So there isn't much options for places to stay in eastern Kentucky. I can either ride 20 miles or 70. Since I was feeling good the temperatures were cool with no rain until tonight I went for the 70. It was a nice easy day riding. Eastern Kentucky is beautiful country but depressing. The roadsides, rivers, houses, and towns were run down and dirty. Trash everywhere, so many old rundown houses that I no longer found them rustic or charming, and disgusting brown slimy water everywhere.
We were advised that the local tap water wasn't entirely safe to drink. At first I thought it was a ploy to get us to buy bottled water but they were selling a gallon for a dollar so that wasn't it. A little later I saw a notice from the water department indicating there was a high concentration of something and people should be aware but not need to take any special action.
Toward the end of the day when I was approaching the town of hindman that I was going to spend the night at I finally encountered my first fellow westward Transam cyclists. The first one was Alex from Belgium. He just graduated from college and is touring to see the country. He's having a rough time in Kentucky since he has a dog phobia. The other guy is Biff from Virginia and he can tell an amazing story or two.
We had all made arrangements to stay at the local hostel. But Biff encountered a local high school teacher who offered to put us up for the night. I declined the offer because I had already made reservations with the hostel and the hostel host sounded nice on the phone and was going to take us to dinner. Mistake. The hostel was just a big tent. The host never showed up so I waited around for dinner that didn't happen. I didn't know if I was allowed to go into the house to use the restroom. The air mattresses for the tent had been left out in the rain. Meanwhile the other guys had beds, shower, laundry, good company, and even breakfast in the morning. Ah well.
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