Date: 2007-04-20
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

4-20-07Elizabethtown, Ky854 milesI made some Starbuck's in the room coffee maker, then walked down to the lobby and had breakfast. That's a great way to start a day. :-))We got packed up and left at 7:50am. I had my windshirt on when I walked outside, but it was only about 50 degrees, so I took that off and packed it away. I rode in my light weight shirt and was comfortable.Mrs Gorp wanted to stop in half a mile after we started, so I could adjust her saddle again. We got that to where it felt right to her and we took off.The hills are so nice to ride through. We can keep up a good speed and still see the countryside.We got about 25 miles down the road and I stopped at a store with a bench out front. I called Ernst at the bike shop and had him forward the crank to a Carbondale, Il bike shop.My crank is nice and solid now, but there is a small grinding noise, so I'll have the next bike shop see if they can find that and fix it.I went in the store and bought some fried shrimp and a salmon patty. I couldn't pass them up because they smelled so good. Mrs Gorp helped me eat MY snack. :-))I also called my good ol' buddy Chief and made arrangements to send my photo card to him. He's going to post any photos that he thinks might be of interest. I'm not responsible for the captions he will write though. This could be dangerous. Ha!! :-))The morning's ride was very nice with light traffic, but we got into about 15 miles of heavier truck traffic early in the afternoon.The truck traffic left when we got into Bardstown, Ky. That's the place where the Jim Beam and Maker's Mark distilleries are. I had a cup of coffee. :-))I remembered that I forgot to have my mail forwarded when I left home, so I walked into the PO and filled out the card for that.We rode on and were really enjoying the sunny, warm weather and the beautiful Kentucky countryside.We averaged over 4mph faster than normal. In the 5 hours we rode today, that's 20 miles!!....a big difference. It's like free miles. :-))We came up to a small country store just as my stomach started growling and I stopped and had a couple hotdogs and a coke.We headed on and got to Elizabethtown, Ky. We had made arrangements the other day to meet up with a good Appalachian Trail friend by the name of Grassy Ridge '02 for dinner tonight.I got to take a short nap after I got cleaned up. When Grassy Ridge showed up, I got a nice hug. :-))Even though Grassy Ridge and Mrs Gorp had started hiking the AT from Springer the same day on March 1st, '02, they had never met. They both knew lots of the same hikers from that year and had fun talking about them....some names I had forgot about.We went to a steakhouse and had a nice dinner. I had a ribeye and it was delicious. :-))We ended up talking for an hour or two, then Grassy Ridge dropped us off at the motel and after another hug, she headed home.It was great seeing Grassy Ridge and now she better understands some of the things I have to endure from Mrs Gorp. ;-))4-21-07Falls Of Rough, Ky905 miles so far.I was a little slower packing this morning, so Mrs Gorp walked across the road and brought me back a large coffee. I may be a little slower each morning from now on. ;-))We knew it was going to be warm today, so we headed out early. It was still almost 8am before we were under way though.We rode through the town of Elizabethtown, then the road became less traveled and we were back in beautiful countryside. It's still rolling hills and it's still such a pleasure to be able to ride along and just be easily spinning the cranks and making good mileage.We got about 15 miles and I stopped at a convenience store and had a Coke.We didn't realize until late in the day, but we crossed the time zone just east of Madrid, Ky. We get a whole extra hour to live today!!We were pedaling along and I started getting hungry just about when I spotted a convenience store with a restaurant. We went inside and I got a meatball sub and Mrs Gorp got a chicken salad sandwich.It was a busy little place because we were getting near Rough River. The were lots of boaters out today.When we took off, we came to the downhill to the river and it was steeper than anything we've had in a while. I got up to 43 mph again, but on the uphill side was the steepest hill we've climbed yet.I pedaled up the first part of the hill and my legs were burning. I thought I'd make it OK, but when I rounded the corner, I could see I was only about a quarter the way up, so I got off and walked the bike up.I was ahead of Mrs Gorp when I saw a dog in a farm yard act like he was stalking me. As I rode by, he came out and was trying to bite my right leg. That's the first time that I really felt like one of dogs was really trying to bite. I sprayed my first dog with pepper spray...and it worked!! That little bugger backed off and squinted it's nose and blinked it's eyes...and left Mrs Gorp alone when she rode by. :-))We kept rolling and i came to a sad roadkill. At first I thought rats were feeding on a dead oppossum, but as I got closer, I saw it was baby oppossums. I guess they were in the mother's pouch when she got hit. Mrs Gorp really didn't like seeing that.We got to Falls Of