Ill&Noisy

Yesterday: we started in Sebree,ky, and took the ferry to Illinois at Cave In Rock, IL. We checked out the cave and then rode a few more miles to Tower Rock where we swam in the Ohio river and Thomas built a lovely fire which we got to sit by for the rest of the night. We ate two boxes of Kraft Mac and cheese and two PBP(peanut butter pecan sandwiches). I slept mighty well on that rocky ground. This morning it was up an at 'em and after a few miles we stopped for a huge breakfast in Elizabethtown. We rode about 70some miles (who knows anymore #whatwemisswithoutmichael #bikecomputersareforsquares) anyways, it was a pretty hilly day, but it was fine and Illinois has been beautiful thus far. The second to last road we rode on today, N. Lick Creek rd., was some of the prettiest land we've passé so far I'd have to say. Farm utopia. All aglow. Wonderful. We're camping at a really pretty spot on a lake tonight, devil's kitchen. And tomorrow we cross the Mississippi. Oh also I should mention: sebree was the official 1,000mile point on route, so by now we've probably done about 1,140 miles. Groovalicious. Roadkill count: 312 (yesterday we had less than 10! That's the first time for that since like the second day)

Rain, rain come again

The morning started with me waking up at 5:20 to loud thunder, warning me of the storm that was about to break loose, so I got up to put my rain fly on my tent and then crawled back in, after two hours of sleeping through torrential downpour and lightning and thunder, I awoke to start getting ready for the day. When Thomas and I were about ready, another storm cloud had moved in and literally as soon as I hopped on my bike buckets started coming down. I rode the short mile to the Rough river lodge and by the time I got there literally looked like I had jumped in a swimming pool but it was warm rain and I honestly had a blast in the very short ride that it was, laughing and singing to myself, as I so often do. Thomas arrived about a half hour later after giving up trying to wait out the rain in the laundry room at the camping site and we went down to grab some breakfast in the restaurant. After we ate we figured that since we were already wet we might as well just ride on. We were having a grand old time, hooting and hollering all through the insane downpour and thunderstorm. Honestly some of the most fun riding I've had yet. Definitely in the top ten. It was coming from every angle: my back wheel, the sky, Thomas' tire in front of me. So hilarious . We rode in that for about 2 and a half hours. The rest of the day it cleared up and was just cloudy enough to be not too hot and very pleasant. More of the fun rolling hills today, which made the 70 miles on route to Sebree, KY quite enjoyable. Now, I'm horribly sad that I forgot yesterday to mention in the blog about Thomas' fifth turtle save, so that's what I'm doing now, and on top of this, today he saved TWO more, bringing the total to seven. He's the Turtle Whisperer. We are staying at probably my favorite place so far, the first baptist church in Sebree. The pastor and his wife, Bob and violet, are literally the cutest nicest most generous people you'll meet; violet cooked us dinner complete with chicken pit pie, spaghetti and meat sauce, Lima beans, broccoli, garlic bread, and WATERMELON. It was bomb. And she even gave us ice cream for dessert:) couldn't be happier. Tomorrow will be great, I can feel it. Roadkill count: 289 (and I've decided that road kill is way grosser when wet)

If you can bike with all the colors of the headwind

Today was our first day with some headwinds slowing us down, so I guess this is foreshadowing. As the land flattens out, the wind becomes the hills. But that's okay; it was kinda nice--it was so hot but the wind kept me feeling pretty cool. We rode just a little over fifty miles today, but seriously hammered the last 21, and I didn't even realize it, I just looked at my watch and was like wiggidy what? With wind and all we did it in just a little over an hour. It was another pleasant day, rolling through pretty farms and such, and the catholic church count is breaking records at a whopping FOUR! But Suriously, it's good to see them showing up again. We're camping at Rough River Dam State park in Falls of Rough, Kentucky, and we got showers and our laundry done! So that's pretty stellar. Roadkill count: 256 (with some good smelling skunks making the ranks today, love it. Really, I do)

