Day 13 : You Ate What...

From Springfield, KY to Sonora KY - ~77 miles

we had planned to get up and out early, but when our alarm went off, there was a substantial amount of rain hitting our tent. so we decided that we would sleep a little longer while we waited for the rain to subside. we finally got up at about 6:45 and got the tent packed up. we quickly headed over to the grocery store across the street…got some muffins, bananas, and Gatorade…ate some breakfast and then got on the road.

we knocked out about 25 miles without too much trouble and then decided to stop for a late breakfast/early lunch. we found a place called huddle house, which was like a waffle house…and we ate more food than two normal human beings should really ever eat. and the crazy part, is that what we ordered was one menu item that we shared…i can’t imagine one person eating it. we ate 3 eggs, loaded hashbrowns, bacon, sausage, country fried steak with gravy, biscuits and gravy, grits, toast, and a waffle. needless to say, when we got back on the bikes, we weren’t in the best of shape for riding.

we stopped mid-afternoon to get some ice in our waters and to grab a cold treat as we were getting pretty hot. after a short stop at a gas station convenience store, we got our waters loaded with ice and got ready to get back on the bikes. as we were just about ready to leave the parking lot, two guys in a truck swung in to the parking lot just to see where we were headed. they asked us about where we had been, where we were going, and gave us some positive insight into where we were hoping to camp for the night. they then told us they were off to see if they could pull a catfish out of a log (otherwise known as noodling…catching a catfish with your bare hand). i guess that is what they do in these parts for some saturday afternoon fun.

we decided that we would try to make it to sonora, ky for the evening and see if we could find someone there that would allow us to put up a tent. just before we got into sonora, we pasted over interstate 65 which seemed like the closest to home that we had been, as interstate 65 goes through lafayette, in which is where purdue is where we both went to college.

as we rolled through sonora we were looking for someone to ask about camping…and as we were just about what looked like through the town, we saw a woman out walking in front of her house. so we rolled up and asked her if she knew of any place in town where cyclist can put up a tent. she said that sometimes people camp behind the church that was next door to her house. she told us to pull into her driveway and she would go inside and call the pastor and see if it was alright if we stayed there for the night. she came out a few moments later and said that it would be just fine if we stayed there…and then she said that we should come back over to her house and take a shower at her place. so we quickly took our bikes over behind the church, grabbed our clothes, and came back over to her house to take a shower. we took turns taking showers and talking to the woman. She was super nice…great to talk to. she lived alone, but her daughter, son-in-law and 2 of her grandchildren were coming over before too long. after we finished our showers, she insisted that we also wash our clothes, so we were able to get all of our clothes washed as well! man, what an amazing blessing that lady was.

after a little more time spent with her, we went back over to the church, got our tent set up, cycled back up to the gas station to grab some subway, came back and quickly ate our food, and then climbed into the tent to call it a night. we will see how the sleeping goes tonight…it is hot and humid to say the least. it is going to be a sticky one!

Day 12 : Wrong Turn...

From Berea, KY to Springfield, KY - ~72 miles

we slept in a little bit this morning, loaded up the tent, and headed for breakfast at cracker barrel. cracker barrel is always a good breakfast, and this was no exception. we got on the bikes and headed out on the route, to find that we had a bike path for the first couple of miles out of town.

the beginning of our ride seemed easy enough. about 20 miles into our ride, we read the directions on our map to find that they said, "turn left onto unsigned jack turner road". to which we thought...what exactly do we do about that. so, we started into our next segment hoping that we would find our turn. we rode and rode, and finally we were positive that we had gone too far, and so we stopped and got the gps out to discover that we had gone a good 3 miles past our turn.

we turned around and headed back in the direction that we had come...and as we came up on the turn that we had missed, we discovered that it was at the bottom of a huge hill that we had climbed...and when i say huge, i mean at least 15 minutes of climbing. and i am pretty sure that there is not much that is more demoralizing than climbing a massive hill, only to discover that it was all for nothing. at any rate, we got back on the right route...only to find another big hill to climb. as we climbed again, i said out loud to cailyn..."every good story has conflict"...and climbing that hill for what felt like the second time definitely felt like conflict.

as we have gotten into kentucky, you can definitely see a huge difference in economic status. when we were in eastern kentucky, it really felt like it was a much lower status..and then as we have gotten more into central kentucky, we have gotten into horse country and there is definitely a much higher economic status. it has really left me thinking about what causes the difference. it has caused me to think about poverty and about work ethic. i don't know that i have come to any solid conclusions at this point in time, but hopefully it is something that i can continue to process through this trip.

as we finished our riding for the night, we arrived into springfield, ky and called the local police to see about camping in a local park that was listed in our maps. they took down our names and told us we were welcome to put up a tent wherever we wanted to in the park. so we stopped in to wendy's, grabbed a quick dinner, and headed to the park to set up for the night. they had bathrooms, but no showers...but all in all, a good location for no cost.

