We started our day with a knockout breakfast buffet at the Beaumont Inn at Harrodsburg. We had their special cornmeal pancakes and enjoyed some fresh fruit, the first in a long while.
For the third day in a row, it was cool enough to start with rain jackets on, and it never did get really hot. The route today was 45 miles of increasingly hilly terrain and especially untravelled small roads. See the picture below, and imagine the sound of a bubbling brook alongside and birds chirping, and you'll get the idea. It wasn't all like that, but close enough.
Berea is considered the transition point on the trans-am route between the bluegrass of western and central Kentucky, and the Appalachian mountains, which we could see ahead by the end of the day.
We'd called to make a reservation at a B&B in Berea. The place I called doesn't do B&B anymore but I'd talked them into putting us up. Our room is upstairs from the owners' craft store. They are weavers. Their stuff is beautiful, and they've been doing it for 45 years. They are also musicians; Neal plays mountain dulcimer, and when he found out I do too, he brought out his double dulcimer (see picture) on which we played a duet.
For dinner we walked about 1/2 mile to the campus of Berea College, which reminds me of Williamstown, where I went to college. We ate at the campus "tavern" where they don't serve alcohol but do serve very good food. For the second evening in a row we got an excellent dinner, so we should stop complaining about the grub.
Berea has a celtic festival this whole weekend and after dinner we went to a ceili, with a large band playing for Irish dancers and contra dances. It was fun to watch and hear, but we left the dancing to those who hadn't climbed the hills we climbed today and will climb tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment