6-19 Friday

Golconda, IL to Devils Kitchen Lake campground - 51.8 miles

Not much to say on the day except for the heat! Don anticipated this and left with Kristen as soon as light broke and in the following days, the group would soon follow this lead. Leaving at 6 is so much nicer than leaving at 8. By 8 am its already 95 degrees out. I felt fairly sluggish in the morning but by afternoon I was feeling better, having met up with a couple other riders.

Perhaps it was the heat, but we ended up missing our turn and staying straight on a road for and extra 4 miles, for a total of 8 unecessary miles. Having made it to the final check point, I ate some fried chicken and a quart of chocolate milk and I was back on the road.

As soon as I arrived I realized our campsite was on a lake, so I quickly changed and was in that lake in 10 minutes... It was all worth it!

6-18 Thursday

Sebree, KY to Golconda, IL - 89.2 miles

Another day of roasting temperatures during our last day in Kentucky. I was ready to leave quite frankly. I had enough dog chases and coal trucks to last a life time. Western Kentucky helped to make up for my overall image of the state. It was neat to ride through Elizabethtown, where my father, brother and co. stay every year for the Derby. Had biscuts & gravy at the halfway mark to carry me the rest of the way. We crossed the Ohio River at what we thought was to be the end of the day in the city of Cave in Rock.

After a milkshake and a burger at the local cafe, we decided to go another 23 miles to Golconda to their public park. Those 23 miles were probably just as difficult as the entire day before. It's so drainging to be in that heat. It was a struggle to even sleep that night for how humid it was. The park was cool, it was beside a river.

6-17 Wednesday

Falls of Rough, KY to Sebree, KY - 74 miles

Started the day off the right way with an endless buffet at the Rough River Dam State Park lodge.

They definitely lost proffit between Dustin and I, ha. Today we rode through our first 1000 miles. I celebrated with an orange slurpee... It must have been 100 degrees out. I guess the gods decided to give us a break from the endless rain we've been pressing through the last 2 weeks and give us some sunshine. Unfortunatly it was a little too much with temps in the high 90's and killer humidity.

We decided from this day on we wouldn't leave to start the day past 8am because the heat is just too brutal. It was a long and arduous day but we recovered in the bliss of the A/C at the First Baptist Chruch in Sebree, KY. Today was easily top 3 hardest days so far, just miserable. But what a reward this church was, it had it all! A/C, showers, laundry, and an unforgetable Thanksgiving like feast prepared by Violet & Bob that almost put me comatose during dessert... angelfood cake, strawberries, ice cream, and whipped cream... Thanks again, you're so generous! So we weren't exactly roughing it that night.

6-16 Tuesday

Hodgenville, KY to Rough River Dam State Resort Park in Falls of Rough, KY - 60 miles

We woke up to an emtpy and clean trailer... how nice! Yesterday we took everything out to clean and repack it. It worked great and the trailer, now more than every, is an extremely functional and key unit to this trips success.

Otherwise, today was nasty. Not a killer ride, fairly easy and we made great pace, But we left in the a.m. in pouring rain and arrived into camp this evening in the pouring rain.

In the middle in was blazing hot with a beating sun. We took one stop for lunch, which left us with about 30 miles to get into camp. As we devoured our chicken tenders and milkshakes from some gas station we watched the weather and thought they were joking with what we saw. A wall of green, yellow, and red was headed our way. Just shy of 4 miles into camp it started to dump on us, with 30 mph winds to boot. We watched a blackening sky for the last 10 miles, in fear of lightning strikes and still pressed on. We made it in fine style for a buffet dinner at the lodge to drive ourselves off. Shower, laundry, wifi... I may be camping but I feel like i'm staying at the Ritz with these amenities.

We also saw some Amish today...

6-15 Monday

Bardstown to Larue County Community Park in Hodgenville KY - 40.5 miles

We were able to sleep-in today considering our epic ride the day before.  We decided to do 40 miles and stay on our present time frame.  The end of last night was plagued with flat tires as our group got 4 within the final hour of riding.  Amanda and I continued this luck into today as we both got flats.  Here is Amanda, now a champion at the process, changing her tire sometime in the a.m.

We're now starting to enter the agriculture of America.  Wide sweeping plains of corn, wheet, and beans now begin to line the sides of the road.

Per usual, we caught about an hour of rain at the end of the day.  We stayed at a park with terrible plumbing... now hot water, toilets that barely flushed, and faucets that spattered.  We were joined with great company as two people that were met on the '07 trip came with goodies, food & drink!  Thanks Matt and Michelle.  

6-14 Sunday

Berea KY to Old Kentucky homestead campground in Bardstown - 94.35 miles

Fire Houses and churches are definitely the way to go. Stayed at the city of Berea firehouse where Don and I woke everyone up with a blast of the siren's from the ladder truck. Those guys had a great sense of humor.

We were only scheduled for about 65 miles on the day, but encountered an unfortunate set back in that Lincoln Homestead no longer does camping, and the next closest campsite was either 18 miles off the route or another 30 miles down route. So in all our glory we decided to go for it which put us at 94.5 miles on the day, almost a century. As we started into the last 30 miles the weather soon turned ominous... nothing out of the norm for this trip anyway.

After the skies cleared we ran into a couple east bound riders. The left real early, April 15th. It was incredible to see them, 2 months into the trip, and excited that their journey would soon be over in 2 weeks. But they still had the 2 weeks left that we just went through. Not a fun way to end such a long journey if you ask me, ha.

6-13 Saturday

Booneville to Berea KY - 59.3 miles

Relatively short day today, 58 miles.  Day started with a low fog.  Woke up early to the smell of Don grilling up some bacon egg and cheeses'.  We only took one break today, which allowed us to roll into Berea around 3pm.  We're staying at another firehouse tonight, camping in the front lawn.  Churches and firehouses are definitely the way to go!  The terrain was much different from the previous few days. I think we're headed out of the mountains.

We're still surrounded by them but we're riding the valley's and follwing the rivers to get us further west.  The land here is still so variable on a smaller scale.  Much lower elevations than virginia but the the climbs are incredibly steep.  Weather was great the rest of the day.  We're still running into other random CC riders.  Hooked up with a kid named Chase, hailing from Texas.  He's been with us for the last few days and has a great attitude so we all chipped in and got him a jersey, making him an honorary member of BiketheUSforMS.