23 miles of Hills and Hello Kansas

So at the hostel last night I was told by the host and like 4 notes around the building that there was only 23 miles of hills left. After a month of constant climbing and descending with over 95582 ft of up and 94729 ft of down I am done with hills and for the next 600 miles have a total of 5000 ft of up and 4700 ft of down. Its going to be gloriously flat. I'll get bored of it in no time I'm sure but at the end of all that beautiful flat land is going to be the rocky mountains. Not counting the ease of riding on flats I think what I'm really looking forward to not having to freak out every time a car passes me on a blind hill. Every time I'm just waiting for the knee jerk reaction of them swerving out of an oncoming car from the blind hill into me or actually hitting a car on the blind hills. It hasn't happened yet but there have been several close calls.

Anyway turns out flats are easy. Very easy. I was rolling along at 16 mph most of the day. Turns out riding at 16mph on a loaded touring bike on flat ground is actually very tiring. Especially when you run into a head wind. I'm going to have to pace myself in the future but its just so nice and easy.

Up and Down and Up

So I think today's hills were the worst of the entire trip. The big steep hills of virginia were just that Big and Steep.  You could just set up granny gear then grind them out until the body said take a rest. Do this a couple times and you're done. The hills in Kentucky were shorter were still long enough that shifting gears and grinding them out worked. Illinois and Missouris hills until today were more like one of those terrible old wooden roller coasters; you grind slowly to the top then a fast bumpy ride down that takes you almost all the way up the next hill.


The first half of today's ride was actually quite nice. I could have easily made it last night had I pushed on. The second half of the ride had the hills.Today's hills were not like any of the previous ones. First off they were Steep. Steep enough to require max granny gear for basically all of them. Secondly they were short. So short that by the time you started to get in a climbing groove you were done. Thirdly they were space out far enough that any momentum you got from grinding up the previous hill was gone by the time you reached the next. Oh and throw in a headwind which they hills were to short to block except for a very short period of the climb making it practically impossible to get in a groove. Rinse and repeat for 25 miles and that was the second half of my day.

Luckily I reached the small town of Ash Grove and decided to take a break and wait for the wind to die down before moving on. They had a really nice community park with a pool and a biker hostel to boot. Needless to say I didn't ride on.

Trees down and many miles

So yesterday's storm knocked a few trees down and had debris all over the road. The road itself wasn't all that bad but the shoulder was covered in bits of trees. Not that big a deal but they would cover up the actual dangerous items like broken glass, rusty nails, and metal shards that I normally would see on the shoulder. Unfortunately the picture I took of the debris didnt come out since I was playing with my camera last night and had the settings all messed up. I eventually figured out what  the issue was but by then most of the debris had blown away.

Not much to say about today's ride other than I put some tracks down. Seriously made some miles. All told I did 86 miles with a buncha hills mixed in. I was feeling good enough at the end of the day that I was contemplating going for my first century but the guys ahead said the next section has some nasty hills. Additionally the town I was in supposidly would let you camp in the city park or fair grounds. This was contrary to every sign I saw in the parks and I couldn't get a hold of anyone from the city or police to confirm. Whatever, I was tired and just setup camp inside a park pavilion and figured if they wanted to kick me out they would.

Heat + humidity = tornados

I want to do a big day today to try catch up with the other guys. I got on the road by 6 partly due to trying to make miles but partly because the store in town I was planning on buying breakfast from doesn't open for another hour and a half. Time to find out if I can bike 20 miles on a granola bar(not a problem).

The scenery today was better than yesterday. I don't know how they do it but the rivers here are some of the clearest I've ever seen. They are on par with the glacier melt rivers. One river even had a blueish tint to it. I rode past the Ozark trail. Missouri's long distance hiking trail. It's defiantly being added to my list but the timing will require some research. If the humidity is like today with summer time heat I'd defiantly die trying to hike that.

