| State #8!!! |
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Humbled again by the folks met along the TransAmerica Trail.
There are family adventures and then there are family adventures. Today I met a family of four from Australia who are travelling by bike from Los Angeles to New York City!! They have two sons - the oldest, 15, riding his own rig and pulling a trailer, the youngest, 7, riding in the stoker position on Dad's tandem. Unbelievable! I've actually been hearing of this group since I was in Colorado from other West-bound riders. Was great to finally catch up to them & meet 'em. They were in the midst of fixing a tire blow-out when I caught up with them. Naturally the seven-year old was doing hula-hoop with the retired tire!
Met up with two other West-bound parties on the road today. Michael Allen is a teacher from Boston who is on his second cross-country ride. You can check out his journey details at his blog. He'd done the "Northern Tier" route previously (and felt that it was much easier - less climbing and less heat!). When I told him we were headed to Utica to spend the night, he said "there's nothing there" and began to extol the virtues of Rough River State Park near Falls of Rough, KY. I dismissed the idea since it would add an additional 40 or more miles on my route (but it stuck in my head).
Also met Lee Briggs and Brent Thomas, two guys riding from North Carolina to San Francisco. They've got an impressive list of goals for their trip, including hitting Sturgis, climbing a 14'er in Colorado, and seeing the Smashing Pumpkins live (among others). You can check out their ride at BikeTripBlog.com. When I told them we were going to Utica for the night they also said "there's nothing there." Hmmmm.
As the ride wore on those rider's comments (and my impressions from looking at the map and descriptions, etc) began to work their magic and at some point I concluded that the goal for the day should no longer be Utica but should be that state park that Michael mentioned. This would mean that today would become likely the longest ride of the entire trip so far, but I was feeling good, the rollers of this park of Kentucky seemed to suit me, and the weather was holding up. At least the "I was feeling good" part remained the same as the day progressed. As we got further into Kentucky the hills got longer and the skies began to threaten. In the end the thunderstorms that loomed large wound up dropping the temperature about 15 degrees (AWESOME) and merely made the roads wet (I missed any big downpours - just saw their aftermath).
| This doesn't look good - skies beginning to darken. |
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I arrived at the park, and with some guidance from Amy found our spot after a very long day. I was tired, but certainly not destroyed - coulda' probably done more miles . . . did I want to? No way.
Hot shower (well, semi-hot), some barbecue and potato salad for dinner, and then, to top it off, live bluegrass right here in the park!! Turns out there's going to be a big bluegrass festival here over the weekend and the pickin' had already begun. We set up our chairs next to a camper where an informal jam was going on. Listening to live bluegrass in Kentucky. How cool is that?!
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