Our earliest start yet – on the road just after 7am to try and beat the predicted heat later in the day. A quick 12 mile dash chasing Rudy and Heidi through the country lanes and then, suddenly, we’d arrived at the Ohio River and it was time to say “goodbye Kentucky – hello Illinois”!…
By Terry As we went to settle up for last night’s home-cooked gourmet nosh, the motel owner met us in her jim-jams and refused to take any money for the best meal I’ve eaten in weeks! I think she liked to cook for people who appreciated her food. After cycling round the tree in the…
What a difference a day makes! When morning comes, Berea has survived the storm relatively unscathed and the skies have cleared. It means, as ever, we have to move on. It’s a strange feeling since it’s likely we may not see any of our new found cycling friends for a while, or perhaps ever again….
In the Appalachians Old King Coal still rules, although his reign is under threat. You only need to look in the valleys to see the impact a decline in mining brings. But huge trains still rumble through local towns with trucks full of the black gold, while coal lorries thunder up the roads to more…
Today we left Lookout and headed into the valleys of the dogs. Kentucky has a reputation for mean ones with a taste for passing cyclists and we were all a little apprehensive, particularly after John took a call from a fellow TransAmerican further up the trail who had problems with them around Hindman, our destination….
We were awoken at an ungodly hour to the sound of laughter and chatting … the keenos of the Adventure Cycling group were up and at it early. Too early for us… for logistical reasons we were only doing about 45 miles today, so we were having a lazy day after yesterday’s miserable cold slog….
93. It’s a number that’s been very much on our minds today. It’s not our planned mileage. Nope, it’s the temperature. The heat wave in Virginia is continuing to sweat it out and it’s doing its best to knock us for six we continue climbing the Appalachians. The apparent wind of cycling does cool you…
It’s Terry’s better half, Liz’s birthday today and he was determined to yell it from the mountain. So it was a good job our task today was to climb the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia and search for the lonesome pine in the pale moonshine etc. It wasn’t quite night-time when we left the Cookie…