May 29, 2006
Day 19: Harrodsburg to Bardstown: Still Hot
Slept like a dead log last night and reluctantly got off the church couch to face a day of forecasted mid-90's. Wanted to take their cold filtered water fountain with me, but it didn't budge. Got ice at a nearby service station and got back on the route. It felt like an Iowa State Fair morning--damp enough to make a bit of a chill but with all the promise of a hot, hot, humid day.
Had a snack and cold peach soda at Rose Hill before 20 service-free and uneventful miles partly spent in the company of National Public Radio.
Springfield brought more needed ice, water, pop, and gatorade and lunch as I headed north to Lincoln Homestead state park. I think the Lincolns would have been puzzled by the persistant thwack of golf balls just yards away.
The next 20 miles were just plan hot. Hot me, hot water, hot pavement, hot agressive dogs. I knew Bardstown was going to be it for me. I needed a real campground with a real shower to scrape the sweaty suntan lotion from my body, a layer which had become a death-trap for any gnats which had gotten too close. And I needed a town with a library to get some of these entries online for my fans!
Donnie was a very helpful campground attendant and bathroom cleaner, but my attempts to speak pseudo-Kentucky have obviously failed since he asked me if I was from Canada. Then I had the best high-pressure shower of the trip. It was like pressure washing the sunscreen off my body. Then fellow camper Roger Lee told me all about raising tobacco and playing horseshoes. 16 cents a stick he got paid for cutting tobacco, so it payed to learn how to cut fast. Load wagons in the evening and hang it in the big barns at dawn the next morning. Quite an education I'm getting on this trip.
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Turtle rescue #3 today. It was a little one, so I calmly instructed him in the ways of the road, but he wasn't paying any attention to me. Young punk.
Today's ride: 53 miles (85 km)
Total: 869 miles (1,399 km)
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