Day 44 – Rest Day

We didn’t ride, but it was a busy day!

First, friend Karen from our neighborhood in Utah drove from Louisville with her Mom, and friends Roman and Steve, to meet us at our hotel with some Kentucky goodies. It was so nice to see another friend during our journey and to meet Jean, Roman and Steve. Such southern hospitality!

Next, we went to Buc-ee’s, an institution in this part of the country. It’s the Costco of convenience stores, selling low-cost gasoline from its 100 (yes, that many) gas pumps and feeding the masses beef brisket sandwiches and pulled pork sandwiches like crazy. This was THE place to be after church on Sunday., and the sandwiches were good. You have to see it to believe it!

We then did the Domes and Dripstones Tour at Mammoth Cave National Park. We’ve been fortunate to see some other beautiful caves and initially found Mammoth quite plain compared to those others, but there’s an interesting reason. Mammoth is the world’s largest known cave system because its sandstone capstone has kept the cave from filing itself in with sediment, stalactites and stalagmites. Seems you can’t be the biggest and the most beautiful cave at the same time. Towards the end of our tour, we got to the dripstones, which were beautiful, in the Drapery Room.

We then drove 90 minutes to Nashville, as Brad and Sue hadn’t been, to hear some live music. Broadway (outside) was on the seedy side as we remembered it, but the music inside Tootsies was great fun. The Zach Zurcher band included an excellent young lady on the fiddle. Someone gave a $20 tip and requested The Devil Went Down to Georgia, to which Zach said “that’s a $100 request on Broadway” and got others to chip in towards the $100. The man knows how to work his crowd. They even took a request of a song they supposedly hadn’t played and were going to give it a go.

We’re back on the bikes tomorrow, towards Harrodsburg.