Thanks to the oppressive humidity and a bit of heat I was moving slowly. I made it to the town of Summerville right before 1pm. That gave me just enough time to goto the local library and get the Wi-Fi password so I could check the weather. My 4g data has been amazing but since I entered the Ozarks I've only had 1g. Thanks to that I've not been able to keep up on the weather. Today was supposed to have bad thunderstorms but not until 3pm. So I wanted to get a feel for the storms and see if I could make the 22 miles to the next town.

I wouldn't have made it. Maybe if I was fresh and had ridden straight there I might have. But after the library stop and a refill at the local gas station there was no way. I debated back and forth over staying vs going before getting an update from my dad saying the storm which looked like it was going north of me expanded and was heading straight for me.

I managed to get a single bedroom cabin from the local youth center right as it started. Boy did it ever start. There were 70+ mph winds, lightning everywhere, and buckets of rain. Unlike the previous storms on this trip it just kept coming. 3 times the storms came through crazier than the previous. The one at 1130 pm had a thunder so loud it shook my cabin enough to wake me up. Good times. I spent most of the night sitting on the porch or just inside watching the mayhem. No tornados where I was but there was one just 20 miles north of the town I was heading for.

Shots done!

I lucked out as a couple doing a slack pack came to the hostel last night and offered me a ride up to the hospital outpatient center which saved me an extra 25 miles of riding! Thanks to them I can get to my targeted location of Ellington which has a hostel and I don't have to try find a campsite on memorial day weekend.

The ride today was beautiful but challenging. I'm back in the mountains again, the Ozarks. That means great scenery and big hills. Not really that big but still steep enough for me to walk up a few. I'm unsure of the hills are actually that steep or of hanging out with walkers and the relatively flat terrain of the last week has ruined my determination and judgement of what's rideable and what's too steep. I know I rode up steeper hills in Virginia but since these ones are only like 100 or 200 ft high going 2.5 mph walking vs 3.5 mph riding just doesn't seem worth it to me.

Thanks to the mountains, rivers, and late start it took me most of the day to get to Ellington. I am not sure if the road I'm on is actually this busy or if it's just because of the holiday. Either way it seems like every 5 minutes or so another truck towing a couple atvs came flying by me at 70 mph with no room to spare. Once I got past the turns to the parks the traffic died down but I really don't like riding on 60 mph roads with no shoulder.

I learned a new term today Shut-In(see picture). There was a state park with a Shut-In that is apparently extremely popular around here. I guess the pools and cascades would be excellent on a hot summer day. With how clear the rivers are I was very tempted too go for a dip but the  wounds on my legs kept me out.

Zero for bike fixes

So my bike was making odd noises after the coal truck incident. Whenever my bike was tilted to the right it'd make a clicking sound. It didn't matter if I was coasting or pedalling. I couldn't figure it out so I had to take it to the shop. The shop was closed on Wednesdays so I had to wait until today. It was due for a tune up anyway. Turns out some of the rear wheel spokes were loose. I hadn't checked that hurray for experts. I also made arrangements to get my last shot without going to an ER tomorrow so zero it is.

Hello Missouri

So right when I rode into Chester last night I ran into some other cyclists. Jim and Keith who I had lost after going up to Owensboro for a rabies shot. There was another cyclist with them, Bobby. They had kinda escorted me into town last night since 4 cyclists were enough to give the coal trucks a pause, but only a pause.

Anyway this morning we got up and moving early because we had heard the bridge across the Mississippi was worse than highway 3. I think if there weren't 4 of us it probably would have. But Keith was in the back with his gopro on recording everything and we didn't share the road so there was no issues.

The ride today was enjoyable. Having company, with mostly flat terrain, and even a tailwind! I even gotta experience an NP junction in person(engineering humor). Course all good things must come to an end. But not today. When we got to the town of Farmington what awaited us is the best hostel on the ride and possibly anywhere I've stayed. It was built in any old jail that had been remodeled the upstairs by the city into a 14 bunk hostel. Really well done, clean, comfortable, and convenient to everything in town. The people in town were extremely nice and welcoming. If there was a vote for best town on trail this would be mine.

