Well, it's time for Road Adventures with Cycling Men of Leisure, the podcast for cyclists who understand that writing is not just about getting to the destination, but the experience along the way. Now here are the original Cycling Men of Leisure, Adam and Michael. This episode was recorded live at Bourbon Country Burn in Lexington, Kentucky.

It will be a two-part episode. Please enjoy part one today and in two weeks please come back for part two. Or wait a month and binge listens to both episodes. Thank you. Please enjoy. Well, good to be with you. Happy to be with you again. Here we are in person, live in person, live. And uh, let's give a little teaser here of where we might be.

I'll give some hints. Okay. Three days. Ooh, 250 miles amount. 11 distilleries. I'm back in. I do. You would be. I'm back in. So where are we at Adam? We are in Lexington, Kentucky at the Kentucky Horse Park. And what are we doing here? Are we look at horseshoe? Well, amazingly, there's, there's one going on right over there.

There is one. And hopefully we won't, uh, we won't hear that. We, we heard them, uh, setting up here, but uh, we are at the Bourbon Country Burn. Awesome. This is a cycling event for those individuals who not only like to ride bikes, but um, bourbon themed, going to distilleries. They bring 'em here. Uh, tastings.

Um, we are going to be pedaling to some distilleries. Yes. And uh, basically what the event is, it's a three day event. It's a fully supported, uh, cycling tour of bourbon distilleries and also thorough. Um, horse farms in, uh, the bourbon, uh, producing part of Kentucky. Yeah. Which, I mean, depending on, um, anyone who listens to this from Kentucky, please, we, we do realize that it's not just Lexington.

We know that there are, there are many other areas of, of Kentucky that also produce, uh, bourbon. There. It's branching out more and more. Absolutely. Um, but yes, uh, it's a traditional, traditional, yeah. Bourbon producing area. Um, well, I'm excited to be here. I, um, this was not planned for us. Um, we had done all of our fall and the winter plan.

I'm not sure how any of the other cyclists, uh, do it, but you and I look at the map. Excuse me. Look at the map. We look at the calendar based upon mm-hmm. Um, being respectful to our respective wives and your family. Of course. Uh, my cats are pretty okay if I go there as long as they have food and water and sun.

I mean, they're happy. But, um, looking at our calendar, we, we knew that we were gonna do a few of the rides. We did Georgia and Iowa. Um, This year we did Michigan, which was, we went Mack we, instead of, instead of doing, uh, east to West, uh, we actually went, uh, from Lansing to Mackinac with dmac. But, um, but it was the interactions at different rides such as Rag Ride.

Um, then people kept telling us about the bourbon country burn, and you and I had both heard about the right before. Mm-hmm. We, it wasn't like we were, um, blind to the idea, but it kind of, uh, spurred up that, that seed in your head and we put water on it. And then after we talked to. Some of our, uh, followers on Facebook who said, oh my gosh, you guys, this is your target market.

You should go. Um, and here we are. And, uh, it looks like the campus set up, um, wonderfully. They have, um, place for bands. They have a place for fire pits. Um, looks like the v i p tent tasting, which we'll get into in a little bit. Uh, the tent looks really cool. Um, checking was really simple. I mean, super easy.

I mean, gave my license and I, I noticed that these. Interesting enough, these rides are making us do that where we have to have our driver's license to check in. I'm not sure what crazy other person would check in and say, yeah, I'm here to ride 250 miles on the hills of Kentucky. But, um, well, you and I did so, but uh, um, gave us a free, free shirt, um, gave us a free, um, uh, bag.

It says bourbon country burn on it or Ride bikes. Drink bourbon. Yes. So, And some stickers and some, some different stuff. But, uh, I thought it was actually a nice welcome packet. And, um, I'm not sure about, uh, what, uh, Hills of Kentucky have to offer yet. But, uh, I know that looking on the website, the, uh, routes ahead of time looks like there's a lot of elevation out there.

But I, I've actually never written in this area. I've never actually been to Lexington. I've been to Paducah, Kentucky when I was a kid. It was right across the river from where we were, go shopping and stuff, but never been to Lexington. So this is my, this is my first interaction. I've been through the area, uh, on a number of occasions.

