Riding thru Kentucky has been an awakening, from the coal strip mining and poverty of eastern KY to the beautiful farmland of central and western Kentucky. It is easy to tell where the state spends its money, it is not in the eastern part of the state.This week has been another with lots of rain, cold and cloudy weather.From Berea, KY we rode to Harrodsburg and stayed in a YMCA. There is a nice park with a replica fort form the 1770's when this city was the first permanent settlement west of the mountains.
From Harrodsburg we headed to Bardstown adn were scheduled to stay in a state campground. With a severe weather alert going on Sjef and I decided to get a room at the Bardstown Inn. A good decision since the storms did hit in the middle of the night and while not real severe, there was lots of thunder and lightning. On the road the riding has taken on a routine in central Kentucky. Rolling hills and nice farms.
Out of Bardstown we were off for White Mills where we stayed at a Volunteer Fire Dept. We had an 84 mile ride today and it really went well with most folks in by 4 PM. this was our longest ride to date on the tour and my average speed was the best yet at almost 12 miles an hour. This was a very rural fire department with some old but very operational equipment. I did camp this night an of course we had rain in the morning but not too much.
On to Utica, KY on Friday and into another fire house. We ate at a convenience store and the food was not tooooo bad but it was filling. Again the riding was rolling hills with some actual flat stretches. Since we entered the central time zone on Friday some of the folks woke up at 4:30AM managed to wake everyone else up also. They heard about that.
Today, Saturday we rode to Marion, KY not NY. This was a 74 mile ride and for the first time we rode through areas that had been under water just two weeks ago, I mean really under water. One of the roads we were on was at least under by twelve feet. Those areas really had a bad oder to them.
Tonight we are at the Methodist Church in Marion and this is nice, showers and all. We head into Illinois in the morning so we have knocked off another state. To date I have ridden over eleven hundred miles on the trip. We are making progress.
Life is Good Bobo
My techie skills are fair at best but I will try again to post a comment to you. First and foremost, I wanted to tell you how sorry I was to hear of Charlie's passing as I know how special his friendship was to you. Secondly, I am still amazed at the wherewithal you and your fellow riders possess to ride these many miles. But, what an opportunity to see the wide variety of people and countryside in the US! On to Illinois! Love you, kiddo.
ReplyDeleteGreat report, Bob. I look forward to your blog every week. I hope you have some dry weather this week.
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