DAY 69-72...almost caught up!

Day 69 Rough River Dam to Convenient store off highway 84

Because we were in an "RV" site rather than a tent site, this old crazy lady charged us $20, $8 more dollars than we should have paid. Mark was angry and when he tried talking to her about it, she raised her voice and put her foot on the pedal of her golf cart and peeled out, leaving Mark with a strange look on his face. I, of course, was laughing hysterically! We enjoyed a lovely breakfast with our neighboring friends and headed on the road. The terrain was the opposite of flat and after two big riding days, we were pretty tired. We had a water fight and minutes later a huge storm erupted! We took some awesome pictures and made it to a bike hostel right off the side of the road!

We were instantly greeted by Lauren, who gave us freeze pops and welcomed us into the store. We visited with Arnold and Lucy, her mom and dad, and took nice warm showers and even learned how to snap green beans! Arnold took us to their garden where we picked potatoes and tomatoes, squash and cucumbers, which were washed up and cooked for dinner! We thoroughly enjoyed their company and had a wonderful dinner with them! Thanks again for your warm hospitality!

Day 70 Hostel to Bardstown

We woke up early and Lucy made us cheesy eggs! It was Lauren's first day of high school and we waved goodbye to her as the school bus pulled away from the house. It was a bit overcast and we decided to grab some caffeine at the gas station about 15 miles into the day. Mark couldn't resist a peanut butter and Oreo milkshake at 10 in the morning and I decided to try a five hour energy hour shot. After two episodes of Judge Judy and one Maury talk show, we finally decided to end our two hour break at the gas station!

We rode a mile off route to tour Abe Lincolns birthplace and saw the actual cabin where his family lived as well as the spring where they retrieved their water from! It was pretty cool but we had to get back on the road!

We were reading the newspaper in the town of ..... Where the headlining articles were about two men stealing generators and one about the mold forming on Lincoln's cabin. After lunch I decided that to change the routine up a bit, I was going to make Mark navigate to Bardstown, about 35 miles away! I was enjoying watching him look at the map and acting concerned about not missing a turn, it actually made me quite happy. I was kicking back enjoying the ride, not knowing where the heck I was going and it was lovely! We had a few steep up and downs for the last handful of miles and pulled into a campground at the edge of town, about 6:15. We met Dave, the camp host who gave us some info about restaurants and laundry and such. He even gave me a ride to the showers in his nice little golf cart! (which was not very far away at all but I still enjoyed it!)

We met east bounders, Dan and Rob, our two new English friends whom we've adopted to our cycling posse. Or shall I say, they have adopted us because they know what's going on and we are just basically following them! They are a bit older and wiser than us but we all get along quite well! After a shower and a bit of a chat with some other riders, we grabbed some food down the street and enjoyed listening to live karaoke! Mark chickened out although I know he wanted to sing Avril Lavine!

We decided to wake up early in the morning and try to ride with the other boys! A 5:30 alarm was set and a 92 mile ride to Berea was in store!

Day 71 Bardstown to Berea

Hearing the alarm go off at 6 am makes me sick to my stomach. We haven't woken up this early in about two weeks, but it feels good to start pedaling before the scorching sun comes out in midday. Rob and Dan wanted to stop for a quick breakfast and they came up with McDonald's. We didn't want to complain so we swallowed our pride and Kristen had fruit and yogurt(fruit was still frozen) and I had the Mcgriddle(around 800 calories).

We cranked out 45 miles in 3 hrs. I think all of us were happy to share our cycling stories with each other and it made the time drift by. All of us were feeling hungry, looking for lunch when Lees Buffet for 5 dollars a person caught our attention. We owned that buffet and definitely got our moneys worth for fried chicken! We taught our new friends, about Kristen and mines little saying which can be put in front of any saying or expression, for example; we are biking across America SO HARD! It's a little inside joke we wanted to share with everyone, sorry if you don't get it but it's become part of our cycling vocabulary.

The riding for the rest of the day was filled with rollers and some nice descents. The temperature was pretty hot outside, but our new friends and the scenery kept our minds off the heat. The last 10 miles we had a good pace line and pretended we were in the Tour de France.

We found a campsite for cheap and took our beloved and long anticipated showers and grabbed some dinner. Recap of dinner..all of us enjoyed Cracker Barrel but never got the milkshakes. Rob and I paid 2.60 for strawberry flavored milk!

Another early morning ahead of me.
Mark


Day 72 Berea to Booneville

Today in a nutshell:

1. My stereo gone, someone stole it....:( ipod gone too...of course it's the first day in the Appalachians.
2. Ate breakfast at Walmart and bought large sandwiches for $4.98 for lunch.
3. Shredded the first day of the Appalachians...so hard!
4. Ate our lunch in shady grass patch on the side of the road.
5. I almost ran a cat over, by accident! But it moved at the last second.
6. I sprayed some dogs with hot sauce that got in my way
7. We rode 57 miles
8. We found a guy named Joe with a crazy beard, no teeth, and a cat named sissy who is riding from Florida to California on a mountain bike, packed for the end of the world.
9. We drank real milkshakes.
10. Mark went running and had a few close calls with some dogs.
11. We had a debate over top ramen noodle soup.