Some daily update things

Sunday and Monday have been spent just kickin' around Berea - not too much interesting stuff really. Just been eating a lot, helping mom with doing some house reorganizing stuff, and other random things. Think I'm going to spend all of tomorrow (Tuesday) hanging around here as well because I'm lazy and a few other transam bikers should be getting into town. A few days back, I invited them to crash here at my mom's house - figured it would be polite to at least get them situated before heading on west :).

Saturday was an epic day. Woke up at the B&B in Hindman and got on the road about 7am. Decided that I'd just keep riding and see what time it was when I got to Booneville, my tentative stopping point. Planned to stay there if I arrived after 2pm or so, otherewise I'd roll on into Berea if I felt like it. Ended up eating lunch in Booneville, and although I was feeling a bit tired at that point (it had already been a longish distance day considering terrain,) I decided to push on to Berea. Got to feeling a lot better once the hills got a little smaller and the food started digesting - it's amazing how closely energy levels and food consumption get tied together on these long trips. Overall, the day wasn't that exciting really. Weather was generally overcast, humid, and warm. The roads were quiet 2 laners for the most part - no shoulders as usual lately, but not enough traffic to make that a problem. Rode past some coal mines, wasn't the first time I've done that on this trip, but it was the first time that mines had actually been visible from the road. At one particularally big place where you could see that an entire mountain had been levelled into surrounding valleys. Nasty to look at, but it's the reality of the society we live in. Arrived in Berea around 6pm, 121 miles later.

Friday sucked. Got up at Breaks Interstate Park on the border of Virginia and Kentucky, and left a little on the later side of things - hit the road around 9. Awesome start to the day with a nice downhill stretch with nice turns and no traffic. I love being able to zoom down windy roads and use whatever part of the road I want. Takes too much conentration to stick on the edge, and the edge isn't usually smooth (or wide) enough to safely tuck in and haul it downhill. Topped out at 48mph - new personal record! Then, as I was riding through a small town several miles later, I must've hit something sharp because my front tire went flat. Bummer, but it didn't take too long to switch out to a fresh tube and get back on the road. There was an amazing difference between the western edge of Virginia and the eastern edge of Kentucky - blew me away. While the Virginia side had been definitely Appalachian, the Kentucky side was much farther toward the poverty end of the scale. Lots of garbage along the sides of the roads, very funky housing situations, dangerously rusted out vehicles, loose chickens, skin and bone dogs, all that sort of stuff. Had a minor dog chasing incident, but it didn't amount to much. Lots of traffic and lousy roads followed over the next several miles of hilly asphalt. Had a couple drivers give me a hard time - one guy in a utility truck was passing me and decided to blast the horn while he was right beside me, and a few people in cars yelled random stuff about getting off the road. The roads were either narrow 2 lane roads, generally without centerlines, or wider roads with tons of traffic and shoulders, but the shoulders had that corrugation treatment so that they make cars hum to warn drivers that they're getting close to the edge. Why the hell they do that on a popular bike route is beyond me, but it makes for a very frustrating day when there's adequate space to be biking safely off on the edge, but you're forced to ride out in traffic. Heavy traffic, including lots of trucks, on the way into Hindman, and to top it off I had another flat when I got off the road to avoid a sketchy looking situation with a few big trucks and no shoulder. Eventually made my way to a B&B that provides "camping" for a minimum $20 "donation." In all honesty, it was a good setup as they provided showers, laundry (as in they handle doing the laundry,) and they actually have a large tent where you just go and sleep rather than having to pitch your own setup. Just seemed weird to advertise it as a camping place rather than "B&B, but in a tent and without the other B." Slept really well and had a chance to catch up with some friends on the phone.

Thursday was a short one from Council, VA to Breaks Interstate Park on the border of VA and KY. Some hills, but nothing too bad as it was only 30 miles or so. Quite a few coal trucks, but really they're generally very courteous drivers and not much of a problem if you're polite and pull off if a blind turn or whatever is coming.