Day Seventeen - Day Twenty-Three : Nasvhille, Tennessee - Lexington, Kentucky

This day of riding, will be the third but certainly not the last time I will find myself crying on this epic voyage. I am so eager to get to Kentucky to see my friends Killian and Kate McStay. This visit will also be my first main stopover and a few days rest which essentially splits my trip in 2 halves as it were. I am well passed my half-way mark and I'm looking forward to a well deserved rest.

I'm on interstate for another few hours before I hit the Bluegrass Parkway which avoids Louisville and cuts NE across Kentucky towards Lexington. This road brings me tears, it is a pretty drive but it's not necessarily beautiful or breathtaking in anyway. I haven't seen anyone I know in over two weeks which is something I'm well used to but more importantly I'm about to see some of my closest friends and on the ride I'm having another moment of pure happiness. I'm seeing close friends but it took me that little bit of effort to get here. I believe as I pulled into their house my odometer just turned 14,500miles (I started with 10,000miles on the clock).

Me working very hard in Killian's stable

I cried only for a moment on this Bluegrass route and not since Oklahoma did I push the engine to it's upper limits (it does a little over 100mph at full tilt). I can't get to Lexington fast enough. Despite anticipating another speeding ticket, I reach Lexington, and Google maps gets me to Killian and Kates house on Tearose Drive. They were both waiting when i arrive. I knew Killian would be back around the same time I got in but to my joy, he was aready home when I arrived. It was just great to see them, simply great. 

I immediately present them with their gift which Brad (in Tucson) and I had beautifully prepared. There's a long story behind Killian and his love of bricks. I take partial responsibility for this but let's just say that I like to give Killian bricks as gifts, it started a few years ago and long do I plan to maintain this new tradition. He received one spontaneously a few years ago when he moved to America (a brick which years previously he had adopted as his pet). He and his wife Kate received a red brick from Grafton Street as their wedding gift (mounted with brass plaque), and now they receive their third brick of a currently growing collection.

'Heisenbrick' at the famous Octopus carwash

The brick I brought them was used to crush the blue glass beads to make the fake crystal meth. Brad and I super-glued some of the blue crystals onto the brick in the shape of a 'H' and Brad cleverly coined it Heisenbrick (a Breaking Bad reference). I carried this brick on the bike for over 2,000miles from Arizona to Kentucky, and luckily they loved it, the third brick to their collection. Once I was showered and beered, we joined forces with Kate's mom, Vicky and went out for a hefty meal. I had chicken and waffle covered in maple syrup; delicious, but filling, I believe we went out drinking heavily that night, a general run around of some bars to try some local beers and get in on the bourbon culture. Killian, Kate and I go home drunks as skunks. Killian goes to bed while Kate and I stay up having a heart to heart until Killian has to go to work, which is just after 5 in the morning. He is surprised to see me when he returns from work later that day, he obviously knows I am in Lexington having spent the night with me but I guess we both are in disbelief that I am actually in Kentucky and seeing what has been his life for the last 3 years+. I had promised them both for years that I would visit them Lexington. I never predicted I would show up on a bike.



My first full day in Kentucky I spend with Kate's brother John. John is as individual as they get. He has really great and refined interest in art and photography, his bed is a hammock which he hangs across his living room. His kitchen is compact but full to the brim of all things wonderful, mostly photographs, paintings, and books (one art and photography). Before Killian and Kate's wedding in April, and for as long as I've known Kate, she has said I would love her brother as we are similar in nature. I believe she had said the same to him prior to the wedding and sure enough we got to know each other during the week-long wedding in Ireland. It should also be noted here that both Kate's mother and father are both fantastic people themselves. Naturally I met them both at the wedding and I was really fond of them both. I would not consider them alike in any way. Kate's mom, Vicky is a smiling, warm and motherly person. She is soft spoken but giggly, if I dare say she is a little liberal which I like and sounds like she may have been a bit of a hippy back in the day. I love all the inside juice she has on Kate and John as children, or the early days of Killian and Kate's relationship and she reflects on these memories with good heart.

Kate's father Dick is a different character altogether. He also tells fond and funny stories of his children growing up. He is opinionated and outspoken but by no means, in a bad way. He too is great for a chat and he tells me stories of hunting deer, the various guns he had, encounters with bears, riding old enduro bikes through forests and he talks to me about his business running a camp site which I never knew of this man who had a large chunk of his life bogged down in the horse industry. He is old but he is bright. I really like this guy, I think it's partially the nursing instincts. In fact, I told Kate that if she really needed, I would stay and look after her dad til he was back on his feet. I was selfishly looking for an excuse to stay although Kate would tell you I didn't need one. 

