Crossed the Mississippi on ground level for the first time ever the other day, on a bridge by bike! Don't have much time to type right now, but just wanted to let people know I'm in Houston, Texas (county,) MO. Staying with some amazing hosts tonight, so might get more online time later, for now we're going to cool off, relax, eat, and relax some more!
DONE WITH KENTUCKY!
Crossed into the third state of the bike trip yesterday morning, woohooo! Lots of things to write about, but not a lot of time to write, so I'll try and cover most of it:
Today:
Woke up at the state park and rode ~5 miles into Carbondale. Spent the better part of an hour hunting down a waffle (it really shouldn't be that hard!) and eventually located one at the Corner Cafe. Went over to Phoenix Cycles, one of the three bike shops in town, and killed an hour and a half or so waiting around to eventually get to dig through a parts bin in hopes of finding an old rear hub that's the same as mine. Didn't find one, but was finally able to pick up a can of dog spice (pepper spray - not the official name of the product,) a couple new spare tubes, and some grip tape that I'm going to wrap over the exsisting tape to make my handlebars cushier. Went across the street to Carbondale Cycles (think that's the name of the place) and within minutes they had a brand new axle assembly including new cones for my hub - exactly what I needed and with labor included, it should only end up costing $25 or so! Yay for awesome bike shops! Strolled over to the library to do some updating, and here I am! Just got an email from Continental about my tire that's somewhat coming apart (not sure if I mentioned that here - not a big deal really) and it sounds like they'll be glad to replace it, so going to take care of that as well hopefully.
Yesterday:
Woke up in the Baptist Church in Sebree, KY, packed up, and went out for breakfast with Aaron and JJ. Decided to take the shortcut that we had discussed the night before, figured I'd like to get done with this trip in a reasonable amount of time to get set for school, and it's supposed to be flatter than the main route :). Got off to a moderately late start, 9:30 or 10, then rolled across some gentle terrain on to a gas station just shy of the Ohio river for lunch. Had some fun conversation with the guys working there, then headed on west! The bridge over the Ohio was a little bit sketchy, but fortunately there is a long stretch of road visible from the base of the bridge, so I was able to wait until there was a gap in traffic and zoom across pretty quickly to arrive in Illinois! The terrain on the Illinois side is very flat, and the roads have wide margins for the most part, so I ended up just tucking in and riding all the way to a state park just shy of Carbondale, IL. About 98 miles of riding, but considering the shortcut, I covered something like 140 miles of the offical route in one day. Met a motorcycle tourer, Bryant, from Texas and ended up chatting about travel stuff for a good while before bed. Nice day!
During the day, I noticed that there was a ticking sound coming from the back wheel on my bike - pretty sure it's one of the bearings in the rear hub. Long story, but I had checked it out before the trip and noticed it was getting a little worn, but wasn't able to do anything about it because of limited time and it being an old hub. I can't just replace the hub with a new one very easily as it would require converting the bike to a 9 (27) speed - quite a lot of new parts involved in that. Hoping to track down a solution in Carbondale, where there are a few bike shops - first ones in ages!
The day before yesterday:
It's hard to tell when this day really started, but we'll say it started when I woke up after finally getting an hour or so of sleep - say 7am. Groggy, not too happy, kindof hungry, and very tired. Packed up, thought about letting the air of a few people's tires, thought better of that, then headed out of the campground. Stopped at a gas station for breakfast after a couple miles - typical bacon, eggs, and gravy type breakfast. Gradually, the riding day got better and better; good weather, cool people, not too many bad drivers, and by the end of the day (~70 miles,) wonderful accomodations! There's a large baptist church in Sebree, KY that's been hosting bikers for a while now, and I managed to stay there as well! Violet, wife of preacher Bob, took me in along with JJ and Aaron, two eastbound riders. We got to shower, Violet did our laundry, we had a large space to spread out and relax, and to top it off Violet made us an excellent dinner! Good night, a very nice way to recover from the craziness of last night. Had a chance to talk with the eastbounders for a good while and got many tips about places to stay, alternate route bits, all that good stuff. Think that tomorrow I'll spend pretty much the entire day off route, but will cut off a solid 40 miles of riding by taking a more direct route to Carbondale!