45 miles of fun 5 miles of hell

It's amazing how easy it is to ruin a beautiful day. The morning started out nice. The afternoon was any amazing cruise in the Mississippi flood plain. But then there was 5 miles along a highway with coal trucks. I was run off the road by one and wiped out so another trip to a doctor yay. He decided on no stiches after much hemming and hawing and just cut away the skin that was gouged out by my chainring. So I'm in Chester the home of Popeye but stuck in the hostel since it's raining and my leg hurts. 

Amazing sunrise

Amazing sunrise. I woke up just in time to see the beautiful sunrise. After playing with several different settings on my camera I think I like the pop picture the best.

Pop

 

High Dynamic

I forget soft tones maybe?

The riding was a nice easy uneventful ride on low traffic back roads with almost no hills. I went up over tunnel hill so I took the little detour to visit the tunnel in the hill.

I rode to crab orchard wildlife preserve where there were two campsites. The first one was nice tents only right on a lake. Unfortunately while I was looking at the campsites a tick crawled on me which instantly ended my desire to stay there. The next campground was 5 miles down the road with rvs but there was a "Tenters" hill so I basically had a section all to myself.

Hello Illinois

If all of Kentucky was like today I'd never want to leave. But it's so goodbye and good riddance. The easy riding from yesterday continued and I finished the 50 miles to get out of Kentucky buy noon. I think I was ready to leave that state.

The ferry across the Ohio river was running for free so I didn't have to caulk my bike and float it. It took me to the amazing town of cave in a rock which you'll never guess what they feature.

Illinoisians have an amazing naming sense cause up next was the river road and tomorrow tunnel hill.

I don't know what it is but there is something around here that I'm allergic to.   The last few days around 3pm it feels like someone took a brillo pad to my throat. I've got some zyrtec and took some of that and we'll see if the issue goes away. Along those lines I got something in my right eye which seriously irritated it. It was so bad that I couldn't even ride. The next town I got to didn't have anyplace I could stop so I had to do 6 more miles riding with one eye.

I was a bit worried about that town since there was a sign on the road saying there was a campground but I couldn't find anything about it anywhere. There was a really nice campground right on the Ohio river. Definitely the nicest spot I've camped yet.

Storm salvation

Not much to day about the trip to the ER. Got in took 4 hours got a shot and left. So I got on the road around 11 am. Stopped off for a bad all you can eat(AYCE) bbq lunch and cruised through some shady neighborhoods thanks to Google before finally making it out of town.

I wanted to get to the town of Marion which was about 50 miles away. However the thunderstorms and Google had other ideas. Looking at the map it was a simple straight shot along route 56, not too busy with a small shoulder, to get me back on trail. Google in its wisdom decided to put me on some farmers back roads which were rolling hills. I went from averaging 14 mph on the route 56 to 8 on the Google route. Someday I'll learn to ignore Google for biking. But it worked ok in the city, I got out without dying so that counts as ok.

Right after I have up on Google the line of thunderstorms I had been watching all day rolled in. This was a band of orange and red storms which is something I don't want to ride in. Luckily right as it really started to pour and I got soaked through on my front side and was starting to look like a "drowned dog" a Catholic church appeared. There was just enough space under the porch awning to keep me and the bike dry. After about 2 hours of this there was a window in the storm which would let me get to the town of Sebree where a Baptist church ran a free hostel with all the amenities. I rolled up under their awning right as it started to rain again.

I'm not sure if it was riding on the busy highway, the caffeine, the storms, or the long breaks but I made great time. My average mph was 13. Yesterday it was at 10, eastern Kentucky and Virginia was like 8.

