Day 8: The Finish Line

June 13, 2021

Harrodsburg to Berea

Day 8 the final day of our adventure.

We actually went to bed early last night and we both slept well. We were up just before the alarm went off, got our stuff together and got dressed in our matching kits. We had picked a place to eat breakfast and when we double checked to see what time they opened and were disappointed to find out they didn’t open until 11:00 on Sundays. So we had breakfast at the DQ next to the motel and it was just fine.

We were on the road by 7:04 and it was a cool 68 degrees. I rode with Peter, to the “friendly town” of Burgin, and thoroughly enjoyed the ride. As usual, I rode back to the motel where I read my devotion, took a shower, packed the car and headed out to find Peter. It took me awhile, only because I made several wrong turns. I finally found him about 30 miles out, right after he had finished his second big climb. There was fortunately a place to pull off the road so I could replenish Peter’s water. According to Peter, I arrived in the nick of time because he was almost out of water. He was elated to have the iced Smart water to keep him from knocking on stranger’s doors. While we were stopped, Anthony, another West bounder stopped to visit for a few minutes. He was now riding solo after his friend had a close call with a car and decided to quit. As Anthony and Peter were talking about the bike trail they discovered the maps were different, Anthony had the 2015 version and Peter the 2019. Peter said he was glad he had the newer version because it included one of his favorite parts of the ride today.

After leaving Peter I slowly made my way to Berea, again, missing a few more turns. As it turned out I managed to follow the 2015 trail which unfortunately missed Peter’s favorite part of the ride. Nevertheless, the entire time I was driving, I was wishing I was on my bike and except for the heat this would have been my favorite ride of the trip.

Once in Berea, I found a great parking spot directly in front of the Historic Boone Tavern Hotel and Restaurant, our meeting spot. I wandered around a little, then parked myself on a chair outside a closed coffee shop and started listening to my book while following Peter’s progress on my Life 360 app. I was so excited when I saw him approaching from a distance and proud of him for finishing this 400 mile adventure.

Peter’s final ride…

According to Peter, about 30 miles outside of Berea was probably the most beautiful part of the ride for him, and possibly the most beautiful of the whole 400 miles. However, things got very interesting on this part of the ride. There were 14 road changes, sporadic road signage and TA bike trail signage…he was very grateful for the TA bike trail map and google maps. The Trans American map showed the mileage, which was spot on, between each turn and that helped tremendously. What made this ride so great was that the roads were narrow, shaded, deserted, and ran along creeks. Peter particularly enjoyed all the road changes because he likes the challenge of navigating.

Peter particularly liked rolling into downtown Berea and said he got excited when he saw me waiting for him at the finish line. We proceeded to get his bike on the car, grab his clothes and then walk over to the Boone Tavern for a spit bath and lunch.

Peter actually asked the desk clerk if he could take a shower in a room that hadn’t yet been cleaned. The clerk was very pleasant and said she would check…unfortunately all the rooms were already cleaned, so spit bath is was. Peter stripped to his waist in the men’s room and used his bandanna soaked it in water and wiped off the sweat. Fortunately, only one man walked in on Peter as he was preforming this procedure.

We were looking forward to eating lunch in the dining room at Boone’s Tavern but we were turned away because we didn’t have a reservation. Peter then asked for the phone number so he could call for a reservation, after a few stutters from the hostess she informed us they were unable to do it that way…oh well! We walked down the street and found Papa Leno’s and had a delicious lunch, lasagna for me and meatball sandwich for Peter.

After an 1.5 hour drive through some scattered thunderstorms we arrived home. Peter was especially happy to see Cay, it was the longest he has ever been separated from her.

All in all it was a great adventure even though it didn’t turn out exactly as planned, it turned out the way it was supposed to.