Thomas

I name my post after the good sir I am riding with for several reasons today: 1)he saved his fourth turtle from imminent death today 2) he fixed my first flat of the trip for me. 3)he is currently wearing an American flag bandana. Today was another good and another hot day. We rode about 60 miles, and are camping a few miles off route at Larue county park in Hodgenville, KY. This city is the birthplace of Abe Lincoln. So that's cool. The terrain is smoothing out more and more which makes for very pleasant riding; gentle hills, slight climbs, and a few good downhills to cruise down. I had superman ice cream for the third day in a row--groovy. Gotta get it while I can. Also, Thomas just added it up: so far we've ridden 872.5 miles on route. In two weeks. Boom. I'm getting grimey with these two hottest days and no shower, but when am I not a little grimey in the summer time. Embracing it. Roadkill count: 234

D(et)oura the Explora

And that's all I have to say about that. Haha Today was a a great day. Today was a hot day. In the 90's. I sweat like a pig, but on a bike it all gets blown away, so basically at the end of the day my skin just looks like what the Dead sea would look like if it were drained. We rode from Berea to the Lincoln Homestead state park near Springfield, KY. We rode most of the day but took an awesome hour long ice cream break in Harrodsburg, the oldest city in KY, founded in 1774. It was really cute, and my waffle cone of superman icecream was just what I needed to get me through the last 25 miles in the sun. But about at the point where we only had like 7 miles left, a little delirium from the sun baking my brain must have set in, and I think I was scaring Thomas un poco. That's alright, he's gotta discover my insanity at some point. It's still really hot and will be really hot tomorrow,but we have a shorter day, slash we're champions, so it'll be fine. The church hunt begins. Oh, and Happy Memorial day weekend! Roadkill count: 212! We've officially broken 200.

Beautiful Berea

Today was a great day. Woke up to the sun rising in Booneville and got on the rode by around 7:11. It was just me and Thomas. Bill was gonna take a little longer getting ready and Michael left about an hour earlier.He's probably gone forever; he wanted to set a pace for himself that Thomas and I didn't want to keep, but it's chill. He was planning on doing an 87 mile day today in the extreme heat, while Thomas and I kept it cool and did a 50 mile day to Berea, KY. We got in at about 1, and due to the lack of camping or free lodging, we splurged on a motel. After we showered we took a refreshing little adventure into town on our deloaded bikes and checked out a buch of local artists and their crafts in the Old Town Artisan village. It inspired me and I wanted to buy so many souvenirs, but I don't have money or space in my panniers:( so I settled for the purchase of a piece of caramel vanilla nut fudge, yum! We then ate at BC&T, Berea Coffee and Tea, because Thomas asked a local college kid where a good place was as we were passing him. It was delish; I had a panini and an iced chai latte, yum again. So yeah, it's been a good day, through some nice rolling hills as the terrain flattens out and now i'm feeling good resting in the motel room. Hope I don't get fleas.... Oh yeah! And we've just finished our second map: onto the next one! Roadkill count: 172 (the first one for today was a dog on the side of the road, so sad, so terrifying)

Cali Swag

So yesterday we started in Lookout, Kentucky at the great baptist center where we hooked up with Bill from California, who rode 50 miles with us to Hindman, Kentucky, where we stayed last night at another baptist church and got showers for the second night in a row. It was really nice. Today we rode 64 miles and are posted up behind a Presbyterian church in Booneville, Kentucky. Thomas, Bill, and I stayed pretty tight together all day through the climbs, and it was quite fun. We saw our first Walmart en route today, which I'm glad took 11 days. We had a great stop on top of a mountain in Buckhorn where we got ice cream. Superman ice cream. All memories from the ice cream parlor in Roanoke we would go to when visiting my grandparents came back. Delicious. Tonight I ate a home cooked southern meal which Bill graciously paid for. Mm, Kentucky fried chicken, the real way. I got a shower for the third night in a row, tooooo, though it was cold. We shall camp and wake up early so as to beat the astounding heat, but apparently the worst of the mountains are over, so that might be good news, though I'll miss the downhill speed racing. Also, thought for the day: Bill kept complimenting me yesterday as I would finish the climbs after them, because of my high-geared road bike, so today, when going up the hills, I kept one specific compliment in my mind. "you're an animal" Thanks, Bill. Road kill count: 151 (today and yesterday were better days for the animals, at least compared to the two days prior.)