The news was forecasting record setting heat so we were up at 5:30 and on the road by 6:45. We started off with a long downhill coast into Madison proper. Madison is a very pretty and prosperous looking town.

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The early start made crossing the narrow two lane bridge into Kentucky easy.

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We hit a steep long hill coming out of Folsom at 11:00, right when the heat was starting to really take hold. There was no shade and wouldn't you know it had recently been paved so the asphalt was black, perfect for soaking up the heat to be radiated back up onto any passing cyclists. We saw a guy walking down the hill with a gizmo that looked like it was liberated from the Ghostbusters truck. He claimed he was checking for natural gas leaks along the road. There must not have been any leaks because it was so hot any natural gas would have ignited. At the crest of the hill we continued along on aptly name Dry Ridge Road. There were dips and climbs, but at least a little breeze was detected.

We arrived at an airconditioned Wendy's in the town of Dry Ridge just before noon. We arranged for a hotel room while still at lunch and found one which allowed us to check-in immediately. Although it didn't have a pool, it did have airconditioning and a shower. We took full advantage of both.

Long distance cyclists get used to questions about their tour. While at Wendy's a retired educator/administrator visited our table three times to tell us how much he like his new hobby... cycling around his neighborhood. Another guy in the parking lot told us he cycled a long distance one time but then proceeded to start a lecture about the "Rule of Law". He even handed me a handwritten index card with his lecture points and told me he had given them to the FBI, judges and Congressmen. I'm sure he had.

Much of today's scenery reminded us of our pretty ridges in West Virginia. Drivers have been accomodating and the roads bicycle friendly. The dogs seem demoralized by the heat and aren't really sure how to tackle this tandem followed by a trailer, with a WVU flag on a pole waving in the back. The dogs that do chase seem to take the wrong angle each time. As the tailgunner on the tandem, Rhona is equipped with a can of "Halt" dog spray and over the years of cycling in West Virginia she is pretty accurate. Just to be sure, on this tour, I brought another can for me in the front. Somehow, in the rush to leave we ended up bringing along a third bottle. On a previous tour into Canada we were told we couldn't bring "Halt" into Canada and so we had to dispose of it at the border. Now, we were going to have to dispose of three cans. Wouldn't you know it, we never used even a single spray of "Halt" on this tour...a good problem to have.