Kiki Bikes Across America

Saturday, June 6th – Hindman, KY to Boonevillle, KY

We woke up about 7:30 or so from camping behind the public library, packed up and then headed to Arnold’s diner for some breakfast. I had blueberry waffles and orange juice, but it wasn’t anything to brag about. I think the waffles were almost like those you can buy frozen and pop in the toaster, except I think the toaster ones are actually better.

The day was a bit tiresome and pretty hilly with about 6-7 really good hills to climb. Some were rather steep too. The weather was better – sunny and hot… the heat we could have done without, but it wasn’t tooooo horrible. We just were drenched in sweat most of the day and having to keep hydrated all day long. The hills are getting monotonous and are far from fun now. I think I’m finally getting to the point where I’m tired of the hills and just want some flat roads that are well-paved! Kansas hopefully will be like that – but probably a bit boring too..and we’ll miss our downhills :/

We stopped about 20 miles into the ride off of Highway 80 in Hazard at a Super Walmart – it turns out we must have navigated slightly wrong because we somehow bypassed the town of Dwarf all together and found ourselves biking on the shoulder of a rather busy highway (not interstate highway though)! It was pretty miserable and hilly in parts, but we stopped and ate at the Subway inside the Walmart. We still had a good 40+ miles to go after lunch which was a bit frustrating, since it felt like an eternity until we would be done. The last 30 miles or so were pretty grueling with some big hills/mountains to climb that took all our energy out of us. We kept on climbing each one after the other and then were running out of water and needed a morale booster so stopped at this little stand/building on the side of the road and got frozen yogurt with flavors (flavorburst, I think it was called). That was really yummy and they refilled our water bottles with ice and water which was really nice.

Finally, sometime around 6:30 or so, I think we rolled into Booneville and found the church that was listed on the ACA maps as allowing camping and what not. We got there and met a couple from Holland that had been there for two nights (they took a rest day there). We chatted a bit and they’re planning to bike to Oregon and then up to Vancouver to visit the guy’s sister.

The three of us headed to a cafe in Booneville for dinner and got food to go- but it wasn’t anything spectacular. I just had a chicken sandwich, fries, and coleslaw – it was okay, but I was still hungry so George and I walked back again and got peanut butter pie with ice cream on top. That was totally worth it!

Sleep came earlier than the nigtht before, this time around 10:30 for me. I was pretty exhausted and had no desire to type on the computer or anything! I just wanted to sleep so curled up inside my tent and conked out immediately.

Computer Stats:
65.88 miles
721.61 total miles
5:46:31 moving time
11.4 average speed
41.0 max speed

GPS Stats:
64.9 miles
5:49 moving time
11.2 average speed
40.1 max speed

Snake count: 2 today
Dog chases: 4