Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Day 14: Booneville, KY to Berea, KY (56 Miles)

Looks like today was a "Plan B" kind of day. In spite of breaking camp early and getting some caffeine into our systems, we still met a few steep climbs that sapped us of our energy. Jonathan didn't get a good night's rest and was really struggling the entire morning. We stopped often for some granola and fruit; however, we didn't find some warm food until 10 miles out from our final destination!


The highlight of today was the final downhill ride out of the Appalachians. It probably only lasted 5 minutes, but it felt like a splendid eternity. Knowing that the long and grueling climbs around steep switchbacks are now behind me is a blessing, to say the least. The rest of the morning was spent cruising along Madison County (sadly, we didn't cross any covered bridges) and taking intermittent breaks for Jonathan to coax his legs into functioning more. We soon realized that Berea was going to be our final destination. About 10 miles out from town, we stopped in at a local gas station & hot/cold deli for an early lunch. Jonathan chowed down on a humongous double bacon cheese burger... it was impressive. About 20 minutes later, Chris and Chris joined us. We then called around for rates of local motels and found a pretty inexpensive option just west of town.

We rolled into Berea at noon and noticed the stark contrast of this progressive little town compared to the outskirts leading up to it. It's fascinating what a small liberal arts college can do to transform the culture of an area. Anyways, we said our (temporary, I'm sure) goodbyes to the Chrisses and planned on meeting up with them again in Bardstown (they're having a long day today, and a short one tomorrow.) On our way to the motel, we marked any interesting points to check out later. We then checked in, showered up, and I began the long process of updating old blog posts into this here website thing. Jonathan relaxed and put on a ridiculous movie on the telly. Afterwards, we headed into town for dinner and met up with some eastbound riders that gave us a few tips and we tried our best to return the favor. After walking around the campus and finding that the camera battery died out on us, we headed back to the room. Jonathan's out right now looking for a grocery store and I'm trying my best to frantically update this quickie-post and finish up some Kentucky-centric post-cards.

Tomorrow shall be long and grueling, so I'm calling on all forces of air conditioning, soft sheets, and warm dreams of lovers past and future to lull me into a deep and recovering sleep! G'night.

1 comments:

Anne Reilly said...

Someone I met at the University of DE went to Berea. I think your description of the area helps me understand her better! I'm finding all of your comments about Kentucky rather fascinating. We must discuss at length at some point.

Post a Comment

| Top ↑ |