America One Spoke At a Time: Kentucky

In our last blog we were in a Sandusky, OH campground near Lake Erie. We are now more than 300 miles south, just east of Lexington, KY.

Rails to Trails Path

Jay has been riding 60 – 90 miles per day and has had mixed experiences. One day he had miles of pleasant riding on a smooth surface rails-to-trails path that provided gradual climbing grades and protection from the winds. Another day was a hot, humid ride with endless hill climbs and a maddening headwind that followed him on every turn.

For most of this trip Jay has been following routes provided by Adventure Cycling. Those routes have now ended and Jay has switched

Road Closed Signage

over to Google Maps for Bicycles to navigate the last few hundred miles to Savannah. Google Maps for Bicycles is something of a crapshoot. More than once, Jay has been directed to turn onto non-existent roads. On his last ride he turned as directed and was greeted by large sign overgrown with vegetation announcing Road Closed!

To paraphrase Forrest Gump, “Biking across the country is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get.”

As Jay rode through Amish country in Ohio, the landscape was filled with farms worked by white hat brimmed young men guiding horse-drawn equipment through fields. He had frequent opportunities to exchange hand waves with Amish passengers in black carriages pulled by a single horse clopping down the same road he was riding. Jay was able to map the extent of his Amish country experience by the condition of the road surfaces he rode. Those clopping horses tear up the asphalt road surface. Jay has generally been impressed with the high quality road surfaces he has found in Ohio, but apparently Amish country has challenged even the best intentions of the Ohio DOT.

Benson and Dawn

Nando’s well-being has again risen to our top priority. Back in Minnesota Nando was vomiting and we took him to a vet, who directed us to a specialist when she couldn’t find a problem. That episode was successfully resolved. Now he is suffering from diarrhea. We have jokingly renamed him “Soupy Poopy,” but our concern paused our riding trip in Mansfield, OH for another vet visit and meds to solve the problem. We hope our sweet boy Nando recovers soon.

Open Flat Terrain

With a hotel stop and rest day in Winchester, KY we had an opportunity to have dinner with Helen’s brother Benson and his wife Dawn. We also took advantage of the rest day to work on Jay’s bike. With the flat terrain of corn and soybean fields now replaced with the rolling hills of Kentucky horse country, smooth gear shifting is a must that Jay’s bike was no longer providing. Jay did some maintenance on his bike and then visited a volunteer, co-op run bike shop called the Broke Spoke for some validation of his work. With a little adjustment we are back on the road. We estimate we could be rolling into Roswell in about 10 days.

More Photos (Click to Enlarge)