About
Lindsey Able, Owner & Guide
Lindsey is no stranger to engaging guests with education that entertains. A former tour guide for Maker’s Mark Distillery in Loretto, KY, Lindsey subsequently followed a decade long career in education before coming back to her first love. Connecting people with places, stories, and each other is what it’s all about. Thus began, Bear Feet Street Tours.
The Story
The story is a lifetime in the making, but here’s the shortest version I can manage!
- Lindsey
Tour guide skills were first taught to me by Maker's Mark Distillery when I landed a position as a bourbon specialist for them, right out of college.
In fact, I was born into the bourbon tourism industry in Kentucky.
My grandmother was the lead administrator of the Jim Beam American Outpost (now the epicenter of bourbon tours) in the ‘90s and early 00’s — I still have her business card from that time!
Being raised in Bardstown, KY had to have influenced my appreciation for charming downtowns and instilled a love of history. I've often felt that New Bern resembles Bardstown somewhat, but where the bourbon capital boasts black rickhouses full of aging barrels as it's backdrop, our river town has water - and bears - around every corner.
In 2022 though, my husband and I were living in the home we owned in far western Kentucky, hours from the rolling hills of the central bluegrass. I was working in higher education, recovering from thyroid cancer, and discussing a move closer to Bardstown. We had never even heard of New Bern, let alone visited.
We had no idea that later that year we would have such a spine-tingling, captivating 72 hour visit here that it would convict us to sell everything in KY and move east. I remember sitting on the couch in what used to be Nautical Star Coffee on Middle St, during that life changing visit, and just absolutely sobbing. I knew in my heart New Bern was calling to me, but such a move was so unexpected (yet undeniably clear) that it had to be divine. Creating that amount of upheaval in our lives made no discernible SENSE at the time that I couldn't articulate what was happening, and on pure discernment we made the leap.
By 2023 we had made a home in an apartment here on Johnson Street. All 800 square feet of coziness in one side of an 175 year old home. I affectionately dubbed it ”The Hobbit Cottage” due to it’s tiny space, wonky door frames, uneven floors, and variable ceiling heights.
I loved EVERY minute of the two years we lived on Johnson Street, and is still my very favorite spot in all of New Bern. It’s where our lives and identities evolved and New Bern became home. In that little hobbit cottage my life pivoted and I let go of everything I had prioritized in Kentucky; my career in education, my home ownership, reliance on financial status and compulsively planning for the future. The spaces left open room to adopt who I was becoming in New Bern - ultimately, making the way for Bear Feet Street Tours.
At present time, I've since moved to the historic Ghent neighborhood. A lovely spot downtown to be in its own right! After leaving education, I adopted life as a retail girl at some of the shops on Middle and Pollock Streets, and Bear Feet Street Tours came to fruition when I realized that what I actually wanted to talk to guests all day about was, in fact, New Bern! I have a special affection toward Midtown Olive Oil and New Bern Goods because of this, and the locals who shop there teach me a lot about the New Bern of days gone by. Their stories often make it into my tours now.
And whether I'm on foot giving a tour or tooting around on a bicycle, I often have my #1 sidekick with me.
To be affected by these places, and to play your own role in it's story;
THAT is Bear Feet Street Tours.
