Mayor's Healthy Hometown Hike and Bike
Memorial Day

Start/Finish:    Louisville Slugger Field
                 Louisville, Kentucky

Rides:
2005 = 22

On a vacation to visit Lisas Family in Louisville, we were able to take along our Bike Fridays in hopes of getting in some riding around Louisville. We noticed right away that while Louisville is a great town, it is not as bike friendly as places such as Portland. We did do a couple of independent rides, having to pick our routes very carefully. Most roads around Louisville dont have the wide shoulders, and bike markings that we have become accustomed. However, with the help of a Joe Ward's Book "Wheeling around Louisville" we were able to map out a route that was quite nice.
For our organized ride , we had missed their premier ride, "The Horsey Hundred" by the Bluegrass Bicycling Club, so settled on the "Mayor's Healthy Hometown Hike and Bike ride"
It is the first annual event, planned to make a difference in a city that was recently ranked very high on a list of "Fattest Cities of the US" It seems that outdoor phyisical activities is not high on the list of popular trends. But judging from the turnout, it seems like there is a percentage of the population that is at least interested in riding. To quote the News-Enterprise paper, "The inaugural Mayor's Healthy Hometown Hike and Bike drew nearly 1,000 cyclists and dozens of walkers and joggers to a scenic route between downtown and Shawnee Park on Memorial Day." And, they are planning another to be Sept 5, Labor day, of 2005.
While the 14 mile route is short, it did seem adequate to most riders. It was a free ride, we just met at the parking lot of the Louisville Slugger field, listened to the short program expousing the virtues of an excercise program, thanking all the coordinators, and saying a lot of other good things, we were then off on a route through downtown, west, out to Shawnee Park, then back south, along the Ohio River, back to the start. After completion of the official ride,and talking with the folks at the biking advocacy group, who also owned a Bike Friday, we headed for the second street bridge that would take us across the Ohio River, and into Indiana. From there we headed west again, to the  Falls of the Ohio Park, which is home to one of the greatest fossil beds in the country and where Meriwether Lewis and William Clark began their famous 1803 expedition.
Then back to the car, and a short walk to a riverside restaurant for shrimp and hush puppies on the bank of the Ohio.

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