I've never spent any time here. It's just mostly been passing through on vacations and, and that type of thing. But, uh, it is beautiful and, uh, saw some of the, the horse farms coming in and, oh my God, they're, they're in. I tell you what I'm interested is, um, the double fencing. I noticed that coming in where we have one fence and then right outside, I, I can only imagine that has to do with, um, either the horse escaping one fence and I know the horses are so valuable, um, that they don't get out.

The other one, um, I'm not sure if it's, if a car takes out one fence that the horse is. Uh, cap in. I know the horses are absolutely amazingly, I mean, they're beautiful. So far what I've seen, and I know that, um, very val, very, very valuable. So, um, so tonight, uh, what they're offering is, uh, little trivia, little, little dinner.

Um, But, uh, tomorrow and Saturday dinner is actually included. So that's, uh, actually interesting that they give you like a little wooden token that says bourbon country burn. And, um, you go through the line and stuff. So, um, never done it, but they tell me it's pretty simple. Yeah, it, I'm, I'm assuming everything else here has been relatively, relatively easy.

Now I have done some research here. I have your answer to the double fences. Okay. I am ready. Uh, according to the, the internet here, it. Provides a barrier along roads to protect against thrown out garbage vehicles or runaway horses. That makes sense. I mean, if somebody decided to litter, then the horse, you know, if, if a horse accidentally ate a piece of metal or a can or something like that from, I can think, you know, unfortunately, and uh, in my state we have, uh, 10 cent deposit on, on the cans.

And so most people don't throw their cans out. It still happens, don't get me wrong. But most people choose not to throw their cans up cause they want their money back. But I imagine if a horse chewed on it could cut its mouth. Something like that. So that's interesting. I didn't realize that that's why they did it.

It just looked so beautiful and white picket fences for miles and miles driving in. So I wouldn't wanna take care of that fence. No. Um, so, Bourbon Country Burn has, um, many different options. I think it's important to notice, uh, mention that on the website that you can look at different routes. And so it, it has, I just wanna be clear, it has something for everybody.

So if you're looking for centuries, they have, they offer a century, if you're looking for, um, a shorter distance, they offer like a 17 mile, uh, trail ride just through the trail here. From the, from the. Um, if you're looking to go to distillery, they even have one that's only like 27 miles, I think that goes actually to a distillery, so, yep.

Um, well I'm voting for that one. Just kidding. Just kidding. But, um, uh, definitely wanna see some distilleries. Yes. And you have the, uh, opportunity, like I said earlier, 11 different distilleries. I mean, some of those are big name distilleries, some of them are not. Names that probably people have heard of, you know, example, uh, bluegrass Distillery, west Sixth.

West Sixth Brewery. So if you're not into the, uh, the whiskey and the bourbon, you can always go to, uh, to a brewery. Uh, Hatfield and Company, uh, bourbon 30 midway, uh, distilling Castle and Key Glen's Creek and Buffalo to name a few. Uh, let's go back to something you said you had come here with not being interested in.

And whiskey. Whiskey. Yeah. Well, they offer, uh, you know, a beer selection just in case. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. I, I'm thinking to myself, I, uh, I'm here for the whiskey, but I'm, I'm just kidding. Of course people go, there's lots of people that we sell, a lot of non-writers checking in, families and friends and stuff, so, um, A couple of those I'm interested in.

I mean, for me, Buffalo Trace, um, I do have, um, pretty, pretty large bourbon collection and I have many Buffalo Trace products on the shelf. And so, um, learning about, um, whiskeys, which is a story that we can get into, I, um, I actually. I'm always curious how different people got into whiskeys. I mean, when I was growing up, my, my father or my grandfather said, oh, you know, I'm gonna have some whiskey.

And I just pictured like a, like a old saloon. And a guy walks in off his horse and he's like, give some whiskey. And then he just slams like the, some, some rocka. Yeah, just, I mean, he just slams it, throws it down on the counter. And I mean, that was my original envision of. And then of course, you know, we went through the seventies and eighties of Clear Spirits and Martinis and Miami Vice and you know, ZEMA Zema.

Do they still make Zema? Yeah, I think they do. I think they do make Zema. Matter of fact, I was somewhere and I saw the Zema bottle and I was kind of surprised. Oh yeah, I'm surprised. But yeah, you're right. You know, like Bartles and James, I just remember those commercials with the two old guys, but. But yeah, I mean, so I, I had this envision of what whiskey was and, and how, uh, what it was.

