We crossed the Mississippi River and have now entered the West! We aimed for a big 90 mile day into the Ozarks but had to settle for 65 miles as we had storms around us all day. We hid out in a friendly stranger's garage for 2 hours waiting for one storm cell to pass. He had a music studio in his garage and was a huge Elvis fan. He was a bit disappointed when we told him that we didn't know how to play any musical instruments.
The garage band we hunkered down in during the storm.
Didn’t make it to the winery in time as I hoped in the video, the rain started 5 mins after that ended!
Video from the music garage studio
May 22, Ride day 19
Today, we rode 70 miles through the beautiful forests and clear rivers of the Ozarks. A cool and overcast day made for perfect riding conditions. We ended the day in Eminence, a cute tourist town with lots of campgrounds and river rafting companies. This road, State Highway 106, was just perfect: few cars, nice rolling hills, several small towns to refuel. Maybe someday I can have a chance to go back and ride it again.
We met a German guy, Marcus, who was going East. He is the first person we met that started on the West coast. He started April 1 in San Francisco and is ending in New York City. Small world is that he live in Aachen, which is where I studied for 6 months in 2007.
May 23, rest day
We hung out for the day at the campground in Eminence. The sun was supposed to come out and I was dreaming of jumping in the river. However, it was cloudy and a little chilly. A good day to be biking but we felt like we could use the rest and enjoy doing nothing.
We said goodbye to our friend, Mark, with a pancake breakfast.
May 24, Ride day 20
Now we have completed day 20! 1/3 of the route is now completed! We biked out of the Ozarks and into gentle rolling hills. We made great time on the 80 mile trek. Reasons in addition to the less hilly terrain were: Had an 5-10 mph tailwind, a nice cool day, and had rainstorm arriving at 3pm which gave us motivation. Unfortunately, the rain arrived at 2:20 which was a few miles from our town park camping spot so we arrived wet!
May 25, Ride day 21
We got in our 75 miles despite the challenges with the rain. We biked 30 miles in light rain and then took a 3 hour break in Marshfield to wait out the heavy rain. We got a nice hearty 2nd breakfast and Anita met us with the RV. Then Rog took an RV nap, Anita went shopping, and I did some work in a coffee shop. A productive rain delay! We started again at 2pm to finish the remaining 45 miles.
Even though we may end up wet, it is a beautiful thing to watch the clouds grow and move around as we are biking straight towards them.
Rain delay blues...
May 26, Ride day 22
It was a brutal one. A long slow day with lots of rain. A drizzle most of the day with heavy rain cells just circling around us. Got hit by 3 of them. We were able to hide for two of them, one was in a farm implement dealer (we got some coffee and gatorade while waiting it out) and the second we hid underneath a farm machine shed. And we just rode through the last one as we were only a few miles from our RV stop.
We met Mom for lunch in a must-stop cafe along the route. It was also the only place to stop on the 70 mile ride. Their speciality is pie, so we picked up one to go. One of the perks of traveling with an RV :)
The cafe...
Just hanging out under a shed
And we saw the first wind farm of our journey near the Kansas border.
Despite the weather, we made it just across the border!
Reflections
The Ozarks are just beautiful. The rivers are so clear and clean. The forests are green and dense. The roads are not nearly as challenging as the Appalachians or Blue Ridge so it made for a pleasant riding experience.
Lots of rain this year! We got rained nearly every day on our trek through the state. Many fields were flooded. The locals said they were getting much more rain than usual.
Worst drivers so far. Why does everyone drive like they are rushing to the hospital?
Places to visit or bike
Go back and ride highway 106 between Ellington and Summersville
Go mountain biking in Ironton, I guess their was an Enduro bike race the weekend before
Explore the Ozarks and Arcadia Valley. Some hiking, rafting, maybe even some horse back riding :)
We crossed over the Ohio river on the ferry and stayed in a cute and eerily quiet town of Cave in Rock. Funny name. We stayed at a small state park named after a cave that opens to the river. History and stories documented that the cave was occupied by pirates back in the day that would rob large boats as they passed by. The entire town has a population of 199 and has all of these beautifully decorated bikes around, however, we didn't see a single person walking around except at the restaurant in the state park.
You can explore the cave
May 19, Ride day 16
We rode 75 miles in the hilly, hot, and humid terrain of southern Illinois. The weather was rather miserable most of the day. The air was so humid, I couldn’t keep my glasses from either fogging up when stopped or clean of sweat when climbing. Michael couldn’t keep up so we are back to a group of 3. Mark tried out his drone and got some sweet footage before crashing it into a tree.
