Lexington, KY

Friday, May 3

Let this day be remembered as THE DAY WE STARTED USING POOL NOODLES ON OUR RV.

I burst out in laughter when Andi pulled out a blue pool noodle to use as padding device on the bikes this morning. We’ve poked fun of RV-ers and the various ways they use pool noodles to pad their campers, and today marks the day we became one of them.

It turns out, the rack we purchased for our RadWagon electric bikes doesn’t fit two bikes with the extra attachments we added to them. Well, they fit, but it’s a very snug fit. Andi spent time on the phone with both RadWagon and the bike rack company this morning to see if there’s a better solution. In the meantime, we’ll use pool noodles to cushion any rubbing between the bikes. It’s not like we’re driving a few miles from one side of town to the other; we still have hundreds of miles to drive on our way back to Wisconsin so we needed to ensure the bikes are safely secured to the back of our RV.

On the road again!

After the bikes were set, we left Huntsville, TN for Lexington, KY. My friend Lindsey lives in Lexington, so we planned to spend the next 24 hours at her house. As Andi drove, I sat in the passenger seat and planned out the Kentucky leg of our adventure.

Somewhere across the Kentucky border, we stopped for lunch at a rest area. That’s one big perk of RV living — being able to stop whenever and wherever to take a break. Andi fired up the grill in the parking lot and made brats for lunch.

After that, I took over driving the rest of the way to Lexington. It’s amazing how much the landscape changed once we crossed the state line. If you’ve never been, Lexington is a beautiful city — just what you’d imagine horse country to be. There’s miles and miles of green pastures and iconic black picket fences.

Before we went to Lindsey’s house, we parked our RV at one end of the Legacy Trail in Lexington to go for a bike ride. The Legacy Trail is 13 miles of paved trail and relatively flat terrain through the countryside. Andi and I were still getting the feel for our new electric bikes, so it was nice to ride in a place where it wasn’t busy. We saw horses and wild turkeys along the path and heard lots of birds overhead. It had rained for most of the day, but the sun was just peeking out from the clouds now.

We outfitted the bikes with two different seating systems for the kids. I worried about Aden being able to told onto the back of the bike, so we bought an enclosed “caboose” attachment for him to sit in and figured Tory was big enough to hang onto the back handlebar. It’s turned out to be the opposite though! Tory prefers sitting in the caboose; Andi has no fear and likes sitting on the open back of Andi’s bike. Both bikes have places for the kids to rest their feet while they’re riding.

After our bike ride, we drove to Lindsey’s house and parked our RV in their drive-way. It was so fun to see our friends again! It had been about two years since I saw Lindsey last, and we picked up right where we left off. The kids were much the same — we hardly heard a peep out of them all evening.

In fact, we were all having so much fun that I hardly took any pictures! Lindsey made pork tenderloin and green beans for dinner with Tory’s favorite — mashed potatoes. The kids all slept in Ashley’s room that night and Aden was so excited to have his first sleepover.

Saturday, May 4

Saturday morning, the kids were up early playing contently together in the basement. Lindsey and Dan have a sweet in-home gym, so I took advantage and did my workout there. Then after breakfast, Tory, Aden and I rode with Lindsey and Brooke to watch Ashley and Taylor play soccer. Dan is the girl’s soccer coach. Our kids aren't very familiar with “organized sports” given our life on the road, so I wasn’t sure how their attention spans would fair.

Poor Ashley was in “slow mode” as Lindsey called it. I’m sure she was tired after a full week of school and staying up late with Tory and Aden last night. It was warm and muggy outside that morning. It looked like it might rain any second.

Aden was interested in watching the soccer game for about 15 minutes and then took to a more comfortable spot laying in the grass.

After soccer, we rushed back to Lindsey’s house for riding lessons. When in Kentucky, you must ride a horse! I’d asked Lindsey to arrange lessons at the stables near her house. Lindsey’s daughters Ashley and Taylor had a school event to attend right after soccer so they didn’t come, but Brooke, Tory and Aden were able to ride. This is third or fourth time Tory and Aden have taken lessons at Wingswept Farm and it’s always a highlight of our trip.

After riding lessons, we thanked Lindsey and Dan for a wonderful time in Lexington and headed off toward Bowling Green, KY. We planned to stay in Cave City near Mammoth Caves National Park and tour the caves tomorrow. We drove along the Blue Grass Parkway through Bourbon Country and the rolling hills of Kentucky. On a different trip, it would have been fun to hop along the different distilleries along the way but that’s not exactly a family friendly activity. We also passed the birthplace of Abraham Lincoln on our drive, and I so badly wanted to stop and visit the national historic site there since Tory had just learned about Abe Lincoln and the Civil War in her social studies lessons. Unfortunately, it was pouring rain by this point so we decided to skip it.

We stopped at Bucky Bee’s BBQ in Cave City to pick up some pulled pork to-go. Andi and I were both tired from staying up late with Lindsey and Dan the night before, and the rain wasn’t fun to drive in on top of it.

That night, we snuggled up in the RV and watched Master Chef Junior on television while it rained outside the RV. I felt sorry for all the people camping in Mammoth Caves Campground that night in tents because it rained and rained all night long.

Tomorrow, we’re planning to wake up early to see the famous caves.