And I, I swear I just pictured like the double saloon doors open up and like, gimme your best whiskey. So I'm always interested of how people got into, uh, whiskey and, uh, what is, you know, the flavors that people search for or look for in life. Um, but definitely. Definitely great to to be here and I'm really looking forward to seeing what different, um, Products, the distilleries offer, cuz as you know, you and I have been many distilleries.

They, they offer more than just whiskey. They have a rye or a bourbon or a vodka or gin or, or all kinds of different, you know, distilleration products, including some we've been to where they have, uh, even root beer. Oh, yes. Yes. In fact, uh, Buffalo Trace, I believe produces a root beer. That's what I hear.

I'm, I'm excited to try that. So, um, once we get over there, we'll have to see what kind of root beer they have. And, uh, one of the rules of the Bourbon Country burn is they do say that they prefer you not to have drinks while out riding. They don't want you to go to a distillery and have drinks. And, um, and so I'm curious if they're just gonna offer tastings, like, you know, like a small little.

Communion glass, you know, for going to church or, um, or if they're just gonna offer some, I'm sure they're gonna have tastings at the distilleries. I just can't imagine that, that they wouldn't. So I think they just don't want you having a bunch of drinks getting back on your bicycle and, and, um, pedaling down the road and, uh, fair pointment pedaling off the road.

I was gonna say a fair point, Barbara and Country were, cuz neither do I. So I'll, I'll wait till I'm back at camp and, and uh, this looks like a beautiful place to have a drink later. So, um, so is there a distillery that you are excited to, to go and vi visit? Well, you know, Buffalo Trace, that's always top of every, you know Sure.

Pretty much every bourbon lover's list. Um, You know, castle and Key is a good one. The one that actually is not on the list that we did go visit, uh, earlier today. Yeah. Was Woodford Reserve. When we got in, we kind of met here at the campsite and then we, we went over to Woodford Reserve. Yep. Which was not on the, the.

Biking route this year. It has been in the past. Yep. Uh, and that was a great experience. Loved it over there. What they had told us, uh, upon check-in is cuz we had made a joke and said, Hey, we, we, we started early to know distillery is, um, how true it is. I don't know, but, um, in the past, Woodford is asked to be part of the bourbon country burn.

But then I guess in, in the last couple years they've said, no thank you. No thank you. So you and I decided to come in town early and. Unfortunately for us, the tours were all booked, but next year we're gonna have to book that early. Absolutely. So, uh, but that is a beautiful distillery. If you're traveling in this area and you're looking to go, um, they have on one side of the road they have the distillery production tour, the Rick houses, um, You can just smell it.

When we were in the parking lot, it was just absolutely, uh, amazing to smell it and beautiful, beautiful, beautiful gift shop and mm-hmm um, you know, welcome center there. Um, and then on the other side of the road, they have very nice, uh, bar that you can go in tasting room. I feel bad tasting room. I was gonna say bar is, is not appropriate.

No tasting room is much better. Um, They had, you know, some of their very private items. I mean, very, very select collectible items that you could look at and, uh, and purchase if you really wanted to purchase it. But, um, I, I felt that some of those were, uh, a little out of my price range. So, yeah, probably so.

I'm not even sure my pallet would be able to appreciate that as much as, uh, as much as my money would be going as far as, but uh, they, we definitely had an old fashioned there, so no, we, we did, and another thing I wanna mention is in their gift. They will engrave your bottles, uh, with like a three line message and that type of thing.

So we did, we did participate in that. We did, we did. We, uh, uh, wrote Adventures of Cyc. Men of Leisure has not one, but two bottles of, of Woodford, uh, engraved. And you'll keep one at your place and I'll keep one in mine. Absolutely. And if, uh, road Adventures of Cycling, man of leisure makes it, uh, five years, we'll crack one of those.

There you go. And if it doesn't, we'll still crack one of those. We'll still crack one of those. Otherwise people are not gonna appreciate it as much as we will. So, um, so. What, um, what route are you looking forward to? You looking forward to the century? 112 miles. Um, you know, I don't think I'm gonna do 120.

Well, no, what? It's a hundred and it's like 106 miles or something. Yeah, I don't think I'm gonna be doing that. Uh, I generally like to do century rides on new states, just to add another state to my century list. However, um, what I think my plans are, and I haven't spoken with you about those too much. That is the day that we're supposed to ride over to Buffalo Trace.