Rough, Ky and got a room at a local motel.Remember a few days ago when I mailed another 3 pounds of stuff home?? Well, for the last few days, Mrs Gorp has been getting my toiletries bag out off my bike right when we get to where we're staying.I didn't think much about it until today when she admitted (after she got caught), that she had me carrying some of her stuff on my bike because she was upset that I got rid of another 3 pounds. I wonder how she'll react when I return the favor. :-))We went to a local restaurant and I ordered a salad and she ordered a cheeseburger with fries and finished her meal off with a quarter pecan pie and two large scoops of ice cream.She doesn't realize how much she is changing. normally it would be me ordering what she did and she would have the salad.She is also getting a recognizably, distinctly southern accent and I even noticed when she was done with her cheeseburger, she was using her tongue to clean a piece of hamburger from between her teeth. She even tilts her head just a little when she talks to me to make sure she has my attention.I would love to see the first time she and her husband go out to a formal dinner after she gets done with this ride. :-))I keep telling her that when she sits in front of these little stores we've been stopping at, that she needs to quit leaning her elbows on her knees and she need to sit with her legs a little more like a lady. :-))I called ahead to a church hostel that's 70 miles from here to see if we could stay. The lady seemed excited that we were coming through and said we were even invited to a lasagna dinner at 6 tomorrow night. As you can guess, I'm really looking forward to that. :-))4-22-0772.75 miles today...our longest yet978 miles totalSebree, KyWe knew we had a long day today, so we got our earliest start yet...6:30 central time.I had a couple cups of coffee and some mini donuts before we left.It was another mild morning at about 50 degrees. The terrain has had more hills again lately, but the map looks like we may only have 20 more miles of the steeper ones.We did have hills for about 15 miles into Fordsville, Ky. We spotted a beautiful little restaurant. It was beautiful because it was open on Sunday morning. :-))We walked in and the place was packed. That surprised me because this town only has a population of 533 people.I got more coffee and ordered their "Deluxe Breakfast" for about $5.00. It had 2 eggs, a large amount of very good ham, homemade biscuits and gravy and the best homefries I've had on this trip.If I lived in Fordsville, I'd never cook for myself again. :-))We talked to a couple locals and I had to do all the talking because they couldn't understand Mrs Gorp. One guy asked her where she was from about three times and each time she would say, "Vermont". Each time the guy had to ask again. Finally I told him she was from Vermont and he said; "Oh, Vermont". :-))There was a black dog off in the woods. When he saw me, he came out and wanted to play. He was a beautiful medium sized dog with long hair and was running along side of me and hopping around. He followed for about a mile or so before he tired out from the pace.We had another turkey fly out in front of us this morning. A little while later we saw a momma coyote roadkill.The terrain went back to being just nice, rolling hills again and was much easier. The wind started picking up from the south though and when the road would turn more southerly, we would be slowed quite a bit.We stopped in Whiteville and got a Gatorade and took a break. It had become pretty warm today and Mrs Gorp's arms were turning red.I love riding these back roads and seeing all the farms...and very little traffic too.Next stop was Utica for another Gatorade. I was hoping to get a couple hotdogs, but they didn't have any.I was riding along and a fire truck was coming up behind me with sirens on. I was watching him in my mirror and looked around just in time to see a black snake go under my tire. What is it with these animals wanting to go under my tire?? He was OK because I saw him crawl off like nothing happened. :-))I was riding by one farm and saw a few turkeys in the field eating, then a while later, I saw 4 deer running away from me.We were getting tired and stopped at a store in Beech Grove. I got another Gatorade and the lady in there made me 2 hotdogs. The hotdogs around here a fat...about twice the size of regular hotdogs.That gave me enough energy to ride in to Sebree. We went right to the church hostel and were greeted by a very friendly lady by the name of Violet. She showed us where we could stay and told us to make ourselves at home.That shower felt great on these tired bones. :-))Violet did all our laundry. Her husband, Bob, made us some strawberry milk shakes.We were invited to a lasagna dinner and I had two helpings. :-))There were about 100 people at the dinner and Mrs Gorp got to be our spokesperson and tell everyone what we were doing riding in here on bicycles.After dinner, we went over to Violet's home and picked up our clean laundry, then we thanked everyone and went downstairs to the hostel for the night.This place reminds me a lot of the church hostel in Vernon, NJ.Another great day on the Trans Am Bike Trail. :-))