Day 11 : More Dead People than Alive...

From Hazard, KY to Berea, KY - ~100 miles

we awoke this morning at 5 am and were out of the hotel room by 6:15 am, only to discover that we had another minor brake problem that needed attending to. by 6:45 am we had things all figured out and were on the road.

we rode in clouds and what looked like threatening weather most of the morning, but managed to avoid the rain all morning, which was very welcomed. there were even some points that we came to where the road was wet, but thankfully we stayed dry all day.

we have been riding on fairly busy roads the last couple of days and the busy roads continued for the morning stretch again today. i was really starting to get sick of high traffic and coal trucks. it is not that i feel terribly unsafe, it is just that it wears you out to have to focus and concentrate so much.

we stopped for lunch in booneville, va at a little home town dinner. it reminded us of the little diner in morocco that grandma merchant likes to take us to. it was a great lunch, and after about an hour of eating and relaxing we were back on the bikes. while we were stopped eating, the clouds broke, the sun came up, and the temperature must have gone up by about 15 degrees. which made for a hot and sunny afternoon of cycling.

shortly after lunch we finally turned off of the busy roads and onto a nice quiet back road. this road was up at a pretty decent elevation and it wasn't too far into this road that we started noticing cemeteries. and in retrospect, i wish that we would have been counting how many of them we passed...because there were a ton! there is no doubt in my mind that we passed way more dead people than alive people today. we also noticed that many of the cemeteries were up on these insanely steep hills. we began to wonder how on earth they got the bodies up there to bury them. we decided that they must use 4-wheelers to get them up there. cailyn also decided that they bury the people up on the hill tops because they think that they are closer to God that way...that was her theory anyway.

before must longer, we began to cycle through what almost appeared to be a jungle. there were parts where the trees were grown completely over the top of the road, making a tunnel. and in many places the hillsides were covered with this amazing vine type of stuff.

and then before much longer, we had left that scenery, and found ourselves riding in a valley between two small mountain ranges. and in the middle of the valley, next to us, were large, beautiful farms with horses and cows. cailyn said that this was some of her favorite scenery of the trip so far and that it made her miss home (she grew up on a cattle farm in northwest indiana).

as the day wore on, we realized that we may have bit off a little too much. our legs and bodies were starting to be immensely tired, and we still had a number of miles to cover. thankfully, we came upon a gas station where we were each able to get a gatorade and a package of twizzlers and we quickly got back on the road. we rolled into berea, ky at about 8:20 pm, quickly found a pizza hut where we ordered a large supreme pizza, loaded it in our trailer, and headed for the campsite. it was a long day to say the least...but good to have accomplished map section #11. and i think that the mountains are pretty much behind us for a while, which is awesome!

today was also a big decision day. we made the decision that we are no longer shooting to make it all the way to the west coast. we have come to realize that it is likely that we will not be able to make the coast in the number of days we have set out to do the trip. and the pace that we are trying to keep is pushing us past much of the stories and encounters that we really feel like the trip needs to be about.

also, i am on sabbatical from the campus ministry...and as a part of a sabbatical, i feel like there are 3 main things that i need to be accomplishing. first, getting away from the normal grind and getting filled up and energized. secondly, as a result of the first, to grow to a place of really "missing" the normal grind. and lastly, to get spiritually rejuvenated and ready to return. as i analyze these first couple of weeks of sabbatical, i feel like the first two elements are happening quite well, but i just don't feel like the third piece is happening like it needs to. and hopefully with a little more time to settle into routine, and with being able to slow the pace down a little, that will come around. but today we also decided that we are going to cut our trip one week shorter than we were planning. this will allow us to get pervis's bike back to him and then go to my parents lake cottage in northeast indiana for a week and just spend time reading and studying and praying and seeking to get filled up with God and His Word. this will also allow us some time to not be in such a chaotic environment as this.

we had been mulling over this decision all morning, and then when we stopped for lunch, i had a message on my phone from pervis. he had caught up on the blog and wanted to offer a few pieces of advice. and the very first piece, don't feel like you have to get coast to coast, just do what you can and be happy with that. and those words felt like a very direct confirmation of our plan. really, in every sense, it feels like the right decision.

so, we are not positive, but we are thinking that our new destination will be yellowstone. we will see how things continue to progress.

i am excited...in the morning...we are going to the cracker barrel that is just down the street...we have a gift card from christmas or something long ago like that!

