Day 13

Mileage: 82
Total mileage: 1003

 

First thousand miles down!

 

I have never slept so well on a concrete floor as I did last night. Must have been something about the shower. I took a few minutes this morning to do some work on my bike, oiling the chain after the rain, cleaning the frame a little and filling up the tires with the floor pump they had at the station.

 

Requisite bike work complete, I got on the road fairly early, a little before 7. Today it was cloudy and overcast all day, which is nice because even though I bought sunglasses, I can't stand wearing them. During the morning, the cool breeze combined with the dim skies made for some beautiful riding down wildflower-lined country roads.

 

 

Pretty soon though, things began to heat up (Ooh, did you notice I've got this post formatted!? I'm uploading this from a library in Dixon instead of my cell phone) I'm convinced that the TransAmerica trail is a genius ploy by the Kentucky department of transportation, because I sweat so much salt onto their roads yesterday that it'll take a foot of snow this winter before anything sticks. Seriously, the humidity is so high that I'm effectively functioning as a sprinkler system, taking water from gas stations and diners and spreading it across the countryside. To complicate things, I rode through about 30 miles with nothing but residential properties, not an intact business or gas station to fill up off of. I had two stops today where I filled up off someone's garden hose between Eastview and McDaniels.  

 

Today I crossed the rough river on this dam. I'm only including it because I've got a somewhat more exciting river to cross tomorrow when I make it from Kentucky into Illinois. That's right, I'm almost done with this state! 

 

 

Apparently, afternoon rainstorms are just going to be a thing around here. I stopped in Fordsville (huge city, pop 500) for lunch at the local diner. I went to the local bank afterwards because I was trying to coordinate a chance to see my friend Taylor tonight and needed a phone (mine's useless in pretty much this whole state). As soon as I went inside the skies erupted and the blazing hot, humid day turned into a wicked thunderstorm, complete with lots of lightning.

 

Fortunately I got to spend the storm inside the bank, talking to a cute teller named Brittany. (You try riding through rural Kentucky and you'll jump at the chance to talk to a cute girl too) She taught me about bowfishing which is apparently a legitimate strategy of fishing that involves shooting an arrow and trying to hit fish. I told her what it was like trying to ride a bike across the country, because that seemed relevant.

 

 

 

After the thunderstorm, all of a sudden it was perfect riding weather besides the drizzling rain. I had cut my day's ride from 105 miles down to 82 while I was eating lunch because the morning just toasted me. All of a sudden I was confident that I could roll that last 23 miles because it was just so nice outside. I had already made plans to meet my friend Taylor in Utica though, so I stopped early, around 5:30p.

 

 

Tonight I'm staying at another volunteer fire department. My maps said to inquire for information at the local foodmart, so as I was asking the cashier how to get into the station for the night, an older lady named Barbara arrived and picked up 15 free pizzas from the register. Needless to say, I asked her what the pizza was for, and found out that a local church has a pizza social every Wednesday night. She invited me and I happily accompanied her.

 

 

Tonight, also staying at the station are two other riders who I've been trying to catch. Kevin is from Tallahassee Florida and Edgar is from the Philippines. I've seen their names in guestbooks and trail registers for a few days now, so I've known I was close. Kevin started on the 22nd of May, Edgar about 5 weeks ago. Kevin was carrying a bit more weight than me on his bike, but Edgar looked like he had brought the kitchen sink with him. Front panniers, back panniers, frame bags and handlebar bags: all full. At least it's on his bike, not mine.

 

 

Kevin and I walked down to the Baptist church, ate a heinous amount of pizza and apple/strawberry pie and then got poured on while walking back to the fire station. It didn't matter though because this place has laundry machines (!!) which means I'll be washing my clothes for real tonight for the first time this trip (I have rinsed them out in public bathroom sinks, don't worry Mom).

 

 

Finally, around 8p while I was planning the next day's route, my friend Taylor from Arizona showed up! He and I have done a bit of backpacking together when we both lived in Tucson. He's attending Vanderbilt and doing summer research, so he made the two hour drive up to Utica, KY just to hang out with me tonight. What a swell guy! It was nice seeing him, since it's probably going to long time before we're in the same spot again. We talked until late while my clothes were running in the laundry machine and now I'm sleeping on a couch tonight. What a life, this is at least 50% better than the last concrete slab I slept on.



 

 

There's no thunderstorm on the forecast for tomorrow afternoon so it's not supposed to dip below 90 again until 10pm tomorrow night. Looks like some hot riding ahead of me tomorrow. G'night!