Roger and I went into a state park campground that Anita and Riley set up. And Mark went on a little further today to stay in a hotel in Carbondale as there was some rain storms in the forecast for the night.
May 20, Ride day 17
We went for a measly 50 miles and pretty flat too. However, we were met with fierce 20 mph head winds with gusts to 40 mph. So it took us a long time to get to our destination. Since Mark didn't stay in the campground with us, we rode separate for the day. Dad and I opted not to follow either of the official routes. One was longer and went into the hills and the other that road over the dykes of the Mississippi river. We tried to get to the route along the river but we were met with the head winds so opted to take a direct highway towards Chester.
The town of Chester, where we stopped for tonight, had a big wind storm last night and knocked down lots of trees and a new gas station. We met lots of folks again on the road (the owner of a roadside bakery that was off the route who took our photo for her Facebook page, and some guys outside of their work shed who yelled that they have cold water for us so we turned around) and we also met an East bound rider who started his journey from Kansas City. Stayed at a Fraternal Order of Eagles Club, Chester IL last night. They host cyclists. Chester is the birthplace of Popeye creator. There are many murals and statues of the characters.
Reflections
Southern Illinois was much hillier than I was expecting
Polluted rivers surrounding the farm lands
Cave in Rock bicycle display was pleasant and unexpected
Places to visit or bike
Nothing of particular interest that we saw in our two days, although the ferry into Kentucky is quite fun :)
We are now in Kentucky! Ended up riding 80 miles today as our new friend, Mark, found another route to take to make it to Hazard, KY by saving some miles and elevation. (Except for the unexpected dirt mountain climb and descend).
What we learned about Kentucky so far…Very friendly, helpful, and curious folks. Already in day 1 more people came up and asked us about our adventure than we had in all of Virginia. Lots of poor looking dogs…we were warned that Kentucky has lots of dogs that chase cyclists down. Probably had 5 chase today out of over 100 dogs we saw. Most are in yard fences or small kennels, some are chained on the front porch, and others are free (and I assume encouraged) to chase us down. The one dog in the video I was prepared to film was one of the friendly ones!
It is hard to see but this has been the only town we have passed showing their support by flying Ukrainian flags.
May 13, Ride day 11
Today, we rode 96 miles with lots of climbing, over 7000ft. We had a dilemma since there had limited options to stay tonight. Either go a measly 45 miles or commit to close to 100! So we made the plan the night before to wake up early and start pedaling. Little did I know (since I was sleeping) was that Roger and Mark were up for several hours working on Mark's bike. Rog has to wake up to take out Riley for nighttime walks every so often. When we went outside close to midnight, Mark was awake and fiddling with his bike. The shifting had gotten bad in the last couple of days so we wanted to fix them. My Dad saw him and started to help. After quite some time, my Dad figured out that the shifting cables were way to short which was the root cause of the problem. So he got it working best he can and came back to sleep.
We made it but it took a long time especially since Roger and Mark didn't get much sleep! When you bike all day long through Kentucky, you see lots of stuff: peaceful quiet roads, climbing through tiny poor mountain communities, a Dairy Bar that opened at 10am for our first meal, many obvious meth houses, a nearly vacant brand new highway, a hike down a drainage, a busy road with a tiny shoulder that is filled in with rumble strips, then a surprisingly gorgeous descent, an alpaca farm, and more! At mile 75, we introduced Mark to Dairy Queen for a much needed stop to fuel our bodies with fried chicken and ice cream (luckily they now have a lactose-free ice cream bar that I can enjoy). Mark suffered through the hills battling poor shifting and a bike with limited gears but made it!
Primary election season in Kentucky! Lots of signs everywhere.
We were riding a brand new highway not yet entirely known by Google Maps. Turns out the highway did not have an intersection for our road so we walked down the drainage ditch and crossed a small stream.
May 15, rest day
We spent our rest day in the town of Berea. Later in the evening, we drove downtown for a little stroll. Then we went to a nice restaurant at the historic Old Boone Tavern Hotel. To illustrate the friendliness of the people in Kentucky: Mark had called a bike shop about 15 miles away from Berea the day before and asked if someone could install new shifting cables and housing. He spoke to the owner of the shop and he said he would find a way to help out. So that morning before the bike shop opened, the owner drove down to Berea, fixed up Mark's bike, and even gave him a special Kentucky drink as a gift, then drove back to his bike shop!
