Day 14

Mileage: 70
Total mileage: 1073

I'm melting! Seriously, there's a crazy heat wave going through here and it's ridiculous. Wish I could buy a thunderstorm to cool things off.

This morning I rode from Utica to Glenville to get breakfast, only to find that there weren't any buildings left open in that 'town.' So I went down the road 13 miles to Beech Grove to find that the closest thing to a restaurant there was a gas station. Fortunately, the gas stations in this part of the world are able to whip up an order of eight eggs over easy with sausage and a biscuit like it's a normal thing, only ran me a little over 6 bucks. There are some things that are really nice about Kentucky!

I was able to put on a solid 50 miles today in the morning before things started to heat up. Unfortunately, I forgot that my 6am early start isn't as early as it usually is, since I gained an hour yesterday crossing over into central time. By noon I was going through a water bottle every 4 miles just to keep up with the sweat dripping off me.

I  slogged into the small town of Clay around 1p and stopped at the one restaurant for lunch. Before I could sit down I had to stand in their entryway for a good 2 minutes to let all the sweat drip off. I must have looked absolutely terrible because a gentleman named Norman started talking to me about the usual stuff (where from, going, why?) and then randomly decided to pay for my dinner which was incredible generous of him, especially considering what I was eating.

I took my sweet time finishing lunch in the air conditioned restaurant and then the owner even let me go into his adjoining sports bar and take an hour long nap on his tile floor.

The last 22 miles of the day were absolutely brutal. It wasn't particularly hard climbing or a difficult road, it was just survival in the heat and humidity. I filled up my reserve jug with water before leaving Clay, and had gone through my bottles and reserve by about 14 miles in. Fortunately there are houses everywhere so it's not really dangerous. I stopped by an old bloke who was mowing his lawn and he topped me off on hose water which got me to town. 

His wife came out though and asked 'When you're riding on a day like this, do you ever think to yourself that you'd rather be home in the air conditioning, eating ice cream?'

Of course I do, but that's mean to say to someone who's got 8 more miles into town. I was going to shoot for the river crossing into Illinois today, but I really want to start tomorrow around 4:45a. Plus, there's an awesome Methodist church here where I'm staying tonight.

Tonight's stop is the most lavish I've enjoyed yet. There was a shower, couches to sleep on and even a wooden ramp up the stairs so I could wheel my bike up instead of carrying it. I took a before and after selfie of me right out of the heat vs me ready for bed.

With my time in Kentucky hopefully ending tomorrow I tried to put together my thoughts on the state today. Specifically I payed careful attention to smells while I was riding. Most of the day I smelled freshly mowed hay and corn. There was a bit of livestock mixed in with one particularly potent poultry house. What's funny though is that everything is tainted a bit by the sickly sweet scent of roadkill. It's everywhere here, at least one animal per mile with even big animals like deer flattened into the pavement. I don't even blink when I see a flock of buzzards on the road ahead anymore.

A quick word on food before I end this. I got to check a mirror today and I think I've lost a little bit of weight, which is fine while I've got pounds to spare but crazy considering what I've been eating. I think today was pretty representative of a normal day so I'll just list what I had quick. Like I mentioned before, breakfast is usually an 8 eggs, sausage and biscuit affair if I can find it. Today, my free lunch consisted of coleslaw with crackers, a dinner roll, loaded baked potato and half a chicken, breaded. Yeah, literally one side of a chicken carcass, I wish I had taken a picture. Dinner is a full pizza with breadsticks on the side. Altogether I've got to be eating 5000 a day which means it's crazy that I'm still losing weight. I'll have to keep an eye on it.

Tomorrow I'm getting aggressive with this heat and starting before 5 so I'll cut it off here. G'night!