Day 22: near Hodgenville, KY to near Falls of Rough, KY
June 7, 2011

Today was a hot one. We were all drenched in sweat before even leaving our campsite this morning. Yuck. Very pretty, rural roads, lots of farms, and flatter rolling hills. Unbeknownst to us (but knowst to others), there is a sizable Mennonite population around here. It was nice to actually move faster than another vehicle for once–those buggies have TWO horses and we still passed them! For lunch we picnicked outside a closed firehouse with a cyclist couple from Florida we have seen a few times in past several days. The afternoon was really hot…Drank a lot of water, sweat some more. Our legs are feeling better–still tired, but not the weird soreness we had in the mountains. Butts are about the same–there are good days and bad. In the afternoon we also ran into 2 guys who are riding from Santa Cruz, CA. They were complaining about the Ozarks but everything we’ve read says the Appalachians are worse. We shall see. We planned to camp at one of the many campsites in or near the Rough River State Park but most of them were closed due to high water levels. We’d heard through the cross-country-cyclist-rumor-mill that there was an airstrip nearby…we found it easily and camped here for the night. The only guidelines: camping on grass only. Guess we will have to save our dream of camping on the tarmac for another day.

  • Starting point: near Hodgenville, KY
  • Ending point: near Falls of Rough, KY
  • Slept: more like lay in our own sweat all night (camped)
  • Miles: 57.2
  • Average speed: 10.7
  • Notes: hot

Day 23: near Falls of Rough, KY to Sebree, KY
June 8, 2011

23 days in and Hillary finally prevailed on getting an early start. We left the airstrip at 7am and had a nice, less sweaty morning. Another perk of getting up early is that we saw tons of turtles sunning themselves rather than the usual turtle roadkill. We stopped for second breakfast and water at around 9am–it was nice to have 20+ miles behind us by then. The rest of the day was really, really hot. We had picnic lunch outside a convenience store and then sweat through the afternoon. We pulled into Sebree a little after 4pm and found the Baptist Church which runs a bike hostel in it’s rec room downstairs. We were REALLY happy to have clean showers and air conditioning. Violet, the pastor’s wife invited us (5 cyclists in total) over for a huge dinner of salad, chicken, rice, green beans, and PIE. After dinner we chatted with Violet and looked at her cyclist guestbook and memorabilia (including an article about a guy who rode his Penny Farthing across the country wearing a pith helmet and carrying a riding crop to fend off dogs). The elderly neighbor had a thing for Hillary “I bet you’re real nice to travel with.” Also, Violet’s husband Bob went to seminary in Mill Valley.

  • Starting point: near Falls of Rough, KY
  • Ending point: Sebree, KY
  • Slept: church / bike hostel
  • Miles: 74.25
  • Average speed: 10.3
  • Notes: Hillary’s butt hurts. Bad. Andrew’s lower back hurts.

Photos: Hillary and a buggy, Mennonite, camping at the airstrip, turtle search and rescue, lots o’ food