And then we need to get back here in time for our V I P experiences, and we'll talk a little bit more about those in a couple minutes. But I'm thinking we drive over to Buffalo Trace, we get in line for whatever the daily allocation is, and then we come back and we ride one of the shorter rides. So we still get the ride in, but we get in line and are able, because what I hear is that it's uh, uh, Eagle, Eagle rare.

Tomorrow. Well, and that's, that's just hearsay. We never know, but a lot of people are betting that that's what they're gonna be now. Yeah. They've got a prediction website or you can go on and look at the predictions and, and for a high percentage they are correct. I'm, I'm okay with that. Um, you know, as far as, uh, v i P isn't every day.

V i p for us, I mean, well, Of course it is. But you know, we, everywhere I go, I expect rose petals like, uh, coming to America when you walk, you know, down, throwing 'em out in front of you, red carpets, things like that. So far that's not working out, but that's all right. But, um, you know, I'm fine with driving over there.

Um, we can definitely drive over there and, and, because I know usually the bottle releases are very early in the morning and they're first come, first serve basis, so, uh, absolutely. Then we can come back and put a. I'm totally fine with that. Um, actually what we should do is we should, uh, record a little spot over there.

Um, and then we can, um, absolutely, you know, tell our, tell our subscribers, you know, what it was, if it was eagle, in fact, eagle rare, um, and what the process is like and, and, uh, our experience with the distillery. So these v i p experiences, um, I'm looking forward to those. Well, should be good. Yeah. Um, actually it's not tonight, is it?

It's tomorrow night. I'm sorry. It's, yes. Um, yeah, it's tomorrow night. Yeah. Yeah. So got two nights of it. Tomorrow night is, uh, maker's Mark, I believe. Yep. And Lux Row. Yep. Um, tomorrow, so. Okay. All right. Well, I'm looking forward to those. I mean, that was a interesting story of how we got those tickets, so if anyone doesn't realize, but let, let's back up, because you know, maker's Mark is good and Lux Rowe is good, but the next night, Buffalo Trace.

Not only Buffalo Trace exactly, but Buffalo Trace with Freddy Johnson iii, and if you've ever watched the program Neat. Mm-hmm. Um, he is, he is, uh, highlighted inside the program and, and, uh, definitely raises your ar har uh, hair on your arm. Uh, and when he tells this story, it brings. Tear to you if you have any kind of heart whatsoever.

So, um, I recommend watching the program. Neat. Not paid by that, by any means, but, uh, definitely watch it. But, um, but not only is it, uh, for, for, uh, Buffalo Trace, but then Phil talks whiskey Yes. Has his own tasting. So I'm looking forward to that too. So that's, that's the buffalo trace. When we found out Freddy was gonna be, there was the, we have to get tickets at least to that one.

Yes. That was our driving force. Absolutely. So, but we're in Iowa on Rag Bri, and if anybody's ever been in Iowa and rag Bri, you know, that cell service, internet service, all that kind of stuff, it's pretty much non-existent or sketchy at best. Let's, I completely agree with you. Let's back up just for a second.

So we sign up for the ride. Once we sign up for the ride, we figure out what pieces of the ride, what, what do they offer? Well, some rides just offer like a general, um, admission. Here you go. Have a good day. Um, here at this ride, what they said is not only do we have these rides, but then we have these bourbon experiences and we're gonna offer four v i p experiences.

And so I'm like, okay, well, so I reach out to you, I tell you about it. Well, lo and behold, you gotta sign up on July 28th at like noon, and I'm like, July 28th. July 28th, we're gonna be in Iowa at Rag Bri. And yes, I have to agree with you 110%. I've, I've, uh, many years I've been here in, in Iowa and there's no way you get a cell phone service.

There's times where I go all day long and don't have a cell phone service, so I'm thinking how are we gonna get on and book? And so I thought, well, we're gonna try to get into a certain town by a certain time and we'll, we'll, we'll see if we can get internet access. And we had tried the town before, if you remember.

Mm-hmm. And, and, um, nothing, we couldn't get in. We, we, we would get like a small spotty signal. I would go to the website, hit refresh. It would work one time, but it, most of the time wouldn't work. So then we got to, was that Marble Rock? Marble Rock, Iowa. And we first got into town and they had advertised that they had wifi for the whole town.

Like we saw the cell phone booster up on the hill. Mm-hmm. And we thought, well this is great. And I first logged in and sure enough I could see it. And then we saw the public library, it did not work. And then four, four other people showed up and then maxed it out. So yeah, then we went to the library, um, and thought, sure, this'll be a great idea.