To a hospital

So I had to head off trail to goto the nearest hospital to get my next rabies shot. The thing that is bothering me is the only spot I can get a shot from is an ER. I've tried calling the local doctors, urgent care, health department, and even the outpatient ward of the hospital but none of them are able to give me the shot. The 2nd shot I got in berea was through their outpatient ward and took all of 45 min to do. Most of that time was watching me to make sure there was no negative reaction. Additionally the ER visits have a 300 copay vs 50 or 20 for everything else. So frustrating.

Anyway I headed up to the town of Owensboro so I could visit their ER tomorrow for my booster. The first half the day was on the route and was peaceful. The 2nd half was not. After I made it to town I had a quick pit stop at a LBS to get my chain cleaned and tires inflated and pick up a tire pressure gauge. My rear tire was at 45 psi when it should be at 70. After talking with them my plan to stay at the cheap hotel was changed and I'm stayingin a 120 Marriott so as to not get shot or robbed.

Welcome to Kansas I mean western Kentucky

Miles of flat farmland with a strong wind and high heat. That's what I picture when I think of Kansas. That is what I experienced today.

1000 miles! I've now covered 1000 miles on this trip  since leaving my house counting all the side trips. Actual trail miles is only like 900 but I've had a few detoursand bonus miles added on.

Early in the morning I ran into two more cyclists. I knew they were around since on my way out of Berea I had been told they were only any hour or two ahead of me but after two days with no sign I didn't think I'd encounter them.

We stuck together for the day. Eventually crossing the timezone. Having an extra hour of riding was nice but we reached out destination, a nice campground on a lake by 4pm local time. Calling it a day so early seemed off to me but since I had company and only had 46 miles tomorrow I figured why not.

Sifting gears

Easy. That is the only way to describe today's ride. Nice easy rolling hills. The only difficult part was trying to figure out the correct gear to use. I think I shifted more times. Today than in all of eastern Kentucky.

Today was a great day for touristing. First off was Lincoln's ancestral home??? Wtf its a replica of a house his dad lived in for a few years. Waste of time. The cabin was neat though since it was replicated in traditional style. Next up was the makers mark distillery. Neat especially watching them put the wax on the bottles by hand and their new customized bourbon barrels. Finally was Lincoln's boyhood home. Another reproduction, disappointing. However I ended up camping there and spent a couple hours sitting on a park bench watching a sea of fireflies blinking. If the park wasn't lit up like a pro sports field I would say it's the best place to go watch fireflies. I was very tempted to hit the light switch to get a better firefly experience but that might have got me in trouble since I wasn't supposed to be camping there.

Goodbye Appalachia

Got my 2nd rabies shot early this morning then hit the road. Or that was the plan anyway. I didn't actually get moving until 11. It was a "short" day of only 46 miles to the next city. There were no more big hills just nice easy rolling hills. You go up 30 ft. You go down 30 ft. All day long nice and gentle like. The patches of farmland with lots of forests became lots of farmland with patches of forests. The traffic was light to non existent. When I did encounter it the drivers were courteous and patient. There were no dogs to speak of. I did  encounter a few here or there but their driveways were so long that by the time the dogs reached the road I was out of their territory. There was one sad dog note, about 10 miles outside of Berea I saw a dead dog on the side of the road. A simple leash and the doggie would still be alive. Ah well.

The day ended up being hotter than I expected but I was lucky enough to find a new unlisted tail angle right at the hottest part of the day who had shade and water setup.

Dog attack and zeros

Going into Kentucky I had heard about how bad the dogs were. I thought it was an exaggeration by people afraid of dogs. Until 5 miles from Berea I had only encountered one bad dog. There were a few loose packs that would have probably been bad if Biff hadn't been through spraying the big aggressive ones with his bear spray already.

The way I put myself in a position to be bit  is a long series of events over the day. First is Alex's fear of dogs. To help him out I've been distracting the dogs while he rides by. This has worked well except one or two cases. In one of the cases that it didn't work a stupid chiwowah type dog just wouldn't leave us alone. It's entire family was outside yelling at it to no avail. Since we were on the far side of the road from the dogs house it was in the middle of the road. Eventually a car comes and almost runs over the chiwowah right in front of the 10 year old girl. So after that I've been distracting the dogs by crossing the street and waiting for Alex to pass.

