Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Part 3


Things are going well. Since my last post I've crossed my first time zone (from eastern to central), entered my 4th state, and covered over 400 miles (~280 in the last 3 days). The terrain has finally shifted from mountains to hills and, according to the experts, the toughest part of the entire trip (the Appalachians) is donezo. Here's how the last few days have played out, enjoy:

Day 10 - today Dre and I headed out of Chavies towards Berea. It was rainy, cold and windy- it was one of those days that you wanted to be finished before the start. We left around 8, I lost feeling in my toes around 9, and was separated from Dre around noon. Neither of us wanted to be out there in these conditions so we just kind of did our own thing - no teamwork. We stopped for brunch around 11 and the rain finally stopped. Just after brunch I backed off for a few miles and Dre got about a quarter mile ahead and missed a turn. I couldn't tell at the time that he had missed it because there were bends in the road in both directions, so I made the difficult decision to move on without him because covering extra ground in these conditions feeling the way I did wasn't feasible. I slowed down hoping that he might realize his mistake and catch up, and he did, about 20 miles down the road. So about 80 miles later we rolled into Berea, Ky - it's a really pretty place and definitely the largest city I've been to since leaving NC. We mingled downtown while we waited on our host Andy from warmshowers to pick us up and take us to his home for the night.. Dre had other plans - he thought it would be best if we just rode our bikes the extra 5 hilly miles to their house. So we rolled on and arrived at a quaint little house in the outskirts or Berea. Chili on the table and towels ready for our showers - the hospitality is never ending.

Day 11 - after a nice ham and egg breakfast with our host family we set off. We are officially done with the Appalachian mountains (which are apparently the hardest part of the entire trip) and are now just rolling through the foothills. We were planning in hitting around 80 or so today, but my achilles had other plans. I was a bit sore so we decided to take it easy.. Until Dre took us in the wrong direction. Fortunately I caught it only a mile down the road. Once we got back on track we headed in to Harrodsburg, Ky. We chowed down on some papa johns (the first chain restaurant I've seen since leaving Nc) and got a cheap hotel room. After some R&R and stretching we called it a day.

Day 12 - we headed out early today hoping to cover a good chunk of ground. It was on the chilly side for most of the day, but we covered a solid 97 miles. We rolled through the whiskey portion of Kentucky today and took a brunch stop in Bardstown, Ky where a lady gave us each 5 dollars for our journey. We also rolled through several Abraham Lincoln historical sites, but unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of any them because they were all slightly off route. After a long day in the saddle, we finally arrived in Sonora, Ky. We're staying in the Thurman-Phillips guest home bed and breakfast. The home was built in the early 1900s and the majority of the furniture and fixtures are from 1910 or before (even a grandfather clock from 1840) - this place is super fascinating. If all goes well tomorrow we will hopefully be able to stay at a volunteer fire department in Utica, Ky. Regardless, we will be leaving the eastern time zone first thing in the morning.

Day 13 - we left the b&b around 830 this morning shooting for another 90ish mile day. Fortunately we were able to make it the full 90 into Utica, Ky. We went thru a small Amish community as we were leaving Sonora that was really cool - straw hats and horse drawn carriages everywhere. Shortly after leaving we crossed our first time zone into central standard time. We had very little for breakfast and didn't stop for lunch until around 130 eastern 1230 local and by this point I was extremely hungry (this was after riding for 65 miles on a nearly empty stomach). After lunch we met our first fellow cyclists on the road headed for Yorktown, Va from Illinois. Shortly after lunch we made it to our destination in Utica, Ky. We're staying at the Utica volunteer fire department. Evidently they have an open door policy for cyclists so we walked right in and found a couple mattresses. Tomorrows forecast looks promising so hopefully we'll be able to get in another good chunk of mileage. 

Day 14 - after crossing into the central time zone yesterday we still managed to wake up on our routine eastern time schedule so we got a early start this morning. The weather was ok - slight overcast and super windy. My legs were starting to feel pretty rough from the last couple days so I was just going through the motions trying to knock out my third 90+ mile day in a row. Of note for today was passing by another Amish community and crossing the Ohio river by ferry into Illinois, my 4th state. After docking in Illinois we made the short trip over to Elizabethtown, Illinois where we'll be staying for the night. Tomorrow could potentially be yet another 90ish mile day into Murphysboro, Illinois - as long as the weather holds out.

http://www.ridewithoutlimits.org/goto/Eric_Johnson

1 comment:

  1. Sorry Eric but none of this happened without pictures...just sayin haha

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