Kiki Bikes Across America

June 7th – Booneville, KY to Berea, KY

Got a late start today – I didn’t want to wake up when the GPS alarm went off, so turned it off and rolled back over and to sleep again. I finally woke up when Chris asked if I was awake – the guys probably woke up 5 minutes or so before me. I got up and we started packing, we all had oatmeal for breakfast and that was pretty tasty. The couple from Holland left probably around 8:30 or so, we didn’t leave until almost 10am, a pretty late start. We let our tents dry out though in the morning sun and my solar panel got the sun it needed to become fully charged! Then we rolled out and were on our way. The day was a bit slow with some hills, and some really short, but steep ones – not so fun at all. We were all pretty tired of hills and exhausted and I finally started to feel like I was fatigued from all the hill climbing. It has taken 13 days for me to feel this way which I think is pretty good… we’re now over 750 miles into the trip, and our bodies are getting used to the grueling days of biking for 5-6 hours a day. It’s pretty intense but it’s nice to see we’re finally making some real progress and halfway across Kentucky already!

I think today was one of the most tiresome days, probably half due to the fact that we were all looking forward to our rest day in Berea tomorrow and we just wanted to be there. At least that’s how I felt a bit – I just wanted to be relaxing and able to sleep in. Luckily, I was able to contact a few couchsurfers before leaving Hindman yesterday and asked them to send a text message if it was possible to stay with them. I heard back from 3 out of 4 people I emailed and had good responses. We wound up accepting an offer to stay with Brittany and John Stolz here in Berea. They are a really nice couple and super friendly and welcoming and we’re going to just stay here, run a few errands and hopefully do a lot of relaxing.

A few highlights from today:

• Chris ran over a LIVE black snake. The snake wasn’t happy and got in the position to lash out and bite – George rode past just after Chris. I was luckily a little further back and saw that it was a snake and it was about to attack, giving me enough time to move to the far left lane of the road to pass by so it would have little chance of biting me. It was really mad an aggrivated – after all, Chris did run over it (by accident – he didn’t realize it was a snake until it was too late).
• Chris seemed to be the main target today for dog chases – he was chased 3 times and of those three times George and I were able to pass by the same dogs without much of a chase or problem at all. I think the dogs really must like Chris, or maybe because he was the first in line passing by…so the first target!
• Hot showers and yummy food + ice cream x 2 for today (snickers ice cream and then later tonight in Berea we went to Blondie’s for ice cream)
• A futon to sleep on!
• Donuts in the morning:)
• Sleep, rest, relaxation awaits us all!

More about Kentucky:

• There is a lot of poverty in eastern Kentucky – lots of trash, broken down cars, junk yards, etc.
• The roads are in very poor condition with holes, parts of the road missing along the edge. You really have to be careful when biking to pay full attention as otherwise you may find yourself in a bad accident going into a hole or missing part of the road.
• EVERYONE has trampolines – I mean it, everyone. Yes, I wrote about this the other day.
• When people pass cyclists here, they seem more considerate than in Virginia (overall). Some are not so considerate, but I think the majority are more so and give you more space, slow down more, and wait to pass. In Virginia, people are more hectic and can’t wait 5 minutes for you to climb a steep hill, they pass immediately.
• Berea, KY has about 10,000 people – and 1500 or so are students at Berea College, a college that allows free tuition for students, but they must work at minimum of 10 hours a week to get that free tuition. The college also seems to be very environmentally conscience and eco-friendly with the housing and such they provide for students. It seems like a very cool program and practical so that students that are unable to afford tuition can still get an education by working during their college years.
• Berea, KY does not have a movie theatre! Yet, there is a skating rink and a Walmart supercenter…

Computer Stats:
56.89 miles
5:09:41 moving time
11.0 average speed
37.5 max speed

GPS Stats:
56 miles
5:12 moving time
10.7 average speed
36.7 max speed

Snake count: 7 today (1 live and run over by Chris, 6  others dead)
Dog chases: 5