Day 19 : A Justin Kind of a Day...(he wanted me to call it that)

From Chester, IL to Johnson Shut-ins State Park - ~80 miles

we awoke early, excited to make it to our fourth state of the trip. we took a few pictures of the bulls and then hoped on the bikes, ready to ride. we quickly got to the mississippi river and crossed into missouri. (honestly, i am not sure that i really ever thought we would make it this far) we had a nice, easy 10 miles to start the day as we continued through the valley.

and then things changed...the next 35 miles as we rode to where we were going to meet justin and tracy were brutal to say the least. looking back on it, i am not exactly sure what made them so tough. we were climbing some really serious inclines again for the first time in a number of days, it started to get pretty hot, the winds were up, we started to run short on water, and we probably hadn't eaten as much as we should have. some combination of all of that made it a rough morning.

nevertheless, though a little later than scheduled, we made it to farmington to meet our friends. we enjoyed a excellent pizza at the heart of town at a place called bob-a-rino's pizza. after a couple of hours of eating, drinking, resting and having some great conversations, we got back on the bikes, along with justin, to ride another 35 miles for the day.

we rode about an hour or so, and the clouds started to roll in again...and as the rain started to spit we ducked into the closest driveway to find a house with a good sized porch on the front. we put our bikes on the porch and knocked on the door to see if we could wait the storm out there. however, no one answered the door, so we just waited on the porch and fortunately it only took 20-30 minutes for the storm to pass and we were back out on the road again.

we rode another 25 miles or so to finish up the day, and they were about as opposite from the morning miles as they possibly could have been. they felt largely downhill and seemed to go by easily. maybe it was the freshness and newness of having justin with us. it was really fun to have him along with us kind of trying to figure out the ropes as he began his adventure with us.

we arrived at johnson shut-ins state park to find some very nice rangers who gave us a very discounted price ($6 - cheapest state park on our trip thus far) and as we got into the campground, we found it to be by far the nicest campground that we have stayed in to date! turns out, they used to pump water up to the top of this mountain by the park during the night, and then during the day the water would run down producing energy. and a few years back, in the middle of the night, the levee at the top broke and there was a huge rush of water that basically wiped a bunch of the park out, and i guess that much of the park just opened back up earlier this year.

regardless, they get the award thus far for the nicest state park to camp in for sure! i hope that they are able to continue to maintain it and take pride in it...because it was nice enough that they should!

Day 19 : A Justin Kind of a Day...(he wanted me to call it that)

From Chester, IL to Johnson Shut-ins State Park - ~80 miles

we awoke early, excited to make it to our fourth state of the trip. we took a few pictures of the bulls and then hoped on the bikes, ready to ride. we quickly got to the mississippi river and crossed into missouri. (honestly, i am not sure that i really ever thought we would make it this far) we had a nice, easy 10 miles to start the day as we continued through the valley.

and then things changed...the next 35 miles as we rode to where we were going to meet justin and tracy were brutal to say the least. looking back on it, i am not exactly sure what made them so tough. we were climbing some really serious inclines again for the first time in a number of days, it started to get pretty hot, the winds were up, we started to run short on water, and we probably hadn't eaten as much as we should have. some combination of all of that made it a rough morning.

nevertheless, though a little later than scheduled, we made it to farmington to meet our friends. we enjoyed a excellent pizza at the heart of town at a place called bob-a-rino's pizza. after a couple of hours of eating, drinking, resting and having some great conversations, we got back on the bikes, along with justin, to ride another 35 miles for the day.

we rode about an hour or so, and the clouds started to roll in again...and as the rain started to spit we ducked into the closest driveway to find a house with a good sized porch on the front. we put our bikes on the porch and knocked on the door to see if we could wait the storm out there. however, no one answered the door, so we just waited on the porch and fortunately it only took 20-30 minutes for the storm to pass and we were back out on the road again.

we rode another 25 miles or so to finish up the day, and they were about as opposite from the morning miles as they possibly could have been. they felt largely downhill and seemed to go by easily. maybe it was the freshness and newness of having justin with us. it was really fun to have him along with us kind of trying to figure out the ropes as he began his adventure with us.

we arrived at johnson shut-ins state park to find some very nice rangers who gave us a very discounted price ($6 - cheapest state park on our trip thus far) and as we got into the campground, we found it to be by far the nicest campground that we have stayed in to date! turns out, they used to pump water up to the top of this mountain by the park during the night, and then during the day the water would run down producing energy. and a few years back, in the middle of the night, the levee at the top broke and there was a huge rush of water that basically wiped a bunch of the park out, and i guess that much of the park just opened back up earlier this year.

regardless, they get the award thus far for the nicest state park to camp in for sure! i hope that they are able to continue to maintain it and take pride in it...because it was nice enough that they should!