The day before the day before yesterday:
Shorter day today, don't remember the milage off the top of my head, but I think it was about 60 total. Gradual rolling hills most of the day, with a heavy thunderstorm in the early afternoon. Fortunately, it was one of those very well defined thunderstorms that you can see the edge of, so I pulled into a gas station for lunch a few minutes before the sky let loose. The storm was intense, but very short, so by the time I was done eating, it had turned into a mild sporadic drizzle. Talked with some old time farmers for a while, then took off for the campground at Falls of Rough. Got there soon after leaving the gas station and reserved a campsite in what I thought was a quiet corner of the campground. Setup camp and took a nap before making dinner, then trying to go to sleep. Some local guys (~8-10 people) setup camp right next door and commenced with drinking, general roudiness, etc until sunup. Not a fun night. There was everything from friendly, but annoying, drunk people, loud talking, arguments, crying, fighting, breaking glass, more yelling, loud cars, bright lights, more annoying people, someone spraining their ankle (I got out of bed and checked it out - figured it would be good for someone with a little less alcohol in their system to see what was up - it was no biggie and they decided not to do anything about it,) blablabla. At any rate, I didn't sleep at all until a little break between 6 and 7am or something along those lines. Should've called the police early on, but honestly I kept assuming someone else already had, and I didn't have cell reception to make the call either way. Oh well.
Just a quick checkin from a conveniently located and air conditioned library in New Haven, KY. It's hot out, some guy at the park in Springfield, KY where I slept last night said it's supposed to get to 95 today so I started pretty early. Also rather windy, and the wind is out of the South or Southwest, incidentally the direction I'm headed most of the day. Not fun weather.
Was on the road by 7ish, picked up some groceries, breakfast, and visited an ATM before heading out of Springfield. The scenery has been nice and, although my legs are feeling something like jello, the hills haven't been too bad. Now it's 11am and I've only got another 15 or so miles to go today. Unfortunately, I'm coming up to a stretch where there aren't many camping options listed, so I'll have to quit fairly early today (although still covering 60-something miles of the route) to avoid having to do a super long day in the hot weather.
Took a 'shortcut' this morning - after Springfield, the official route makes a large semicircle to get over to Bardstown, I took state road 150, which is a much more direct line between the two. Heard it shaves off 8 miles or so, although I forgot to check that. First couple miles were very nice with wide shoulders and light traffic, then after that I started very much regretting that idea. Lots of truck traffic had me pulling off the road every few hundred yards, and as usual KY DOT has put those annoying grooves on the edge of the road that let you know when you're about to run off the road. Although I 'can' ride on those things, it's a last resort as they make it hard to control the bike, hard to see, very uncomfortable, and probably increase dental bills by a fair margin. Anyways, made it alive and the rest of the ride has been much more peaceful and quiet. Might get around to taking some pictures today as I only have another hour or so until getting to the destination for the night, we'll see!
So, I've taken 3 zero days in a row, about to head out of Berea finally. Accidentally opened pandora's box the other day and took a look at my financial aid situation for next school year - 40% reduction in my aid package and 18% increase in tuition. Not so sure this ride makes much financial sense, going to be thinking about that one a bit... Anyways, it'll probably be a while until the next update, hopefully it'll be from a good bit west of here!
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. 
It's not been two weeks since I started riding on this trip, and I'm close to being a quarter of the way to the Pacific in terms of mileage. Basically done with the Appalachians now, from here on west, things are supposed to flatten out until the rockies in southern Colorado. I feel like I'm getting into decent biking shape, finally, and have gotten into the rhythm of bike touring for the most part.
Bike touring is definitely different from anything I've done so far, although much of it is similar to backpacking. So far, the food on this trip has been much better than any backpacking trip I've been on - most of my meals have been prepared hot for me rather than being cooked up on my little alcohol stove. Granted, those meals generally come from gas stations and aren't that great in comparison to normal food, they are perfect for providing tons of calories and satisfying the tummy with something greasy and filling :). Buying prepared food is a bit more expensive though, so I'm planning on doing more cooking in the coming weeks. Part of the issue has been that there haven't been many substantial grocery resupply options, so there hasn't been much backpacking type food available to cook. The camping situation hasn't been all that great compared to backpacking trips I've been on, most of the campsites have either been in towns or in commercial RV park type campgrounds. Showers have been plentiful, but I'd prefer more solitude if given the choice. Socially, the trip has been interesting, haven't met too many other transam bikers (five, specifically,) but have met several bike tourers on other routes, a few local riders, and lots of local residents or tourists. Biking isn't as conducive to conversation as walking is - you're either huffing up hills or have wind blowing in your ears on the downhills - so usually the riding part of the day is fairly solitary.
Overall, I've been enjoying the trip for the most part. It's neat to move 50+ miles in a single day by bike - far enough that there's a notable difference in scenery between breakfast and dinner, but at a slow enough pace to get a feel of the area. It's been nice to live without a rigid schedule or homework assignments for the last couple weeks, and nice to just ride a bike all the time.
Looking forward to heading out of Berea either tomorrow or the next day as I'll soon be riding through country that I've never been near before! I'm glad to be done with coal country, and with the end of the Appalachians, the terrain should be leveling out a bit. Hills are pretty, but pedaling a loaded bike over them all day long does get a bit tiring.
Really long (~120 miles) day yesterday brought me all the way into Berea, KY from Hindman, KY. Will do some more posting later on, also going to fix up that last post, do some maintenance on the bike, and eat a lot of food.
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