Monday, October 14, 1996
Hills, hills and more hills. We climbed, then coasted, then climbed again repeatedly through the day.
Our first stop was at Berea. I saw a UPS truck making a delivery to a Radio Shack store and approached the driver to ask how we would go about using UPS to send some of our gear home. He directed us to a nearby health food store that serves as a UPS shipper. I sent 36 lbs of camping gear home in a box the store clerk gave me. I shipped home 2 tents, 2 sleeping bags, one ThermaRest mattress (I forgot to send mine), a duffel bag (used by Ritt for the sleeping bag, ThermaRest and tent) and my AM/FM clock radio.
Despite losing a day at Jackson, Michigan to get the camping gear, we never did need it. The change from US-127 to US-25 brought us parallel to I-75 and we don't believe we'll have to face difficulty finding lodging ever again on this trip.
Berea is Kentucky's arts and crafts capitol. There are arts and crafts galleries all over town. I particularly enjoyed the Berea College Arts & Crafts Store.
Berea College is a beautiful campus.
The day was glorious. At 5:15 PM it was 78° in the shade. It was in the 80's earlier. Despite using SPF 50 sunscreen, I got a bit of sunburn. I drank several bottles of Gatorade and still feel dehydrated.
Once we passed Berea, we were in the mountains. We'll remain in the Appalachians for several days. These are the hardwood forests that the early settlers considered the wilderness. I've driven down I-75 several times, but never drove the back roads, so never properly experienced the mountains. This is spectacular country--especially this time of the year, when the leaves are turning.
There are NO shoulders at all on most of US-25, but the Kentucky drivers have been so courteous, that I don't consider this an undesirable road. Oh sure, there are some sweaty moments, but that's just part of bicycling cross-country. I'm seeing a world I wouldn't ever see from a car.
I came within about 2 inches of hitting this snake before I
saw it and realized that it was moving. Once I realized that it was alive,
I was reluctant to get close enough to get a good picture. I didn't know
what kind of snake it was, but Ritt thought it was a copperhead. I never
got a response to my query: "does anybody out there know what kind
of snake this is?"
Just north of London, Kentucky we came upon an apple orchard
store. They grow their apples right there in Kentucky. I bought a few Royal
Galas (my favorite variety) to eat on the road. I try to eat apples every
day. They provide a good energy boost and hydration at those moments when
you're starving toward the end of the day. The store manager was kind enough
to give us each a glass of fresh apple cider--it was great. These were good
apples, but I'm partial to Michigan apples.
We stopped for the night at London, Kentucky, a quaint little community nestled in the mountains. The people are real friendly, though at bit hard to understand due to their accents.
Total distance for the day: 62 miles.
PS: Uploading trouple again. When we checked in to Economy Inn in London, KY, I noticed that the dial tone didn't sound "normal." I asked the desk clerk about it and she assured me that it was a standard phone system, so I unpacked and went to dinner. When I got back, I decided to upload the 10/11, 10/12 and 10/13 pages. I kept getting modem connect failure messages from my Global Village modem, so I went back to the office and was told that the lines were busy. When the phone lines became free, the desk clerk called. I tried several times and still couldn't get a dial tone. I am certain that this is another digital phone system.
By connecting to a digital system, it is my understanding that I run a risk of "frying" the main logic board on my computer. At home I have a gadget to connect my modem to the handset line, thereby avoiding the digital system socket, but the gadget weighs several ounces and I thought the digital phone fear was unfounded, so I didn't bring it with me. How wrong I was. Sorry. I'll try to hook up somewhere in the morning.
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© Ed Noonan 1996, 1997