Distance: 67 miles Berea. KY to Buckhorn, KY
Ride Time: 6:00
Average Speed: 11.8
Maximum Speed: 34
Altitude Gain: 4930 feet
Average Temperature: 98
I checked my tires this morning and they were still full of air. Oh, such a relief. I had to ride back to where I left my course. It was only about 3 miles. Berea is one of the towns where I change map sections of my trip. Sometimes the maps don’t line up as well as I would like. In this case, about half way through the university, the old map quit and the new map hadn’t started yet.
Just as the new map was kicking-in, I saw some flashing lights ahead of me. When I got to the lights I asked a fireman on duty what was happening. He said the road was closed because a pedestrian had been hit by a car earlier that morning. I told him that my GPS did not give me any alternate routes and that I would like to go through. He said there was no way to go through and I would have to detour. I asked if there was someone that could give me the clearance to ride or walk past the accident scene. He told me to ask the Captain that was just ahead of us. I explained to the Captain what I was doing and if I could walk past the scene. He said “of course.” He asked me to stay to the side of the road an go ahead and ride my bike. Yea, yea, yea!!
I felt another miracle this morning. Just before I came into the town of Bighill, my route changed and went up a real narrow canyon. In places the road was half-washed away. After having gone a few miles up this poor road, I decided that I must have missed the town of Bighill all together. Kathie and I had planned to meet in Bighill. After back-tracking for a little while, I noticed my tire was almost flat again. I filled it back up with a CO2 cartridge and that allowed me to ride into Bighill. I found Kathie parked in the Methodist Church parking lot. I started to repair my tires when Pastor Brian walked up and asked if there was anything he could do to help. He got me a bucket of water to check for tube leaks. He also got us a case of water and a bag of ice. I decided to put a new tire on the bike since I have had four flats with this tire. It took a long time for me to get the tire changed, and the pastor stayed with us the entire time. He told us about his church, many of the members and how he pastors. The church had two-stories with a long staircase on each side where he positioned the band on one side, and the singers on the other. He stood in the center at the top of the stairs and the parishioners drove their cars into the parking lot facing the balcony and could put speakers on their driver’s side window to hear better (just like the old drive-in movies). He was a kind and helpful man. We wished each other the best and then left. Kathie and I went two different routes. I got the pleasure of going up the washed out road.
The warnings of Angie at the lake came back to my memory today. I was chased by 12 dogs today! It was getting a little past the funny stage. One thing I noticed was that the dogs aways chased me on the down hill. I don’t know if that is always the case, but it was for me. Luckily I was always faster than the dogs going downhill. In one case it was pretty level and I saw a lady walking her pitbull. It saw me coming and started to bark, growl and pull on it’s chain. It was pulling hard enough that it started to pull the owner skidding along behind. Finally she fell down and the dog was free. All his barking gave the signal to another dog that joined in the fun and I had a dog nipping at each shoe. Adrenaline kicked in and I was pedaling for all I was worth. Fortunately the pitbull just bit but never held on. The other dog grabbed hold of my heel and held on. I was just a little motivated to pedal hard and fast. Each time my pedal would go around, it would slam the dog’s head to the ground. After a while he quit and let go. Now that I didn’t have a dog attached, I could pedal faster. I was able to out run the two dogs. This was one day that it was safer to just keep moving.
I came down a rather long hill and just before I crossed the dam on the river, there were two convenience stores and gas stations. One of them was closed and I stopped at the other store and asked for some water. I filled up my bottles and as I was leaving I noticed Kathie over by the nearby school. We decided to stay at the campground there. It was another place that had been made by the Army Corp of Engineers. It was clean and well designed. We had a good chat with the camp host. He was working for the Army Corp of Engineers at the camp. He had grown up in this little town and was happy to be working this close to home. Shortly after going to bed we had a mean lightning storm that kept up for hours. I had experienced some washed out bridges on this trip and I was awake most of the night thinking the stream next to us was going to wash us away. It didn’t and our little trailer kept us warm and dry.
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