went back to the hotel, changed to dry clothes, and headed to the Harrodsburg Relay for Life bike show. It was an outdoor event with bikes lining the streets. We wanted to check out the bikes, hit the vendor booths, and see the Harley style show. There was a couple hundred bikes or so, but only one vendor. The rain may have kept them away. Their 200-mile poker run had been rained out. We decided to have supper at the Fudge Factory. It has an old drugstore motif and restaurant inside. I had egg salad. It was good. Our cute little waitress liked our leather vests so we took a picture of her holding John's. We waited around for the Harley style show. We were expecting babes in hot outfits, but it turned out to be some sort of theatrical representation of different clothing styles since the Civil War. Not what we were expecting. We waited around for a couple drawings to end (we didn't win) and decided to leave. It started to rain again as we were leaving. Later we lounged around the pool and discussed the next day's agenda. Click here for our next day's adventure.