May 16, Ride day 12
Today we went for 77 miles through the steep but short hills of western Kentucky. We are now out of the Appalachian mountains and more into the farm land. Fewer chasing dogs and those that do are less vicious. Less meth houses but still saw a few obvious ones. It was a hot and humid day which really sucked our energy. Our worst wrong turn for the trip so far. We only lost maybe 2 miles but they were up a big hill. I was wondering why the road was still traveling North and checked the phone, crap off the route! But we did get some sweet footage from Mark's drone on the detour.
We stopped for lunch at 3pm and the waiter said we looked thirsty so we got the big glasses! My Dad and I went ahead to the restaurant without Mark. As we entered the town we had a railroad crossing. The lights just started to flash so we went ahead and crossed the tracks as we could hear the train traveling slowly far around the bend. Mark, being from England, was a bit more hesitant (and his bike weighs damn near 100 lbs so it takes some effort to get it moving) thinking of the high speed short passenger trains from Europe. Thus, Mark waited a full 20 minutes for the miles long coal/cargo train to slowly pass through town as my Dad and I got started in on our cold large waters.
On a hot Sunday, many people were out enjoying the fun day! We saw many convertibles going for a cruise, many boats going to the lakes, and many folks were filling up their backyard and front yard pools! I was a bit jealous of those! Biked through a town called Paint Lick and saw their fire station, rather interesting…
May 17, Ride day 13
Today we went big. We ended up riding 98 miles through lots of farmland and hills. Biked close to Abe Lincoln’s birthplace but didn't have the time to stop for a visit. Anita and Riley made the visit though!
This is Abe's memorial, not his actual childhood home. Just in case you were wondering...
Also went near the Makers Mark distillery and saw their very large storage buildings. We also saw a very random boat. We ended the day at a nice lakeside campground but didn’t go for the swim I was imagining during the day of biking. Turns out the beach was closed due to an infestation of snakes. According to wikipedia, they weren't poisonous but can become aggressive. Not exactly a relaxing thought during a swim. Thinking about it later, I guess Kentucky isn't exactly known for clean, clear, and cool swimming lakes.
It was a bittersweet day as I wasn’t at home to celebrate Rosie’s 5th birthday. I am thankful that her Cynthia and Sophie (and baby cousin, Ryan) came out to visit for this special occasion.
May 18, Ride day 14
75 miles today and ended at a Baptist church that has a wonderful hostel setup in their basement just for cyclists. The pastor lives next door and came out to meet us as we rode up. Then showed us around the facilities. Later on, another TransAm rider showed up to the church. His name is Michael and he is from Ireland. He had a long 100 mile day today and looked exhausted.
The day was hot and felt long, perhaps because I ate gas station fried chicken twice today. (Not as bad as it sounds when you are biking all day long and need calories). There were limited eating options on the route, both cafes we intended to visiting turned out to be closed. One thing we have learned is that when you pass through a small town you have no idea what food options will be open. 50% chance they will be closed even if Google or their sign says they will be open. This means many of out meals we find at gas stations. Although, we did stop at one gas station, they had nothing but empty boxes on their shelves. The only items they had for sale was 5 water bottles and about a dozen peanut butter crackers. I bought some crackers after checking their expiration date and being surprised that they were not yet expired.
May 19, Ride day 15
Took a bit easy day today going a total of 56 miles. We got hit with some rain for an hour in the morning which slowed us down. Luckily found a cafe that was open in the small town of Clay, KY. Michael rides with a small American flag for extra visibility to car drivers, which is rather amusing given he is from Ireland. We ended the day by taking a ferry out of Kentucky and into Illinois! Michael missed it though so had to wait for the next one .
Reflections
The folks here were very friendly, helpful, and genuinely interested in what the hell we were doing. I do not believe we met anybody who owned any of the with untrained chasing dogs, I assume those folks aren't so friendly.
Very patient and courteous drivers (for the most part). It was common for drivers to patiently wait for us to climb up a hill or simply follow us for more than a mile before find a safe place to pass. We would also try to find a driveway to pull over when we could
Lots of poverty in these counties with trash everywhere
Houses that are completely run down with obvious signs of meth manufacturing: boarded up windows, exhaust tubing coming through the siding, 3-5 no trespassing signs on the front door, dead vegetation...
I felt empathy towards the dogs and kids who have to live in some of these areas
I was expecting to see some nice race horse properties but didn't see any, I guess we were on the wrong roads.
Places to visit or bike
It would be nice to visit a distillery or two
If there weren't dog chases or rumble strips everywhere, I would recommend biking through the Appalachian roads. But it isn't worth it!