John and I went hiking in Red River Gorge for my first day. I am now familiar with the tobacco barns spotted around the place and the rolling hills but John shows me places I am hugely grateful to see. We started the day with the famous Miguels pizzaria, actually it's nowhere near the start of the day, it has taken us all day to get to Miguels pizzaria and despite having had breakfast, it is now time to eat again before we go out hiking. They prepare delicious pizzas well known mostly to climbers from all over the world who are ever present on the Red River Gorge. John and I took hundreds of photos and saw some beautiful sites. The climbing was tough in places and I thought I was definitely going to die one stage (Grays Arch, Red River Gorge, Kentucky (Google it!)). I had to face my fears and live it. I had to pull out my 'just-fucking-do-it' card, to be able to climb this stupid 80 degree incline. There were very few hand holes and the rock was wet as it had been raining constantly all day. No ropes, no helmets, flat smooth wooden soled boots; one foot on the rock at a perpendicular angle, my other foot on a tree opposite which is growing up through this rock formation. John who had climbed ahead (and had been here hundreds of times before) kept talking about the ultimate grab hole which he was guiding me towards, pointing exactly to where it was; it was centimeters out of my reach. "There's one hole here but the 'ultimate grab hole' is HERE", he says, pointing at my options as I look up probably looking like an orphaned lamb. I don't want to take a chance with the lesser of the two graspable holes although the better of the two is further away. It's a Catch 22 situation. I could feel the grab hole which was closer. In my hungover and weakened state, I didn't feel confident taking my whole weight on this mediocre grab hole, I had to lunge and grab 'the ultimate grab hole' swinging my way around the rock. If I fail, I face at a 50 foot drop to my likely death, If I succeed, I live. John is fearless, he is wild and eccentric but he is a soulful, peaceful and a realistic human being. He tells me to stop, breath, relax, reassess and only then to go for it. It was by no means impossible but I hit a psychological wall which John helped me break down. He spends the day literally running and bouncing off these rocks, skipping up and down paths. The whole time I'm wondering if his family have any idea what he is getting up to, but also the beauty he is seeing.

Killian has NEVER been to Red River Gorge despite being John's brother in law and having lived in Kentucky for 3 years now?....... 

Kate took me to a polo game which was near where she had a photo shoot. It was a wedding shoot the day after the day of, but the newly wed couple had scrubbed up well given the hangover they both had. I was recruited to hold a big reflector thing (reflecting the sunlight into the peoples faces with the big reflector sheet item). Kate appreciate's my assistance but I think she and I both know I loved doing it. I told the groom that today, I am the shining light!


I had the privilege of taking Kate on a ride about the country side of Lexington (I guess she took me but I drove). People are understandably fearful of getting on the back of a motorbike, Kate's not one of these people. I had taken Kate on a motorbike ride around the Dublin and Wicklow mountains years previous on a very similar motorbike. She says it was the very first time I met her but I'm not so sure. I think I enjoy the ride a little more than she does as she has seen it all before.


The countryside was magnificent. We visited a graveyard, Kates childhood home where she grew up, some stables and lots of tobacco barns, each one more obscure than the last, big old wooden shacks 20 foot tall but look like you could knock them down with one blow. John Lossen's job is to collect this wood and reclaim it for other projects (Longwood Antique Woods, Lexington). We also go to Keeneland the epicenter of horse racing in Kentucky. I luckily get a photo of me and my bike in the starting gates which are usually used for the horses on race day. Conveniently they had been put in the car park while the track was being resurfaced.

Later that night Killian and I go shopping and do some brief man bonding as we still look at each other in disbelief that we are together in Kentucky. We buy beer and a BBQ and likely some other useless items. I got myself some Poptarts (when in Rome). We had a cook out later this evening with 30 odd people. The people weren't odd I'm just guessing. The evening was accompanied by a down pour of rain and Kate's fathers failing limbs. Dick is a gas old man who can be socially awkward, but only to his kids, everyone else thinks he's a hoot. I think he's a legend. One hungover morning Killian rings me at 7am to tell me I must get over to Dick's house as he has managed to get stuck between his wheelchair and the bath. Thinking this elderly man is twisted and wedged somewhere in a small apartment bathroom, I throw on some clothes ride over to Dick's place. Dick requires a pre-entry phonecall to avoid getting shot if you are going to visit him. The day previous I had witnessed Killian calling his father in law from outside his apartment as to not get shot. Killian was meant to send me Dicks number so I could make this same call but Killian hadn't done so. I knocked on Dicks door and told him it was me. Jovially, he tells me to come in. I am greeted by an unarmed pensioner sitting upright in his chair. He wasn't stuck anywhere except for in his chair and just needed a hand. We had a really nice conversation while we waited for John to arrive. John and I would get Dick right for his x-ray which was due that day. Dick is a man with great life experience, he is blunt, honest, not always right but he is a good man and a friend.

We spend another day brewery hopping lead by our gorgeous guide and friend Jen. I had also met Jen previously at Killian and Kates wedding. We were both in the wedding party and I made sure we got paired together. She is a dream of a girl with great beer knowledge. At the cook out at the house, she also brought me a selection of beers she knew I'd like. She knows my taste so I was in good hands and well looked after. The brewery hopping ended with late night pizza, another bar or two and swimming in some of the local fountains of Lexington, which was really refreshing. Inebriation combined with heat and humidity and having been in the sun most of the day; I was straight into that fountain and eventually convinced Killian to join me. Kate recalls having never heard him laugh the way he did when we were goofing around in the fountains. This was all followed by immense drunken hugging and exchanged expressions of undying love for eachother (and copious photographic evidence).

Lessons;

Not that it needs proving, but Killian on many occasions has proved himself as a good friend. Killian and I have had a colourful history together but he is one of the greats and just visiting him reminded me of this. It is by no way a eureka moment but a gentle reminder for appreciation of the good people you keep in your life. This little time I had in Lexington gave me greater appreciation for my friends, Killian and Kate. We have such great and mutual respect for each other and our friendship is built on a sturdy foundation. After spending time with Killian for any length of time one must remember to detox the organs affected by alcohol abuse. It is often necessary to pretox these organs by slowly building up your tolerance levels of alcohol; something I have mastered having known Killian for so long and something I had achieved by the time I get to see Killian and Kate, liver training.