May 28, 2006
Day 18: Berea to Harrodsburg: Hot, Hot, Hot
Woke up to the alarm I'd set in an attempt to beat today's predicted 90 degree temperatures, but somehow I still was slow getting ready, and it didn't help that the tent and everything else was soaked in heavy, heavy dew or that a bird had pooped on my saddle cover (why me? that's twice on this trip!)
I left camp and attempted to find the shortcut on Opossum Kingdom Road (no, not joking) I'd been told about, but the shortcut didn't end up being much shorter after I had to backtrack. Since I'd gotten in the evening of the previous day and didn't end up backtracking through town, I didn't see as much of Berea as I'd hoped. Farewell Berea. I never really knew you anyway.
Today was blessedly less hilly--rolling farmlands and wooded areas. I rode with the radio for the first time today and that seemed to keep me moving a little faster. My average speed is still deplorable, but I got some good miles in in the morning.
Jack Turner road was this little single-lane cutoff that makes the top of my list for roads this trip. A deeply shaded valley of cool shadows and almost all gently downhill for its mile and a half length (sorry EBs--it will be uphill for you...). If I'd had more time, I might have ridden back up it just to ride down again, but the day was getting progressively hotter and hotter.
During one particularly hot section after noon, I stopped in the shade of a church overhang and spotted a garden hose around the corner. Garden hose = water spigot. WooHoo! So I doused my head, bandana and shirt. A slight downhill leaving the church, and I had instant upper body air conditioning.
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Just outside Burgin was a spot for the Burgin Barnstormers--some guys with model airplanes, but only one was interested in going out into the sun to fly. One of the other guys told me to be careful on the curvy roads and how sometimes he didn't know there were bikers around and thought he might run into somebody someday while doing 65 mph out there. It never occurred to him that maybe he shouldn't be doing 65 on a winding two-lane where curves are marked at 25 mph and sometimes less.
In Burgin, I needed some Pepsi badly and ended up chatting with some biker dudes who had also stopped to get out of the sun.
Just a block or so later, I was acosted by some girls selling lemonade. I had wished mightily for a lemonade stand yesterday, but here they were today. I gave them a nice big tip--it was good lemonade.
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Then into Harrodsburg where my knees started hurting for the first time (ironically since it had seemed like an easy day hill-wise). I went into the replica fort at the state park--Kentucky's first settlement or something, still thinking I might make it 20 more miles to the next free camping, but once I got off the bike and walked around, I started realizing how zapped I was from the heat. Someone had said it was 91 or 92 plus very high humidity sending the heat index above 100. Sometimes I'd felt like I was breathing in a sauna.
It was Sunday evening, so I was pretty sure I'd find a church to let me camp out, but the guys at the state park called the local police to find a place for me to camp. The recommended a city park a couple of miles off route (yuk), so I headed that way, but even before getting there, I started to feel uncomfortable about it. And once I got there I knew I didn't want to stay. Too many people around too late in the evening in too big of a space. It would have been fine with other people (and the state park people were under the impression that I was with someone else), but too many people there would see I was alone and it just didn't feel right.
So I backtracked back toward the route to a church I'd seen and spread out my dew-drenched tent on their picnic tables and waited for people to show up for evening service. The first guy that came over was an elder who said it would be no problem for me to camp there out back. His wife, however, told me not to pay attention to him since he would have to consult the other elders before making that decision because "that's how things work around here." He flicked his cigarette ashes to the ground and told me to camp anywhere I wanted to while his wife twittered on about how he wasn't in charge and shouldn't he ask the others since they'd just pulled into the parking lot and what harm would it do to get another opinion. It was very funny to watch him keep ignoring her.
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But the other elders had no problem with it anyway and told me to go cool down in the basement. Made it to the end of the service, and then the preacher's wife told me to just stay inside tonight. It's so nice and cool, I think I'll sleep really well.
Today's ride: 53 miles (85 km)
Total: 816 miles (1,313 km)
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