June 14 – 15th - Berea, KY to Bardstown, KY to Hogenville, KY

Mileage: 95ish, 40ish
Terrain: Hilly
Temperature: 77 ish degrees
Woke up knowing that I had a long day ahead of me being a little over 90 miles. Got on the road at about 7:45 am and the first water stop was supposed to be about 35 miles out well kept riding and about 35 miles realized that there was no water stop so pulled over at a closed small town store and had a cliff bar to eat, man am I getting tired of force feeding myself cliff bars!! We then realized that we were almost out of water so looked around and found a spicket behind the house next door filled up and were on our way. At about mile 46 we came into a town and had a rest and then moved on. We also found out that one of our fellow riders had tipped over there bike and scrapped up there arm so that is why they weren’t at the first water stop. As we were riding along we saw the mini van (we have 2 support vehicles a mini van and then the big van and trailer) along side of the rode with some of our riders. Found out that one of the older guys had two dogs come out and chase him and one got caught up under his wheel and threw him off of his bike. They took him to the ER to have him checked out and nothing but scrapes. He was lucky enough to be dismissed to ride. One of our fellow riders went to the door and no one was home to inform of their dogs unruly activity. Rode on and at about mile 75 came upon Lincolns’ Parents homestead which was where the 3rd water was supposed to be, and no one was there so I had some food from my bag used the restrooms there and then the trailer showed up as we were pulling out. Stopped said hey and began moving on. We find things to keep ourselves entertained along the way and one of our fellow riders, Ethan, was riding along and all of the sudden a ground hog came out of its hole and must have hissed at him and scared him so we joked around about it for a while and tease him about the ground hog hissing at him continually. By mile 80 I was getting pretty tired and then finally I could tell that we were getting to the outskirts of Bardstown, KY we decided that it was necessary to hit up a tavern in this town since we had been through dry towns for the last almost week. Got some food and chilled out due to the trailer not being at the park that we were staying at. Chilled out there with many of our fellow riders for a few hours and then decided that we still had not eaten enough and were getting hungry again so stopped by McDonalds for some ice cream and then went to the park and by this time it was about 9:00 pm got my tent set up grabbed a quick shower and went to bed. It was a long fun day of touring!!
Woke up this morning at about 5:45 am and went to the rest room realized no one was up yet and went back to bed. We had discussed that since today was going to be a short day of an estimated 44 miles that there was no need to rush out in the morning and that we had plenty of time. However, we are supposed to have all of our stuff in the trailer by 8:00 am so figured we would do this and then get breakfast somewhere in town. Well woke up again at about 7:00 am peaked out of my tent and realized that the majority of people had already packed up their tents and were getting ready to head out. I was so confused and then found out that a storm was rolling in very quickly. Began frantically getting my things together and about 7:45 am it started to rain very hard. This was just as I had begun to take down my tent. So some of my fellow riders had already gone to McDonalds down the road to get breakfast and wait out the rain. I had decided that it was raining and lightening too hard and just rode up to the welcome/ gift shop for the park/golf course that we were staying at. Hung out there with some of my fellow riders for about three hours and watched the weather. It was rather comfy there with comfy couches and coffee. Then decided that most of the storm was through and took off for the first and only rest stop at 27 miles. Discussed that there wasn’t a lot to do in the town where we are staying and someone had asked if it was another dry town. Our guide didn’t know but had pointed out that there was a liquor store right across the street so some of my fellow riders took up the opportunity to get some bourbon which is distilled in the area. (Once we got into town found out that it was once again a dry county.) Had a bite to eat and then road 10 miles to a BP station that one of our fellow riders who was ahead of us had tweeted us that they had make your own soft serve ice cream cones for a dollar. So we thought we had to have some stopped and had a very large ice cream cone chilled out and talked to some locals and quoting one of the toothless locals “Yeah, Kentucky’s a shit hole.” Needless to say, the country side has actually turned out to be quite beautiful and more so as we go west. Also I failed to mention eastern Kentucky has many coal mines and the trucks are known to be terrible and ruthless. We were very lucky to get this part of the state out of the way on a Saturday and Sunday. Finally we got to the pavilion that we are staying at outside of a school, got a shower inside the school and found out that we can lay our sleeping mats out in the gym after 9:00 pm once they are done playing basketball. Had some dinner, PB&J on 12 grain bread…mmmmmmm!!!!!! Getting ready for bed tomorrow, should be a fairly short day tomorrow of 50 some miles with a few challenging hills with grades up to 17%!!! Things are really starting to flatten out, defiantly not flat but not as long or big of hills as previously. Three more ridding days and we will be in Carbondale, IL and then have a rest day on Sunday. I cannot believe that soon we will be in our third state!!