Pound VA, Wise County

We crossed the Virginia line at 7:40 this morning. It was especially satisfying as we crossed one of the last summits at the same time!

Whitesburg KY

We finished in Whitesburg KY, which is 15 miles from the Virginia border. We did 78 miles getting here. The forecast is for 100 degrees plus for the next several days, so we will be leaving before dawn to beat the heat. Honestly we both can't wait to get out of Kentucky! We were ready to do another 35 miles today to achieve that goal, but it involved climbing two more summits. Given the heat we decided to take the conservative route!

Boonville KY

We had a relatively short day today of fifty miles, ending in Boonville, KY. Because of the tire problem, and the placement of motels, we could either do 50 or 100 miles, so we planned conservatively and did 50. Boonville is where Daniel Boone lived before he moved to Missouri. The land here is very rugged, almost as much so as the Ozarks. Today was somewhat challenging. Tomorrow promises to be much more so.

The picture below is one of several beautiful barns we passed.  It is quite interesting that many of the barns in Kentucky are painted a coal/ash color.  We first noticed this outside Lenanon KY, where Maker's Mark,m a bourbon, is brewed.  All of their buildings were the same coal color. Irt seemed a bit odd givent he heat to paint something black!

One of several beautiful shots of the mountains in Kentucky.

This final shot is of the garden of the B&B we stayed at outside of Boonville.  Note the eclectic art!



Our route through Kentucky is placed squarely in the middle of the Bible belt, which you can't miss, given the scores of churches we pass every day. Lots of churches means some friendly competition for parishioners. We see that in the signs outside the churches we pass, which has made for an entertaining ride. Some of the signs take he classic 'fire and brimstone' approach: "Without Christ hell will be your home!" Others are more plain and simple: "Take a stand with Jesus." Some are more economically oriented: "Contribute to our flock and you will have salvation." Still others are a creative play on words: "Give Satan an inch and he will be a ruler." Our personal favorite, however: "God responds to knee mail."



Berea KY

We got on the road by 12:30 pm. We dropped off the car before that, and surprisingly they did not even want to charge us for using it. How nice! The heat was not too bad, but the wind ended up being a major factor, 15 to 20 mph most of the time and of course a headwind. We continue to be amazed at how often we have a headwind. Maybe that's why we have met so many people going east to west! Nonetheless we got in 62 miles, and are ready to start getting into more of the steeper hills and mountains of Kentucky tomorrow.

Kentucky; A Good Samaritan

Luckily we found a good auto shop to lend us a car this morning, allowing us to fix the bike. We will be back on the road at noon and hope to hit either Berea or McKee today!

Lebanon KY: land of hospitality?

We did 84 miles today, leaving at 5 am to try and beat the record high of 97 that was projected for today. We made excellent time for the first 60 miles, then things started to unravel - literally.

We had new tires put on both bikes yesterday in Owensboro KY. We did this as a preventative measure - to ensure we did not have any problems with our tires for the end of the journey. My back tire turned out to be defective. It started to delaminate from the inner belt. It got progressively worse and worse. Finally, Connor had to ride ahead and I walked my bike the final distance into Lebanon KY. I'm sure Kentucky is hospitable, but despite the 97 degree heat, I got passed by dozens of pickup trucks, with no one offering to give me a lift or asking if I had a problem, as I walked my bike into town! I have to be honest and say we are really looking forward to leaving Kentucky!

We will have to rent a car now to drive somewhere to get a tire tomorrow morning. But given that we only have 634 miles to go, and ten days left, even if we don't make a lot of progress tomorrow we are still in very good shape.

Hardingsburg KY, Waldo, Where's the WiFi?

We don't mean to sound spoiled, but at the end of the day, the one thing we look forward to is getting on 3G or wifi and connecting back to the world. All we get here is Edge service, so wifi is a must.

We started with the hotel. Yes we have wifi. However, the password we were given did not work, after 15 minutes of trying. So we resort to dinner + wifi. Lots of heathy choices: first, Pizza Hut. Connor: do you have wifi? Pizza Hut: ...WiFi? Connor: Yes WiFi Pizza Hut: what do you mean WiFi? Second, Hardee's. Connor: do you have wifi? Hardee's: Yes we should, but it may not be working, but it usually is! So we go there, and the WiFi, although it usually works, did not. Apparently te dial up was not working right. And lastly, we resort to McDonalds. Luckily, as we sit here, there is WiFi, and thus the update on the blog.

As for our ride today, it was adequate. Onto another town tomorrow!