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We spent 14 days in Kentucky, and rode 496 miles.
Now we were riding on very narrow winding roads with a lot of steep climbs. The roads were lined by trees, and there was quite a bit more traffic. The views were terrific, and the people were just as friendly. On our first day in Kentucky we met up with a truck driver, who gave us a lovely poem he had written, and a young State Trooper and his wife, who gave us a badge as a memento of our long conversation with them.
That first night we stayed in a hostel in a college campus. We had a very good meal in the canteen for just a few dollars. We also met up with some other cyclists who were on the same route as us.
As we wound our way along we found ourselves in coal country, the open cast mines were a real blight on the countryside, the roads were covered in coal dust, the rain had turned into black sludge, which clogged up our chains, and brakes. The roads were steep and the coal Lorries were up and down non stop. The guys were very good giving us space and time; we could see them on their radios, letting other truckers know we were on the road. Most of them gave us a toot and a friendly wave, as for the others well, we would rather not know what they were saying.
We were more than happy to be out of coal country, it was quite depressing, and hard riding, we had quite a few wet days and one of the very few road incidents, where three young lads spun their pick up truck into a ditch while showing of, the only injury incurred was to the drivers pride, and a few more dents in the truck.
As we reached central Kentucky's Bluegrass Region, the scenery opened up more with farms and pastures. The roads were not so busy, and the vistas were wide and pleasant, with roller coaster roads. Plenty of coffee stops, but no chance of a cold beer, because a lot of the counties are dry. (That took some getting used to)
The fields were full of cattle, and horses, and their young. There were turtles every where, we were forever stopping to get them off the roads, unfortunately there was a lot of road kill which was a real shame. We came across some box turtles, but they looked very fierce so they had to save themselves. We had been warned about wild dog packs in Kentucky, and had armed ourselves with pepper spray but although we were chased a few times by dogs we found that squirting them with water was enough to send them on their way.
Meals were becoming a real art now, we could find fresh food easily and Jeff was turning out some real gourmet dishes, even on the night the heavens opened. I felt a little stab of guilt, sitting in the tent nice and dry waiting for my food, while Jeff was soaked to the skin.
In Kentucky we did a bit of time travel. We hit a hill, the grade was so steep I fell off my bike, and had to push it to the top. Jeff made it all the way (just) on that hill we crossed a time zone, and gained an hour, but boy did it hurt.
A lot of churches offered accommodation to cyclists. So did the local fire stations. They have log books for the bikers to write comments, advice, route changes or messages. It was very interesting reading the comments of those who had been that way ahead of us; we were getting messages from people that had passed us by.
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