Taking train at 5 o’clock on Wednesday morning, a ride of 3 h.
brought me to
Louisville;
and, as I sat on the outside platform for the entire 85 m., rather than
subject myself to the stifling air within, my white riding costume, which
had been washed during my day’s visit to the Cave, grew somewhat
grimy again. Two of the Louisville riders accosted me on my way up-town,
and, having directed me to a restaurant where breakfast could be secured,
agreed to meet me there at 10 o’clock, and see me safely started on
my eastward course towards
Frankfort.
We really mounted about 10.30, and made our first stop, for lemonade, at a
wayside inn, 6 m. out, at a quarter past 11. At a similar distance beyond,
we refreshed ourselves at a brook, at the foot of a hill, and lay there
under the trees for a farewell talk together. My companions then turned
homeward; and having watched them until they disappeared, on the crest of a
distant hill, I cleaned and oiled my wheel, strapped my jacket on the
handle-bar (as the sun now shone forth warmly), and at a quarter past 1
o’clock started on for
Simpsonville,
11 m. away. The village hotel was not a large one, but I secured some bread
and milk while I halted there, from 3.30 to 3.45 o’clock, and then
rolled on, 7 ½ m. further, to
Shelbyville,
at 5.
This is a county town of considerable local celebrity for its young
ladies’ seminaries; and the groups of school girls sauntering about
the streets in their newly-made graduation gowns gave the place quite a gay
and jaunty appearance. Perhaps the unwonted spectacle unnerved me or made
me careless, for I had a narrow escape from adding to their merriment by
taking a plunge into the mud, as I toiled up a hill which a watering cart
had freely sprinkled; but the little wheel graciously dropped back to its
proper place, and I made no dismount until the sign of “ice-cream and
fruit” tempted me to ¼ h. hail. The road, which had been
gradually increasing in goodness the further I advanced from Louisville,
was now very fine, and during the next 2 h. I had my swiftest spin of the
day, and covered almost 14 m.
After a brief stop for water and oil, I rode in the gathering dusk till 8
o’clock, and then walked for 1 h. pretty continuously, including a 2
m. descent into Frankfort, until I reached my journey’s end at
Buhr’s Hotel, 52 ½ m. from the start. The whole distance is
composed of long up-grades or down-grades, but almost all of them are
ridable, and there are few steep pitches. Some of the Louisville men rode
to Frankfort and back on a single day of the previous winter, though they
finished in a snow-storm, quite late in the evening.