At the end of 2009, Kenny Chesney announced that he was taking a year off. My wife and I have gone to see him every time he came to Pittsburgh since 2004. My wife isn't one to join a fan club, but with Kenny it was different. She's a card-carrying member and is on top of all the latest news.

When she learned he wouldn't be coming to Pittsburgh in 2010, we purchased tickets to go to the movie theater to see him in 3-D. This was a compilation of various shows recorded during the 2009 concert season, some of which were filmed at Heinz Field.

Faced with breaking a summer tradition, I decided that I would take my wife to see Kenny because he wasn't coming to Pittsburgh to see her this year. I searched the venues and dates that he was performing and came across a music festival at the Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky.

That was last week, and we had just recently celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary, so I figured what a great gift. In addition to watching great country music, my wife loves to ride on the back of my dresser for "us" time. So I surprised her with a triple surprise, Kenny Chesney and a 1,000-mile round trip on the bike for a weekend WITHOUT the kids.

There really isn't a direct line to get to Louisville. The common way is to go west into Ohio, South past Cincinnati and roll into Kentucky that way. The other route, which is a little longer and a little more scenic, goes through Ohio, West Virginia and then east into Kentucky. We chose the latter route on the way down.

Given our schedule, we could only set aside three days for the trip, which basically meant one day down, one day there and one day back. That being said, it was full throttle on the interstates while keeping up with traffic.

For me, that wasn't really relaxing. I prefer to take it a little slower and take a more scenic route, but we were on a restricted schedule.

In addition to the boring and busy four- and six-lane interstates, I didn't plan on riding in the hottest weekend of the summer. The temperatures were in the upper 90s most of the way there, and for once, when I wanted it to rain, there wasn't a cloud in sight.

We took a break every hour. Got out of the sun, drank some water and took in some sugar. My wife purchased a camel back water container for the trip, which held ice and water and dispensed it's contents through a tube connected to a container on her back. At first, I rolled my eyes, but after several hours into the trip I was drinking from the hose like there was no tomorrow and she was watering my back down the further south we got.

She also purchased two bandana-like objects from a sporting goods store that can be tied around your neck. It was a great way to stay cool and they did their job. We also had to use several bottles of sunscreen during our travel.

Every stop consisted of water, ice, something small to eat, and the re-application of sunscreen. Even though we were vigilant with the SPF 50, we still felt the sting of summer on our skin and got burnt in places where the sleeves of our shirts would blow up. My wife wore a tank top, and she got more burnt than I did.

After about 500 miles, we were tired, sore and very hungry. We checked into our hotel, took showers and headed out to dinner. When we came back to the hotel, we planned our day for Saturday. Kenny didn't take the stage until 9 p.m., so we knew that we had some free time to explore Louisville.

This was the only chance we got to ride on roads that were only two lanes and under 50 mph. One of those roads took us to the Jim Beam plant right outside of Louisville. There is a small tour center, a working factory and dozens of warehouses filled with 20,000 or more barrels of fresh bourbon.

It was a nostalgic tour and very informative. They are still in the process of putting together a working factory and warehouse tour, but I was satisfied with the movie, the displays and leaning into the warehouse to smell one million gallons of bourbon fermenting in the lofts.

After our visit to the plant, we stopped at a small general store. We're very spoiled with our convenience stores here in the Pittsburgh area. It was nice and quaint, but convenience isn't the word I would use to describe the particular store we stopped in.

After grabbing some water, we jumped back on the bike and headed to Churchill Downs. This is where the Hullabalou concert featuring Kenny was located. This also is where the Kentucky Derby is run and is very rich in history. After finding some parking and changing out of our riding gear and into our shorts and T-shirts, we packed up the dresser and walked into the festival.

It was a very well-run venue. There were five stages appealing to various genres of music. All of the artists' starting times were staggered so that there was a group on one stage, while the other was being turned over. We enjoyed acts like Joan Osborne, Huey Lewis and the News, Sara Evans, and more. This more than filled the void in our time until Kenny was set to take the stage.

Kenny's show was very energetic, and filled with hits. It wasn't a fully produced mega show that we typically see at Heinz Field, but it was enough for my wife to get a taste of summertime with Kenny.

Rocky Marks is operations manager at Hot Metal Harley-Davidson in West Mifflin and host of the radio show: "On the Road with Rocky" which airs Saturdays at 8 a.m. on 1250 WEAE-AM.

Looking for more from the Post-Gazette? Join PG+, our members-only web site. You'll get exclusive sports content, opinion, financial information, discounts from retailers and restaurants, and more. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.