June 14, 2023
Day Two: Marion, Kentucky to Aurora, Kentucky
For the second night in a row, I didn't sleep well. A loud wall clock ticked, a dog in the neighborhood yapped, and other, unidentifiable noises kept me awake. Also, I couldn't get comfortable on the couch. (The room in the church used as the cyclist hostel contains bunk beds, but I knew from a previous experience staying there that I have a lot of trouble sleeping in bunk beds.)
Wow, I sound like a picky man who requires optimum conditions in order to sleep. Unfortunately, it is true.
I finally got up at 3:40 and did a few chores, then walked across the street to the convenience store and purchased a Diet Pepsi and, for some reason, a small pecan pie, something I haven't eaten since, oh, my last bike tour I guess. I was moving slowly, but I was able to ride out just before 6:00, more than hour earlier than yesterday.
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After taking a few photos of the neighborhood outside the church I rode a mile through town, and the outskirts of town, and onto a country road. Weather was perfect. The first few hours of riding in the morning is a magical time.
Most of the first two hours this morning was on smooth pavement, except for one nice, short gravel section.
After about twenty miles I arrived in Fredonia, population 401.
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This was the first time I'd been to Fredonia. It was not on my usual route from Marion to the Land Between the Lakes, but I'd wanted to try something different this time. Fredonia, at the crossroads of several busy highways, was not very attractive. I walked into a grimy convenience store and searched unsuccessfully for a breakfast sandwich without meat, bought a bag of salted peanuts instead, then sat outside looking at my map.
The route had me riding five miles on what appeared to be, from my vantage point on the bench outside the store, a very unpleasantly busy road.
There didn't appear to be any alternative to this highway, so I decided to abandon my planned route, and connect up with a familiar network of quiet roads to the west.
After several pleasant, traffic-free miles, I arrived in Dycusburg, population 26. I'd ridden through Dycusburg, which is right on the east bank of the Cumberland River, three or four times on bike rides.
There's not much in Dycusburg except for an old, closed country store. I sat on the bench outside the store for a while, then took a few photos.
It was getting hot now, and I was feeling the affects of my mostly-sleepless night. I got back on the bike and continued on the hilly route.
These were very, very nice empty country roads.
I stopped at fire station in the middle of nowhere, and lay in the shade outside for a while. I was very tired. I determined that I urgently needed hot food, and lots of it, when I arrived in Grand Rivers.
After a while I exited the country roads onto a busy highway, and worked up the courage to cross the narrow, imposing bridge over the Cumberland River. I've ridden across the bridge several times before, but traffic seemed busier this morning. I waited for a gap in the traffic and made it across with no difficulty, though.
My favorite café in Grand Rivers was temporarily closed, so I walked into a pizza place, where I was the only customer, and sat down and ordered.
I took my time eating a large cheese pizza while watching the 2005 version of the movie King Kong on one of the two TVs.
The entire time I was there, the three men working at the restaurant repeatedly tried, and failed, to determine how to turn the other TV on ("Give me the remote!"), which was fine with me, since I hate to eat in the presence of multiple blaring televisions.
Back on the road. It was 25 miles to my destination for the day, a motel just outside the Land Between the Lakes. Before lunch I'd determined that I absolutely had to get sleep, and lots of it, so I'd called and made a reservation there.
The Trace Road through the Land Between the Lakes is pleasant, hilly, and a little dull, especially for someone like me who's ridden it many times. I was feeling somewhat energized by the pizza, though, and the miles went quickly.
I exited the LBL and crossed Kentucky Lake on the shoulder of the big new bridge, having missed the entrance to the separated pedestrian/bicycle path, then rode 1/2 mile to my motel, which was a nice enough, older mom-and-pop place. Dinner was a takeout order of hushpuppies and white bean soup from the catfish restaurant directly across from the motel. After a pleasant conversation with a couple who'd ridden their motorcycles from Arkansas earlier in the day, and who complained, as motorcyclists often do, about how tiring riding all day was (ha!), I went to bed before 7:30.
Today's ride: 67 miles (108 km)
Total: 141 miles (227 km)
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