Every year since 1999 Anne and I have taken one road trip to a different part of the United States and seen attractions, wonders, and events we didn’t have back home. From 1999 to 2003 we did so as best friends; from 2004 to the present, as husband and wife. We grew up in families that couldn’t afford annual out-of-state vacations. We were geeks more accustomed to vicarious life through the windows of pop culture than through in-person adventures. After years of contenting ourselves with everyday life in Indianapolis and any nearby places that also had comics and toy shops, we overcame some of our self-imposed limitations and resolved as a team to leave the comforts of home for annual chances to see creative, exciting, breathtaking, outlandish, historical, and/or bewildering new sights in states beyond our own, from the horizons of nature to the limits of imagination, from history’s greatest hits to humanity’s deepest regrets and the sometimes quotidian, sometimes quirky stopovers in between.

We’re the Goldens. This is who we are and what we do.

After 2022’s sojourn northeast to the peaceful scenery of Vermont, for 2023 we switched directions and headed south for some American history tourism (one of Anne’s favorite things), some Southern culinary comfort, and some light searching for any Civil War statues they hadn’t already toppled. It was time at last to venture to the Carolinas, the only southern states we hadn’t yet visited, with a focus on the city of Charleston, South Carolina. Considering how many battlefields we’d toured over the preceding years, the home of Fort Sumter was an inevitable addition to our experiential collection.

First we actually had to get there. Our journey began, as they nearly always do, with episodic pit stops in the other states between us and our eventual destination. For most of our southbound vacations, Kentucky is first in line.

DAY ONE: Saturday, June 24th.

First thing in the morning we picked up our rental car with the odometer reading a mere “5” as if Avis had just unboxed the car for us. We hit the road ASAP, and looked forward to remembering the sensation of spending hours rolling down the open roads.

Soon we also remembered the frustrations of being trapped in not-so-open traffic snarls. I-65 just south of I-465 was curiously congested and dragging for a weekend morning, but the bigger test of patience came after crossing the Indiana/Kentucky border.

Our planned route would take I-65 South to I-64 East toward Lexington, where we had a few possible sights to visit. Maybe if I’d rechecked Google Maps for the eighth or ninth time before takeoff, I might’ve learned in advance eastbound I-64 was closed that very morning due to construction, our most hated road-trip nemesis.

Only vaguely aware of Louisville’s exact interstate layout (I’ve never really had to memorize it), I kept on I-65 till I saw later signs for I-264 East, hoping it’d circle back to I-64 and reconnect somewhere past the shut-down section. Eventually the open entrance ramp welcomed us that-a-way…and into bottle-necked pandemonium: eastbound I-264 only had one lane open out of four or five. (I was seething too much to get an official count.) At least we were pointed eastward now, but it wasn’t much of a relief at bicycling speed. Despite the earlier happy bunny omen, our detour was all tortoise and no hare.

Under optimal conditions Indy to Lexington should’ve taken just over 2½ hours at my preferred driving speeds. We were well past that estimate as we crawled the long way ’round to I-64. By the time we merged onto it, we were dying for respite and touched grass at the next available Kentucky Welcome Center, which was nicely spruced up for us tourists.

We reached Lexington around 1:30 or so, irritated and starving. We cut a couple potential sights off our to-do list to make up the lost time, a saddening but sometimes necessary measure whenever unavoidable delays throw a wrench into our travels. Sometimes we’re okay putting off our hotel arrivals till after 9 p.m.; more often, we’d rather not overextend ourselves, especially as we get older. Sleep deprivation is for younger daredevils.

As the Kentucky leg of our trip would have little to do with the core theme, conversely our first lunch of the trip had little to do with Kentucky. With some persistent searching we found a solid Greek takeout joint called the Athenian Grill, in the vicinity of the University of Kentucky. I’m sure Greek cuisine isn’t what the average Kentucky visitor seeks out, but the idea here was choosing a sort of restaurant we wouldn’t be looking up in Charleston.

As in many a college town, parking lots were everywhere but strictly limited to the customers of each respective business. The Athenian and the bike shop next door had very few dedicated zones, if any, but the metered spaces along the busy main thoroughfare were free on weekends.

It felt a bit odd having lunch in a tiny attic, but on the road I’d rather not eat in a car that isn’t mine, especially not while I’m trying to concentrate on the hundreds of miles ahead of us. I can handle multitasking with fast-food sandwiches, but not with portions as generous as theirs. Solid meals like this, unlike road construction, are worth the pause.

Lunch was served quickly enough that we had time for one (1) tourist attraction before we needed to move on to the next state. Apropos of each of us, we found someplace with a mix of history and pop culture — again, not a location that comes up when one searches “Lexington Kentucky tourism”. But we gotta be us.

To be continued!

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[Link enclosed here to handy checklist for other chapters and for our complete road trip history to date. Follow us on Facebook or via email sign-up for new-entry alerts, or over on BlueSky if you want to track my faint signs of life between entries. Thanks for reading!]