And as we took the turn to the library, you and myself and about 500 other people had the same idea to go to the library for Yep. For internet, whatever they were doing. I don't know. I'm, um, and we were kind of panicking, thinking, oh, we weren't, weren't gonna get these tickets. And in my job we have public wifi.

Uh, I work for a county government for our guests, and so I saw the fire station and I thought, let's go down there. And so we walked down and there was two wifis being broadcasted, and so we tried to log in. Both of 'em were password enabled. Now, where I work, we have a guest wifi you can just log into and it's not the greatest, but it'll work out for you.

And this guy said, uh, what are you guys trying to do? So, oh, we're trying to get on the wifi. And he was an employee of the of the fire department. And he said, oh, well we have a guest wifi. And I said, okay. And I said, can we just have the password for a little bit? And he said, yeah. And he said, I can't remember that.

Then he said here, he said, just log on to mine. So he gave us the, his, his wifi that is for all employees and firefighters and admin and everything else. And so he said, it's just gonna be you using it. And I said, oh, yes sir. Yes sir. And I remember when you and I were booking, we were able to get our tickets and we felt like we were on, you know, cloud nine getting the v I P tickets.

And so not only did we get the buffalo trace, which is what we really, really wanted, I said, well, we can get the. And you said, forget it. Let's do it. And so sure enough, here we had all four. And as we closed our phones, we thanked him, went and bought lunch, and we went back because the shade was just perfect on the building.

And we sat there and we just said, oh, we are so thankful. We're so thankful. I remember hearing another guy going, you guys have wifi? And him saying, Nope, I'm sorry. We're not allowed to give it out. So it just really pays to be nice to people. That's for sure. Um, so yes, there we were in the middle of Iowa and we were able to secure tickets.

And so I'm really hoping that the experiences are worth the effort that we put into 'em. So, yes, cuz uh, if we would've waited till we would've got to our in town, I guarantee the Buffalo Trace tickets would've been sold out with the Freddy, uh, picture. I guarantee you. I mean, that was the, that was the draw for me.

I mean, I'm really looking forward. To meeting him, seeing him. Uh, I have watched the program meet with You, I have showed you mm-hmm. With my love of whiskey and bourbon. Um, I've showed it to other people. I've had my parents watch him. Um, I didn't make it of course, but it's just inspirational to, it's a wonderful educational piece about, uh, bourbon and whiskey and, and put together in a, in a very professional manner.

So, um, Are you looking forward to any meals tonight? Are you hoping that they have any meals here that you've read about or, well, I don't know any, anything about the food situa. I see the big tent over there and they're ready to, it looks like they're set up. I mean, as far as the, where the tables are setting, um, I haven't heard too much about the food.

I'm hoping it's good, but. We'll see what's a heck of a tent. So hopefully hope they, that circus has come to town. That is definitely a big tent. So, um, now I, they tell me that there's gonna be some tastings here. Uh, they're gonna set up tents mm-hmm. For tastes. Mm-hmm. Um, and so I'm looking forward to that.

Um, I haven't seen any big names that I, I haven't looked by the way. I just, I just saw the tents so well, they haven't put up the banners yet, so. Now what we should do is we should stop our show here in a few minutes and then re rerecord a little segment after we've done the tasting so we can let people kind of know what the music and what the meal and what the tastings were all about.

I could definitely get behind that. Um, so I, so far what is your impression of Bourbon Country Burton? Uh, well organized, uh, the roots look like they're, they're laid out well, uh, so I'm sure the bourbon will be, And, um, I'm I, so far I'm impressed and I'm glad we're here and I hope everything is, uh, goes well and we're safe.

Well, I'm sure the bourbon will be good. I mean, it's been trapped in a barrel and a bottle and it, oh, that's not your point. Sorry about that. We're gonna be rescuers. Here we go. No, just kidding. So, um, I, I, I think you're right. What if we, uh, we. We can end this segment and, and, uh, maybe pick it back up a little bit later this afternoon.

Sounds good. All right.

Join us on our next podcast when the original cycling Min of Leisure podcast live from the Buffalo Trace Distillery. Is there anything else, Adam? Well, until then, it's a great day for a bike ride. Thank you for coming along with Adam and Michael on Road Adventures with Cycling Men of Leisure. If you have enjoyed this, please share the podcast or tell a friend about it.