Thursday the 12th Proves Worse than Friday the 13th

It's been a long while, and here I sit on a Saturday night at the Baja Cafe in Damascus, Virginia. Yes, I'm already in Virginia!!!

Here's the news:

From Chester, IL, we rode to Carbondale, IL, a nice university town, lots of hippies, you know how I love hippies! We stopped in at the co-op there and it was awesome and rocking the local food scene. I had some kombucha!!! Then at just the right moment we rode over to the best bike shop in town and there was Len, didn't think I'd see him again. He was thrilled to see us, and he invited me to his big shindig in San Francisco in September when he finishes his trip. Len has since headed north on the Underground Railroad trail to the Northern Tier to end in Bar Harbor, Maine. After we talked to Len, he rode on to the next town, and I checked my email to see if one of the warmshowers contacts had gotten back to me. Indeed he did and said he was out of town, but if we didn't take anything from his place, it was unlocked and we were free to stay. So, we stayed at this guy Ben's place in Carbondale. Wow! He was out of town alright, the electricity had been shut off, it was stuffy and humid in his upstairs apartment, a sink full of crusty dishes, rotting avocado shells stacked up in the kitchen. Very interesting accomodations... That night, there happened to be a concert in the park, so Paul and I went to check that out. It was some half decent band from Chicago that played a few Lucinda Williams covers, so that redeemed them.

From Carbondale, we hauled 100 miles in the heat to Sebree, KY where we stayed in an incredible church hostel (The First Baptist Church). It was soooo nice, mattresses and all. Len also caught back up with us for the night.

The next day, we rode to Rough River Dam and along the way, Paul and Dave took a shortcut, but I decided to stay on the route, and thank goodness I did. The shortcut turned out to have several steep hills, whereas the route was moderately hilly. I also got to go through the town of Whitesville, where the people were very kind and generous. One man bought me a juice, and two guys offered me a ride, but I took their wishes for a good journey instead. When I caught up to Paul and Dave again later, they were sitting down having some beers with some hillbillies. I sat down for a cold glass of water. The rednecks offered for us to stay for dinner and feast on a variety of meats on the grill like raccoon and turkey and goat and they were also going to deep fry some vegetables and fish. Paul and I passed and went on to camp, but Dave stuck around and met us at camp later.

The next day, we rode to Hodgenville, KY and on the way, we met three guys who were doing a supported ride from San Diego to Virginia Beach to raise money for children of Gulf War soldiers who died in combat. Two of them used to be Navy Seals. We also stopped at a roadside stand and I got some local fruits and veggies. That night, we were going to camp in the park, but we all went to a Mexican Restaurant, and on the way back to the park, Paul and Dave stopped for ice cream. I kept going back to the park, and while I was talking on the phone to my friend Alex (hey Alex!), the guy locked the gate to the park, so I was locked in and Paul and Dave were locked out. In the end, we decided to pass my stuff (gear and bike and me) over the fence and we just camped behind the high school. Go figure after I got out, two women who lived right there and must have witnessed the whole thing asked if we wanted to the gate opened because they could get it opened and they said the guy who locked it was a crazy case. The whole situation made about as much sense as the mullet one of the women was sporting, so we declined their offer and just stayed behind the high school.

The next day we rode to Harrodsburg, KY where we met the Youth Minister of the Methodist church there and he told us we could camp in the churchyard there. Nothing too exciting there, except that we ended up at the police station the next morning filing a report...

From Harrodsburg, we rode to Berea, KY where Paige came and picked us up and we stayed with their family, who I had contacted through warmshowers. Paige and Andy, and their daughters, Clare and Lillian were great. Paige made vegan Boca burgers for dinner and oatmeal in the morning. She even went out of her way to buy me soy yogurt and soy milk. Andy told me all about his life and his work, which was quite interesting. I watched George of the Jungle with Clare and Lillian showed me her garden that Paige helped her start. Clare is in second grade and Lillian is going into middle school (she was so excited!) Before we left the next morning, Paige gave us all pages from a coloring book that Clare had colored for us. They were so great, and they left a good lasting impression of Kentucky.

From Berea, we officially entered Appalachia. We started with rain the whole day and the climbs just got worse and worse as the day went on. In case you're wondering why I haven't been tallying my flat tires, it's because I haven't had any until about 25 miles outside of Booneville, KY. That's right, my first flat of the whole trip, and of course on the rear tire. I changed it with lightning speed and we kept rolling. That night we stayed at a campground in Buckhorn, KY near the bottom of the dam.

Then it was Thursday the 12th....gasp!....As we were set to leave Buckhorn, I discovered a broken spoke on the cassetted side of the rear wheel, of course. We worked on it for almost two hours and the new spoke just would not thread. Turns out that the idiots at the bike shop in Eugene cut my spare spokes too short. Paul had the ingenious idea of creating a temporary spoke by cutting one of his longer ones and bending it to hold its place and it worked, I've been riding on it ever since. I was hoping to get it fixed here in Damascus, but the bike shops here are sorry little tourist rental shops, so I'll keep riding it until I encounter a decent shop. More on Thursday the 12th....gasp!....As we're riding along, Paul's front tire was making weird noises, so he stopped to check it just before a descent, and the sidewall of his tire was ripped and his tube was busting through, rubbing his brakes, and about to explode on him, so he had to change out to his spare tire. Then just near Hazard, KY, Dave was having shifting problems. At a stoplight, he looked down, and saw that his bottom bracket had come loose and a bearing had actually fallen out, but luckily was sitting right there on his crank where he could grab it and pull over and fix it. Thursday the 12th....gasp!....

Friday the 13th, we rode with no real problems. Paul and I had to walk up a hill for the first time. It was liberating and humbling and really fucking steep all at the same time.

And here I am in Damascus. Tomorrow is a rest day and Paul's friend Lisa is coming down from Cincinnati, OH tomorrow to drive SAG for us for three days to get us through the mountains. I cannot wait. These hills are going to be so much more fun on an empty bike. Thanks Lisa!!!

One thing I've learned: when things stop being fun, figure out how to make them fun!