Day 10 : A Pretty Lousy Day for Riding...with a Great Lunch in the Middle...

From Dema, KY to Hazard, KY - ~40 miles

Story [in words]:

we awoke at our front yard oasis at 5:30 am. we packed up our gear, ate a couple of our hard-boiled eggs, and were on our bikes by around 6:30 am. as we began riding, it was quite cloudy which left us unsure about what the weather was going to do.

we rode about 17 miles through the towns of pippa passes and mallie, and as we came into hindman, it started to rain. it rained lightly for a couple of minutes, and then it started to pour. luckily, as it started to pour, there was a fairly large fruit and vegetable roadside stand, which had a tent that we were able to ride under as we waited out the rain. we waited under the tent for probably close to an hour, while we tried to decide what we were going to do with the rest of the day (it looked like the type of a day that would be rainy all day).

there was a hostel in the town we were in, but it cost $25/person which is just too steep for us. we began looking ahead on our maps to see if there was a cheap hotel a minimal number of miles ahead. we found a cheap hotel that was about 23 miles ahead. we decided that would be the plan, whether it stopped raining or not, we were going to cover the miles and get to a hotel for the night.

we got back on the road, and it poured for a few minutes, to the point where we were so cold that our teeth were chattering. but before long, the rain subsided and it wasn't too bad for riding. as we were coming into the town of carrie, there was a guy in a truck that passed us unusually slowly. he then pulled into a parking lot of a building just ahead of us on the left...and as we rolled up, he was standing out by the road as if he wanted to say something to us. when we got closer, he said, "there's some good food in here if you want." so we decided to pull in and see what was going on. as we got up to the building, we realized that we were at a community center.

the guy who had invited us in went into the building for just a minute and then he came back out and said, "it's free for you guys...just sign your name and come on in and eat". so we walked in, signed the book, and discovered that we had to be the only people in the place under 65. apparently at this community center, every wednesday they have a home cooked meal for a donation. so we grabbed a huge plate of homecooked food, and sat down with the guy that had invited us in. his name was jimmy slone. awesome guy to say the least...he told joke after joke...and seemed to be very real about his faith as well. man he was a great guy!

we enjoyed our food and conversation, and then got back on the road to get to our motel. as we got back on the road there wasn't rain, but the wind had started picking up, which is also not enjoyable for cycling. then when we were a couple of miles from the motel, the rain started again, and we got poured on one more time.

so, to say the least, we were ready to get inside and dried out by the time that we arrived. it is not a roach motel, but it is certainly nothing fancy. it was low cost, has everything that we need, and even has internet so that we can get caught up on the blog. all in all, not too bad of a deal. and on top of all of that, tonight is so you think you can dance night, and so we will enjoy watching that as we fall asleep! nice change of pace.

i have to be honest...our spirits have not been terribly high lately. we feel like we haven't had the right attitude exactly with the experience and with respect to encountering God and whatnot. we are pretty excited about the fact that being at the motel tonight has allowed us to get our ipods charged up and loaded up with sermons and things and hopefully that will help some.

tomorrow is going to be a big day. the weather looks good. hopefully we can knock out 100 miles which would get us to berea, kentucky...the end of map number 11. another great accomplishment!

Day 9 : A Great Start and Finish...and an Average Day in Between...

From Breaks Interstate Park, VA to Dema, KY - ~52 miles

Story [in words]:

we slept in until about 7 am this morning, and we rolled out of our tent all ready to eat our massive cinnamon roll, only to discover that the raccoons had unzipped cailyn's backpack and taken the cinnamon roll out and not a crumb left. cailyn was not too happy to say the least! (we later noticed that there was a huge nail sticking in a tree on our campsite where we could have hung it from)

cailyn began packing up camp, while i rode up to the lodge to get some quarters so that we could do our laundry. we got the laundry started while we finished packing up our gear. then we rolled down to the laundry area to wait for our laundry to finish. while we waited, we tried to catch up on a little blogging and journaling. when our laundry finished, we quickly put on some clean riding clothes and packed the rest of our clothes in the trailer bag and headed back towards the lodge to grab some breakfast.

