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From: Carter Caves State Park (Ky.)
To: Blue Licks Battlefield State Resort Park (Ky.)
Miles: 89.4
Climb: 9,519Feet
Grade: 4%
With slightly less steep terrain, day 3 takes us out of the mountains of Eastern Kentucky and into huge hills, which are often just as challenging as mountains, because civil engineers tend to build roads over hills and around mountains!
Our lunch stop on day 3 is always the wonderful Victorian Rose Tea Room, in Vanceburg, Kentucky. Proprietor Joni Pugh always makes us feel like royalty, serving spectacular light lunch fare; just perfect for cyclists in the middle of a long ride. The picture below is from the first Tour de Kentucky ride in May of 2007 at the Victorin Rose. Each year we look forward to seeing Joni and her staff!
We add the state of Ohio to our list on Day 3, and conclude our ride at Blue Licks Battlefield State Park. This park is unusual in that the attractions of the park involve the historic battle that of Blue Licks, sometimes described as "the last battle of the Revolutionary War". Apparently, this battle occurred some 10 months
after the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown. Apparently, no one bothered to tell Kentuckians to cease fire!
Maysville, which is on the Ohio River across from the state of Ohio, is the hometown of singer/actress Rosemary Clooney and former Miss America Heather French Henry. Maysville is rich in local history, and was a key location in the "underground railroad" network established to allow slaves to escape north to their freedom. In the 18th century community of Washington, Kentucky, in what is now Southwestern Maysville, in 1833, famous author Harriet Beecher Stowe is said to have sat atop a big rock observing a slave auction. She was deeply moved by this experience and later wrote that her famous book "Uncle Tom’s Cabin" began with her visit to the slave market in Washington. But the hands-down favorite TdK attraction in Maysville is the
Dairy Yum-Yum, which needs no further description. Actually, this fine custard stand is just across the Ohio River from Maysville, in the quaint town of Aberdeen, Ohio.
