Todays ride from Marion to Utica started early about 7.30am. I left the church and rode under grey skies...cool and humid..a weird combination. This was the first ride on the new cassette and it held up ok on a few sharp hills early in the ride. I was making good time as gradually the hills got less steep...either that or I was cruising after my rest in padduca!
Then I got hit with an overwhelming.g hunger...lord knows why as I've been eati.g and resting...anyway I found a small cafe/drugstore in severe and hit the ice cream counter...filled up on Gatorade..m and ms and coke...junk food heaven...all good while riding but its a bad habit and ill have to stop it . Thing is there is never any real food in these small places..well rarely.
That and a weak will ...oh well..its not every year I cycle across america!
I am starting to see tobacco fields now as I get into the heart of Kentucky. They sell chewing tobacco here in the shops...y u c k!!

I spoke to a lady in a wheel chair who was about to have a new knee fitted and had got an exercise bike to work out on...a young lady with a ratio on her back of a tiger she was keen to show me...a guy in a truck who knew more about cycling than me even though he was twice his safe bodyweight and had never even sat on a rodebike...and the fireman at the Utica fire station where I am sleeping tonight. I got to Utica by 1pm and was tempted to keep riding and go for a hundred mile ride and camp at falls of rough...but if it rains again Luke it did last night it would not be any fun...besides I'm in no rush and have nothing to prove so I'm happy with my 68 miles for today.

The fire station here has an air con room where they have.kindly let me sleep..showers and a tv. I think English fire stations should be as accomodating to cycle tourers.

My left knee is still hurting ..that was the knee they cut out the cartiledge from a few years ago...I have painkillers though.

It has cooled down a lot recently...there was even a point this morning when I was tempted to teach for.my base layer!

I've been looking at the maps for the last two sections of the transam. I have 966 miles left to Yorktown. My return flight is booked for Sept 15. That means I only need to ride 34 miles a day. BUT...I want to have time to see the civil ear battlefields on Virginia so I will still ride at least 50 miles a day.
Also included in those miles are the mountains in Virginia.

I'm starting to think I could ride this ride all over again back to the west coast...or just keep going up the east coast to New York and beyond...the limiting factor is of course cash...I just need to figure a way to bum around on a bike forever for free and that'll be my life sorted...dream on eh lol!

The people alo.g the route today were all friendly as usual...only two loose pitbulls but they went away when I shouted at them. Kentucky is green..and after the storm last night the streams have muddy water in them. There is still a lot of rain up there I sense.

I.should have kept riding I think. I could have got over a hundred miles in I am sure and now I'm unable to sleep because I haven't done enough exercise for the day! To wired.

Thing ill go and play.with a fire engine or something lol!

Todays ride can be summed up in a few words...hills...headwind...hills and sunshine. The countryside here is very nice rolling hills...some of which are pretty sharp. The wind wasn't strong but constant. I rode from Utica to a nice place to camp just past Hudson...68 miles. I didn't feel to well mostly due to an overdose of junk food from gas stations...so I didn't eat all day and drank lots along the way. My knee is still hurting on these hills.

I met Ben riding to san fransisco and he suggested I stay at a place he had  been at. Here I met Lucy and Arnold who kindly let me pitch my tent on their land and then invited me to join them for dinner. I can only say that these are genuinely wonderful people...to invite me in and have me join them for the family meal..a total stranger...the hospitality was very much appreciated. Fresh food including beans and tomatoes grown in the garden here...its great to eat fresh food after a tiring ride.

Earlier I met a couple from Austria as well...very nice people and I wish them well on their trip to the west coast.

So here I am in a rocking chair on a porch in Kentucky having made new friends . All in all a good day.

The menu at a gas station in falls of rough

This is Ben riding east to west...we met on the road today..good luck Ben!

Flo and Klara from Austria riding east west...good luck guys!

And todays award for the most killer hill goes to this beauty...the camera doesn't show how steep it was!

Fresh beans shelled and cooked for dinner tonight

Falls of rough kentucky

Rough river

Home for tonight

Riding today in Kentucky was very much like riding through an English summer in the countryside in places...with the exception of the limitless churches of all kinds of denominations...pitbull terriers trained to attack cyclists on sight and tobacco and soya bean crops . Sunny and warm but not hot and the headwind was steady and just enough to drag on the thighs. This state is green...very green...people are friendly and expert lawn mower drivers lol!
The dogs are a pest...some owners cage them but it only takes one pitbull to mess up my trip....bear spray and a firm kick on the head with a size 12 seem to keep the owners at bay anyway...lol!

I stopped at Braham Lincolns birth house....its housed in a big shrine of some kind...its a log cabin held together with mud...I couldn't find his hat anywhere.

I was tempted to go to mammoth caves..but it was an 80 miles detour from the route and I'd just worry about Shinto while I was in the caves...besides I've seen caves before.

I've been climbing steadily all day..I suppose this the approach to the mountains that are ahead ad I get nearer to west Virginia.

Tonight I am in bardstown Kentucky...ill camp on the my old Kentucky home state park...eat at subway and get some fresh food inside me .

I was told there is a big meth problem here...guns and.dogs seem to be a bigger problem. As an Englishman the culture of churches guns dogs alcohol and crystal meth just seems weird...especially when its such a beautiful part of the state.

Anyway I'm just riding through.

AbrHam lincolns birthouse.