we sat down next to the same beautiful view (actually the same table) and had a great breakfast. while we ate, we looked at our maps to make a plan for the day that was ahead. we quickly discovered that there was no camping and no hostels listed on our maps in the area we would be able to ride to with our late start. so for the first time on our trip, we got on the bikes not knowing where we were going to stay at the end of the day. we figured it was about time to start asking around and see if we could just find a place to put up a tent.

after we finished breakfast, we were planning on sitting in the lodge for a while to get the rest of the way caught up on the blog, but for some reason the internet was not working and so we were not able to blog (which is much of the reason there have not been any posts in a few days). so, we got sunscreened up, and headed back onto the route at about 11:30 am.

not too far out of the park, we ran into the road line painting crew (i think that is the technical term) coming towards us. one of the trucks pulled over to us and told us that we would need to get off the road for a little while because the paint truck would be turning around and following behind us in a few minutes. we weren't exactly sure what that meant, but we figured we would just keep riding and see what happened. but sure enough, in another 5 or 10 minutes, the truck did come behind us and we needed to get out of the way in a hurry. conveniently though, at the place where we had to get out of his way, we found the couple from colorado that we had met the day before also waiting for the paint truck to pass. so we were able to talk with them a little more and get to know them better.

after the paint was dry, they came by and told us we were free to cycle on. so we said goodbye to our colorado friends and hopped back on the bikes to try to cover some miles. we continued riding and continued climbing just about as much as we did yesterday.

they say that the appalachian mountains are the toughest of the mountains on this route. and there is no doubt in my mind that i agree. at least that better be the case, or we will never make it through colorado. the climbing is demoralizing...for both of us. thankfully, it seems that most of the time, when one of us is down, emotionally, the other is up...and vice versa. i don't know where we would be without each other, that is for sure.

despite all the climbing, and the late start, we were covering a decent number of miles...but then at a little after 7 pm, we found ourselves in a town with a name that we didn't recognize. we pulled into a gas station and got our map out, to discover that we had missed a turn some 3 miles back. so, fairly frustratedly, we turned around and cycled back our 3 miles that we had gone in the wrong direction.

as an interesting side note, through most of virginia, the turns are marked with route 76 bike signs. however, as soon as you cross the state line, those all go away, and it is all up to us to navigate.

we got back on the right route, and felt like it was time to figure out where we were going to put up our tent for the night. there were a couple of towns on the route, but they were small and so there weren't really public parks or churches or fire houses to stop and ask about camping. and it quickly became apparent that we were going to have to find someone who would allow us to camp on their property.

we came around a bend, and sitting back off the road a little ways was a nice looking house, with another big beautiful garden (apparently they know how to garden in east kentucky as well), and a sign that read, "potatoes for sale". as we came to the driveway, we noticed that there was a guy walking around out in the garden area. we decided this was the one to go talk to (we both had been praying for quite a while that God would show us the right people to talk to)...so we parked out bikes in front of the house and walked back towards the garden and asked if they would mind if we put up a tent in their front yard. they were sweet as can be and said that would be just fine.

so we wheeled our bikes into the front yard and got our tent set up. as we were getting some food out for dinner, the guy walked out and asked if we had enough food. we said that we were good. then he asked us about water...he said they had some bottled water he would be glad to bring out. and we said that we would take a couple of bottles of water. he brought us out some water and we stood and talked for quite some time. and before long, his son, who lives up the road but keeps chickens on their property had come out to talk as well. and before much longer, the wife was out there as well.

we stood and talked for a good long while. they told us all kinds of interesting things about the area, most notably, that there are elk in this area. we were both quite surprised to find that out.

the son had collect a dozen fresh eggs from his chickens and at one point he asked us if we ate eggs. and we said, "only if they are hard boiled". (we don't have any means to cook them in our gear) and the next thing we know, he turns to his mom and says, "well momma, why don't you go and boil 'em some eggs". and before the night was over, we had a dozen hard boiled eggs for breakfast and to take on the road with us.

it really was an amazing place to camp. aside from not having a shower, there is not much else we could have asked for. pervis had told me a couple of days ago that we needed to just ask people and they would be glad to help us out, and that certainly seems to be true.

[as a side note about kentucky: it is crazy, but as soon as you cross the state line, quite literally, you immediately see mobile homes, four wheelers, and dogs on the loose...everywhere...kinda crazy.]