| Terrain in central Kentucky |
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An awesome SHORT day got started with Chocolate Chip pancakes courtesy of my excellent wife! We really sand-bagged at Rough River State Park knowing that we'd be going shorter than normal today. Unfortunately this meant that the 90+ degree heat was a wall-to-wall feature of today's short ride.
| Didn't realize my project team was doing work out here today! |
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| Green gold. Berley tobacco fields in the hills of Kentucky. |
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Met a party of three West-bound pretty early in the ride. Like other young-ish parties of three these guys were all business and gave me a wave and kept on truckin'.
And then there was Abry . . . Abry had actually started on the Eastern Shore of Virginia (where I intend to finish) in Cape Charles. Abry was helmet-less, had a HUGE beard and hair like a lion's mane. It was great to talk to Abry as he had used the ferry to get from the Shore to Tangier Island as I plan to do . . . and then there was the comedy. . . Abry had busted his derraileur and had been riding in a single gear since somewhere back in Virginia . . . let me repeat that: a SINGLE GEAR. Mentioned that he'd only brought enough money for food, and that none of the bike shops he'd hit along the way would allow him to use their tools to make repairs. Note that a derrailleur is not an astronomically high-priced item . . . maybe 50-80 bucks tops. He said he found it quite nice as he didn't have to worry with changing gears - could just keep his eyes on the road and on all the things around him.
A single gear. Bloody crazy.
Also met a couple from Dallas, Texas - Scott and Chris, who were just doing a single section of the TransAm route - from Damascus, Virginia, through Mammoth Cave in Kentucky, and then were going to finish up in Owensboro. Great folks.
| Alright - the secret's out . . . the REAL reason I was able to put in a 130-miler yesterday. |
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Amy picked me up in Sonora and then we drove down I-65 South to Cave City, Kentucky. Going to take a DAY OFF tomorrow here so we can spend some time exploring at Mammoth Cave National Park. Haven't taken a day off the bike since back in Prineville, Oregon. Head cold is still hanging on so wanna give that a chance to work itself out, too.
| Final resting place for TransAm'ers bikes when they give up in Central Kentucky. |
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