2012 May Ride and Dine

May 2012 Ride and Dine

Owensboro International BBQ Festival

The forecast for this trip was cloudy with a chance of heartburn.

Five cars met at the Thornton's on US31W south of the Gene Snyder Freeway junction for a trip to Owensboro, KY for the annual International Barbeque Festival.

We headed South on US31W and turned West on KY1638 near Muldraugh.  Most of 31W was not very scenic, but fortunately the traffic was light and we were off of it quickly.

We followed KY1638 for about 20 miles to near Brandenburg.  The KY1638 route is mostly through rural countryside, a  pleasant but mostly straight road.  We turned onto KY448 near Brandenburg for about a mile and then onto KY1051 for a couple of miles to turn onto KY79.  We followed KY79 for about 13 miles to Irvington where it merges with US60.

That stretch of KY79 and US60 is quite a contrast to KY1638.  It is lined with very large farms with lots of white fences.  There were several large farm houses with fenced front yards larger than most state parks.

About 5 miles outside Irvington, we stopped for one of the highlights of the trip – Hillside Bakery.  The shop is in a small house just off the road.  It is an Amish bakery that has a variety of mouth-watering goodies.  The pecan rolls are a favorite of some of our group, while others favor the fried pies, cakes, or cinnamon rolls.  But, try to get there early.  They only bake a limited amount of goods each day and close up shop when they are gone.  Needless to say, we lessened our appetite for BBQ before we left.

From the bakery we continued on US60 about 12 miles and turned left onto KY144.  Now this was more like it!  Enough curves and hills to keep the ride interesting!  No large farms, many double-wides and small farm houses.  This was the best stretch of the road on the trip.

After about 20 miles, the road straightened and a few miles further on rejoined US60 for the rest of the trip into Owensboro.

We were there before the majority of the crowds, but elected to pay for parking so we could all park together.  Then it was a short walk down 2nd Street, through lines of custom autos to the area for the BBQ.

The first sight of these cookers was enough for shock and awe!  BBQ as far as the eye could see!  And smoke you could almost cut and put on a bun!

Further along, there is a cross street that is more like a street fair with vendors of all sorts from Tattoos While You Wait to T-shirts with all sorts of nonsense on them to most any type of food you care for.

The crowds were here too.  This was like the midway at the state fair.  We did our share of walking and gawking before heading back to check out the  free BBQ offered by the local vendors who were set up along a side street.

And, don't forget the burgoo.  This is a Kentucky specialty that you have to try at least once. Look at those pots!  That is enough of the stew to feed everyone in the crowd.  I wonder how much they have left over after the festival?

Around 2:00PM, it started to sprinkle, so many of us made our way back to the cars and headed for home.