At the end of the day with only 5 miles left of the 68 we were riding I got bit. It was the same situation I'd seen all day. A stupid dog sees us and runs straight at us about to cross a busy road. I do what I've usually done and cross the street toward it. At this point 3 more dogs come sprinting out from behind the house, a mom and 2 puppy pit bulls, and another old one slowly wanders over. I am now stopped on the side of the road with 5 dogs barking at me. I'm not worried since they aren't strays.

Unfortunately there were some puppies. One of the puppies comes over and bites my left leg. Not really a bite just a little nip but it was enough to draw blood and surprised me enough that I drew my leg back in instinct. Without my leg to support me I fall over. I'm now on the ground surrounded by 5 snarling dogs with a bike lying on my leg. I'm hindsite it was a very dangerous situation but at the time all I was thing was "that stupid dog bit me. I'm going to beat the living shit out of it."

I launch myself out from under the bike scraping my left knee up on the asphalt and punch the dog that started everything hard with my right fist. I ended up cutting up my hand through my bike gloves on the dogs teeth but that one stopped barking and backed off. I then chase the little bitch that bit me and kick her with a full swing. She dodged a bit but I still hit her hard. I chase her for a few more steps when I notice the other puppy sneaking around behind me so I try kicking it but miss. The dogs are now keeping their distance so I start looking for weapons to hit or throw at them. There is a foot long 2x4 lying on the ground and some rocks.

At this point the trailer trash owner's adult daughter finally comes out and Alex charges in and maces the old dog. There is only the 2nd puppy and mother that are still being aggressive and ignoring the owner. So normally I don't bad mouth people but when the first words out of your mouth after being told your dog bit someone is "I ain't got no money" not "are you ok" or "where'd it bite you" or "should I call an ambulance" it's hard not to consider you anything but piece of a trailer trash.

I call the cops and get a report filed. Get checked out by an ems who thinks going to an urgent care in the morning will be fine. Then get back on the bike and ride 5 more miles to town. After getting some advice from a doctor friend and my vet sister I decide to goto the ER to get checked out. When there we decide to start the rabies vaccine since the puppy was too young to be vaccinated yet and was running around loose. That means I need to get booster shots on the 3rd, 7th, and 14th day. That's going to be fun to deal with since the only place that has the vaccine is ERs. Goodbye all my extra money.

At this point its 330 am and I have to walk a mile and a half back to the hotel. Needless to say tomorrow is going to be a zero. If I stay in town for a 2nd zero I'll be able to get my 2nd shot from the hospital's outpatient center instead of the ER and save a bit of money there.

Beautiful days and bad dogs

Perfect day to ride. Absolutely perfect. Cool temps in upper 60s and sunny. The terrain is transitioning from the Appalachian mountains into the flatlands. A very subtle transition at first. The climbs became shorter, just as steep but shorter. Instead of spending an hour going up it was more like 20 minutes. Then occasionally instead of nothing but trees an open field would happen alongside the roads. The longer the day went the more fields and less trees. The hills became shorter, and somehow even steeper. There was no wind and only cute white fluffy clouds that would add character to the crystal clear blue skies.

We set out to do 70 miles so we could get to the civilized town of Berea. I was in desperate need of a shower and laundry, particularly the laundry. While the other two wanted to get to a bike shop. To bad there is no bike shop in Berea which boggles my mind since its a college town on the Transam.

The riding was easy and lazy the only thing slowing us down was Alex's fear of dogs. Since it is Kentucky and they don't have things like leash laws here the dogs are extra annoying. Until the end of the day I had only one dog that I was actually worried about. All of the others just wanted to play or protect their territories and left me alone once I was outside their range. Of course with Alex's phobia the littlest yippy dog or the cuddliest lab was still a terrifying monster. So I was acting  as a buffer/screen for most of the dogs.