Author: Paul Rito (Page 29 of 30)

Updated 12/19/2022

More on day 12: we had 2 more miles of the pavement from Hades, and managed to find a county road that was old, smooth out chip seal. We rode that for 20-25 miles.

And all those roads led to the Nords; Eric, Angela, and Emma. We’re so grateful for them opening their home to us even though they had just returned from a 6-week teaching expedition in Washington State. The Nords lived in State College from 2004 to 2013, and I did many a ride with Eric and the Wheelworks group. In 2015, when Dana and I were riding from Bar Harbor to Trenton, I heard my name called out on route 1 in Maine. It was Eric on a tour with his son’s church group. Such a random, but cool encounter. We had an excellent meal of Emma’s Bruschetta on homemade bread, sweet corn, and Angela’s pasta primavera, a great rest, and a good time catching up. Eric also worked on our bikes and fixed some shifting issues and checked my wheels out for true. Both were okay.

Whenever I teach a class or workshop on touring, I always ask the participants to ask themselves, “What’s my tolerance for adversity?” My tolerance was tested today. Not an injury or an unrepairable mechanical failure, but more overcoming physical and mental fatigue.

Today, we were shooting for a big day – 70+, but about the time we got halfway through, neither of us was feeling it. Fatigue. Overworking. Pushing too far. Too little rest. While we had some of those on this trip, we didn’t feel any of those when we started out. We had a pretty good rest, felt good (well, minus our bottoms-sore, but manageable), and we were riding fine the first 35 miles of 70 or so, enjoying quiet back roads, watching the migrants fill their transport buses with watermelons.

Today’s mileage: 56.4. Total miles: 613.7

We started the day from the campground in English, IN facing the same steep hills we did getting into the camp yesterday. After 20 miles of steep up and downs, we finally got into the plains and nice, flat, rolling hills. And they were actually more flat than rolling. And very straight, straight roads where you could see miles ahead.

Right now we’re sitting looking at the red sky at night (sailors’ and cyclists’ delight), at a campground overlooking Prides Creek lake in Petersburg Indiana. 10 bucks for a campsite with showers. It was two miles into town where we picked up shrimp lo mein at a local Chinese restaurant, and and ice from a Sunoco mini stop, and had dinner and wine.

A very restful night thanks to our wonderful warm showers host Jannette. Her house set up was amazing-we had our own suite complete with a kitchen and full bath.

On the way from Lexington on Sunday, we found the Bulleit distillery and stopped in, had a mini tasting, and bought a small bottle of their bourbon. We shared that with Jannette, and she shared some of hers & brought out old-fashioned fixings. It was a lovely night on the top deck watching the sunset and having great conversations.

The further I go the behinder I get. Again just a quick note to update. We did 66 miles from Lexington to just outside of Louisville. We’re staying with a Warm Showers host, Jannette, who has been so gracious and welcoming. She fed us spaghetti dinners and we’re sitting out having some bourbon and beers right now.

A little bit of rain today, but nothing much to speak of. It was nice not having the burning sun on us all day. The ride from Louisville was pretty sweet actually, a lot on highways but a lot of nice back roads too.

Backtracking a bit to Saturday morning, Aug 13th. We left Paris and headed to Lexington to hopefully meet up with Lori at the West Sixth Brewery after the Lexington bike group’s Saturday morning ride. Despite Google maps happily sending us down a dead end street, we managed to make it there by sending ourselves down Hwy 64 again. We met a few of the Lex cyclists, had a beer and more conversation with Lori and took a walk around the neighborhood. 28 miles to the Brewery and another 11 miles of errands and touring,

Backing up a bit to Friday, the 12th. We pulled into Paris KY after a good 74 mile ride from Vanceburg. Our first impression of Kentucky highways was a bit off the mark. We rode on routes 10, 9, US bicycle route 21 and US 68, with side routes on parallel local roads when that made sense. “Sense” meaning that the side roads didn’t unnecessarily take us up (a) steep climb(s) just to avoid the highway. Most of the highways had good shoulders – 8 ft with 18″ rumble strips. There was a section of 68 where the shoulders inexplicably narrowed into nothing BUT a rumble strip. After a close encounter, we pulled off and re-routed. Dana had a deja vu-back to her cross country trip through the southern KY mountains. Up-down-up-repeat ad infinitum. Even with the hills and the highway changes, the day’s weather was excellent, and the scenery amazing. I should be taking more pictures! It’s a bit hard to manage sometimes when there is a great scene, but you have the handlebars clenched tight, and the moment is gone except in your mind’s eye.

A quick one tonight because we had a late start, and were late finding a place to camp. That’s a very long story. Today we are at 77 miles and that’s before we get to our campground. Still have to get there and set up camp so it’s going to be a late night and probably another late morning.

Tomorrow we’re heading to Lexington and that’s going to be essentially a rest day for us of only 28 or 30 miles.

71.7 miles today through beautiful and mostly flat Southern Ohio, the weather was pleasant, winds low, and we made it to Kentucky!

What we miss about Ohio is the great road network, with wide shoulders everywhere, that don’t switch back to one foot to 2 ft to 5 ft; they’re all 5 ft and stay that way on the major roads.

Forgot to note our mileage today: 68.5. 

Our motel is just up the road from the Bob Evan’s farm and museum where we walked around the grounds and learned about Sorghum, Adamsville and the man himself. We also found the origin of the name Rio Grande, which we learned is pronounced “Rye’-O-Grande”. Not only do we get exercise, we get edjumacated, too! 

The weather looks dry and cooler tomorrow, so we’re going for 70 or more miles.