Riding4Hope – Day 36, 8/2/09, Berea KY
DAILY REPORT: Weather — well the storm blew thru last night so we had clear sunny skies this morning. Temps in the mid 80’s later today. Looks like good biking weather!!
John Scott was nice enough to get up and make a fine Southern breakfast of eggs, grits, & toast. It was the perfect morning breakfast while sitting out on his deck watching the sun come up and all the birds come to life. Now if I had just gotten a little more than 3 hrs sleep I would be just great. John thanks for the outstanding hospitality of allowing us to stay with you for two days. You’re the Man!!
We loaded up the trailer and were off after a few more pictures and some handshakes. We’ll actually be seeing John in a week in a half down in Florida. We are all flying down for my mother’s retirement celebration on 14 Aug in Ft Myers, FL.
Skip drove us out to Bardstown and we started our ride from there. The first 10 miles or so really sucked (sorry). The traffic was high, no shoulders, but mostly they were doing road work and had stripped off the top 2-3 in of pavement so it was very rough and uneven. Once we turned off that road life was good!
We just had a great time biking today! There were a few steep climbs but all n all it was gentle rolling hills surrounded w/ horse farms, cattle ranches, corn, tobacco fields, etc. There were numerous barns in different forms of repair that added to the uniqueness of the farms. We were all in high spirits. Adventure Cycling had really done their homework when they selected these roads. Minimal traffic, great scenery, and nice roads. Now we did have to travel on quite a few small different roads, so the Navigator had to stay on his toes to make sure we didn’t miss the next road. John did well and we never did get lost.
We did run into Philip from Vancouver WA on the road. We had met him back on Day 33. He is on his way to Yorktown VA solo. He too was planning on staying at Berea this evening. He was doing well. He really likes his recumbent bike. We chatted for a bit and then met again at the nearby church for water. We had planned to get water at a number of different locations, but because it was Sunday they were closed. So thankfully the Kirksville Baptist Church was open and allowed us to get some water. We got to chat w/ the Pastor Butch Pennington. And several parishioners offered prayers to keep us safe. Amen!
We arrived in Berea at 1830. We are staying at the Historic Boone Tavern Hotel. They just finished a major remodeling/renovation. the place looks spectacular. They worked with the Berea college and designed this to be a “green” hotel. They actually had done some pretty neat things like there is a master switch that turns off all the power in the room to minimize wasted energy, every room has a fan so you don’t have to run the AC as much, special non petroleum based soaps, etc. It just has a great atmosphere! And the management compt our rooms which made it all the nicer. Thank you very much!!
After we took showers and got settled in we went out for a drive to check out the town. This is a place where you really could have fun checking out all the signs, pottery, galleries, etc. I ran into an lady from Erie PA (my home town) who was here visiting just because. Small world. We had dinner at the Cracker Barrel. the food was great and everyone was quite full.
When we got back to the hotel, I took a quick look at the hitch. It had started making some loud squeaking noises. I cleaned the ball and hitch, a little Teflon lubricant and problem solved.
Well tomorrow we are off to Hazard. Berea is known to be the gateway to the Appalachians so we a looking forward to seeing some major hills. Fortunately we are now in pretty good shape after four weeks of riding. And then Hazard is know for its coal; so we’ll need to be careful of the coal trucks.
Thanks for joining us…..ride safely and keep the wind to your back!!
The Riding4Hope Team
(David, John, James & Skip)
Signing out 8/3/09; 0150
