Day 15 - Getting to the Cumberland Gap - Touring on an electrified Crank Forward bike

July 30, 2021

Day 15 - Getting to the Cumberland Gap

Today's ride was all on US 25E which is the Cumberland Parkway here. Many parts of it have local names, but it is consistently a 4 lane divided highway with, almost always, good shoulders. It also has a lot of big truck traffic and quite a lot of hills. Today's ride started at about 9 AM and ended about 3 PM. My night at the Super 8 in Corbin was made stressful by my being given a room with a totally non cooing AC. Yesterday was one of the hottest days of the year and my room was way to warm for good sleeping.

When I pointed this no cooling issue out to the folks in charge, they, after agreeing that the AC didn't work, ended up telling me that 'the big boss is not here' and without his OK, I was in that hot room but nobody was willing to fix my problem. The obvious solution was moving me to a room with working AC. I worked in that hot room till it was getting on time to go to bed. Then I went out to the office to register a final complaint.

The young man who was on duty at 8:30 and I had had several pleasant interactions earlier in the evening and he apparently decided - finally! - that he would take the initiative to try to fix my problem. At close to 9 PM - my bed time these days - I moved to the room next door (!) where the air conditioning worked. That should have happened several hours earlier, and the fact that it hadn't certainly didn't help me get to sleep quickly, but i did end up getting a decent nights sleep which I needed for my ride today.

During the night there were several thunder storms and, when I looked out this morning. the ground was wet and there were big puddles. I checked the weather forecast and it looked good, so I had a decent breakfast - this was the first of several Super 8's I've stayed in on this trip that , despite the fact that they all still advertise "Free Hot Breakfast" that actually offered one! Apparently the corporation is OK with individual motels deciding not to do what they say they are going to do.

I had a somewhat interesting conversation with a 52 yr old woman who is in the process of moving back from 'up north' which is everything on the other side of the Ohio River. That is how she defined it and she has been living in Ohio for 30 years. She is also anti-vax and may - we didn't go there - support some currently popular conspiracy theories. She teaches special-ed kids and has 'several masters degrees.'

Visiting with her was enjoyable and helped me take god advantage of the breakfast offerings. It also meant that I didn't get on the road till after 9 AM. Riding at 9 PM was comfortable, but riding in mid afternoon was not.

Nice riding on 25E, especially compared to riding on US 25 between Corbin and London

i took this image for my own purposes but decided it might have some usefulness to others riding on US 25 E. i think US going between Corbin and London is dangerous to ride. This road, which is the only alternative way to get to London from US 25E, is probably better, especially for someone on an e-bike. It was lovely riding for a good while but then got very steep and I ran into heavy traffic near London. The heavy traffic may have just been rush hour and the steep hill problem wouldn't be there on an e-bike, so I'm likely to try this road again the next time i ride this route.

I accidentally got a recreational traffic mix in this image. Those are an SUV, a motorcycle, and a truck towing a fancy speedboat at the start of a downhill

This image shows a tiny bit of debris on a clean shoulder. That was the usual conditions on this ride, but there was a terrible section coming steeply down hill before Pineville where the shoulder was covered with truck tire debris for half a mile or more. It looked like a whole series of truck tires had self destructed and made me both very cautious as I carefully tried to avoid as much of it as possible and very concerned that I might wake up to flat tires tomorrow.

Big trucks passing each other on a hill in very pretty country.

Climbing out of Pine Valley. It is a long hard climb.

My bike at the end of the riding day. The tires are still holding air...

Today's ride: 46 miles (74 km)
Total: 625 miles (1,006 km)

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