June 20, 2006
Day 19: Rough River Dam State Resort Park to Sebree, KY
73.53 Miles, 6:04:17 Ride Time, 12.28 Average Speed, 34.4 Maximum Speed
I got things together fairly quickly this morning, and was on the road by 7:35. I made a quick stop at the Rough River General Store to load up on honey buns, etc., in lieu of a real breakfast. I asked the woman behind the counter if she had seen any other Westbound cyclists lately. As usually happens when I ask this question, her response was frustratingly vague - there may have been some in the store anywhere from 1 to 5 days ago. I'm just curious at this point about who is riding ahead of me. Except for the few days with Peter, and a few minutes each with the Dutch couple and the college guys, I've ridden by myself the entire trip.
It was already hot, and there were a few hills in the area where I crossed the Rough River. I was already sweating, so I stopped at the Coppage Grocery for a gatorade. Soon I started passing corn fields, which I've come to associate with easy riding on flat ground. I stopped in Whitesville, which had one of the nicest small-town city parks I'd seen in a while. I got a milkshake at a little dairy bar, and talked to a man there who had his young son and daughter with him. He was interested in my trip, so we discussed that for a while. He sent his son (probably around nine years old) back to to the counter to get a small ice cream cone for the little girl (around five years old), and the boy brought back a huge cone. I was thinking, "that thing is bigger than the girl's head", when the father actually said it... that was sort of funny. The little boy protested that he'd ordered a "small" cone - right.
I asked the lady at the place if she would put some water in my bottles; she said sure, and asked if I wanted ice as well. Nice. I continued on a quieter country road for a while, until I crossed over the William H. Natcher Parkway.
It was getting hotter, so I soon stopped at another country store. I was craving dairy for some reason today, so I got chocolate milk in addition to two 32 oz. gatorades. I rode on to Utica, whose fire department is a sometimes-stopping-point for TransAm cyclists (although I was shooting for Sebree, based on Leigh from England's tip). I stopped at the store there, and as an experiment, I got some flavored water instead of gatorade, and didn't like it as much. As I studied my map, one the usual crowd of guys who hang around these stores asked me about the trip, and seemed excited to see Utica on my Adventure Cycling map - "We're on the map" he announced to his buddies as I rode off.
The section from Utica to Sebree seemed long, and was mostly on county roads. I started seeing large farms which apparently had some connection the chicken industry - each of them had a similar sign with the name of the farm, and "Perdue" in smaller letters. I wondered about this for a while - were these independent operations that acted as sub-contractors for Perdue? Well, it seemed interesting to me at the time...
My destination for the day was the First Baptist Church in Sebree. Leigh, the Englishman I had met the first night at Rough River Dam State Park, had strongly recommended it. I had tried to call the number at the church, but got an answering machine. As I got within about ten miles, I tried again, and this time got the Pastor's wife, Violet. She told me it would be fine to just come over, and stop at their house, which was next to the church. Of course, after I hung up, I realized I hadn't actually gotten directions...
I had to cross the Pennyrile Parkway as I got within a few miles of Sebree. I suppose I was coming into town "the back way", and my initial impressions were not that favorable - it seemed kind of industrial-looking and ugly. My first impression probably wasn't helped by the increasingly dark skies and thunder. I stopped at the first gas station, and got directions to the church. I passed a barber shop, which I had been seeking for days, and hoped it would still be open after I found the church and got cleaned up.
I found the church with no problem, knocked on the door of the adjacent house, and met Violet, who immediately gave me an ice-cold Diet Rite soda (this must be a regional thing - I had recently seen several country stores proudly displaying shiny new Diet Rite signs where one would normally expect to see Coca Cola or Pepsi...).
She walked over with me to the church, and showed me the accomodations, which were incredibly nice. Basically, the church allows cyclists to use their youth recreation center in the basement. A room off the main area contains a cyclist-only shower, supplies, and mattresses. This place was nicer than many motels I have stayed in. You would have to be crazy to camp in the city park in Sebree (which some cyclists apparently do) when this is available.
After I got cleaned up, I rode my unloaded bike to the small downtown area. Violet had told me that the local barber sometimes left before his official closing time of 5:00, so I went there first. He was able to take care of me, and told me about an older female cyclist on a recumbent he had met a few days before - sounded like the same person I'd heard about back in Christiansburg, VA.
I walked next door to the soda fountain and had a root beer float. It finally started raining, so I hung around for a while and talked to the high school kid working there, and made some phone calls home. I heard a siren, which the boy nonchalantly informed was the town's tornado warning - apparently they get a lot of false alarms, and he didn't seem concerned.
Sure enough, it soon stopped raining, and I walked a couple of doors down to a pizza place, a typical local hangout (one of the many signs on the wall said "free pizza tomorrow"). I tried to order a 10 inch pizza, but the waitress suggested I order a 12 inch pizza, which cost less (?). Rather than question this, I readily agreed.
While I waited for my food, a group of people came in and sat at the table next to me - two adult couples and two early-twenties girls. As I ate my pizza (good), I semi-eavesdropped on their fairly lively conversations (they seemed to have several going on simultaneously, in addition to several cell phone calls). It was oddly interesting to listen to this stuff, knowing that I would ride out tomorrow, and probably never see this town again.
Afterwards I rode back to the church. I was the only one staying there, and it seemed odd to have such a large space to myself. I fiddled with the television for a while, but could never get it (or the three remote controls) to work; I'm sure the teenagers who frequent the recreation center have got it figured out, however.
There were some thriller-type books lying around (presumably left by previous cyclists), but they all were too long to finish, so I went to bed around 9:00, after one of the best days of the trip so far.
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Today's ride: 74 miles (119 km)
Total: 1,095 miles (1,762 km)
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4 years ago
You might want to check out this journal, another one from 2006, which is more entertaining than mine: https://www.cycleblaze.com/journals/circumtrektion/
That one was written by a woman doing the TransAm solo (except for the first week or so.) Perhaps I'm biased about its quality because I was avidly reading it while I was doing my own tour that year, and although I failed to catch up with her that summer, we met in person the next year, and have now been married for 10+ years.
Have a great ride this summer!
4 years ago
In an odd coincidence, we moved to within about 20 miles of Sebree a couple of years ago. I ride past the Baptist church all the time, and of course I see touring cyclists on the road down there fairly often in the summer.
4 years ago