Another morning denial began at 6 AM but Tim poked me out of bed so I sleepily packed up and prepared to start biking. We went outside and Marc and Dennis were also getting ready. I made friends with a cute kitty cat and then we set off for the day. The four off us stayed close for a while and climbed our first mountain together. Then, Dennis and Marc went up ahead and Tim and I took our time. The day involved lots of climbing uphill for infinitely long periods of time and then whizzing fast downhills around switchbacks at breakneck speeds. We bumped into Dennis and Marc again at the bottom of a mountain and Marc told us he'd booked a room at a B&B that evening. He said that the B&B also offered camping to bikers. Tim and I never really plan where we stay until we really have to, but the idea sounded good. They set off and we followed but stopped at a gas station a few minutes later to grab cold drinks. We were about to get going again when some people asked us what we were doing. They went slack jawed when we told them where we were biking to, and one man said that you couldn't pay him to do that. We laughed and started biking again, and were soon confronted with our next mountain. There were 4 or 5 large mountains that day, which was really tiring. To make it worse, Tim got a rear flat tire, so we were on the side of the road unloading the bikes and fixing it. Then, Tim realized the skewer for the b.o.b. trailer was bent so the tire was stuck. He was really irritated because the b.o.b. trailer is a source of never ending and ridiculous problems. He unbent the skewer and got the wheel off somehow. He had a snakebite on his inner tube, so we fixed that, repacked the bikes, and set off again. 30 seconds later, Tim was shaking his head in irritation. Now his left crankarm was loose. We pull off on another side street to fix this problem, and I see Dennis biking the other way. Tim gets his attention and apparently when Dennis was resting at the top of the mountain, a car had stopped and told him that we had our bikes taken apart on the side of the road. He had biked down to make sure we were ok. How awesome is that?
Tim fixed all his problems and we biked up the next mountain. It was a really gradual slope, but neverending. We fell behind Dennis because he is super speedy, but on the other side of the mountain we stopped for milkshakes and lunch. Later in the day, Tim got a second flat tire, so he was really, really annoyed. He threw out that tube, replaced it with a new inner tube, and once again we were on the roads. Later that day, after some navigational difficulties, we found the bed and breakfast in Hindman KY run by a man named David. However, the B&B was located at the top of a steeeeeep hill so we dismount and started pushing our bikes up. When we were almost at the top, Dennis saw us and came running down to help. I really like Dennis; he's enjoying every day, always seems happy to see us, and we're always pleasantly pleased to see him as well. When we got to the top, we met David, who had iced tea waiting for us, and a lot of cats. Apparently they are relatives of Hemingway's cats and have six toes. He had a cheeseball appetizer that he'd made that was quite tasty. He also was a baker, so he showed me some of his favorite cookbooks and I looked through those with a kitten sleeping on my lap. We all ordered pizza together and some were interesting flavors. One had grilled chicken and cheese with ranch sauce instead of pizza sauce. I liked that one a lot. After staying up and chatting, Dennis Tim and I retired to a huge tent that David had set up for cyclists.
Time with Tim!
Left Elkhorn and made out for Hindman today. This was potentially the worst day of biking yet. Here's how I think they surveyed and built the roads over the mountains:
Foreman: "Well, ya'll need to git over that thur hill. What we gotta do?"
Surveyor: "Hell boss, s'a lotta work to plan it all out, ya know?"
Foreman: "Well she-it its drinkin time. Run 'er straight over the damn thing and throw sum curves on the way up."
There are also coal trucks on the way. I've heard they are big and scary, but I've seen scarier. It is just a large truck that excels in pollution. The drivers are pretty courteous and the worst part is smelling the pollution. On today's ride, the graph on my altimeter looked like a sawtooth blade with continuous ups and downs.
We camped behind a bed and breakfast with a cool guy running the place. He had lots of kitties. During the day, I had gotten two flats and one loose crank, so I fixed these before turning in. The bed and breakfast guy gave us ice cream and a tasty cheeseball. During the night a small to medium sized critter skedaddled by our tent. I ignored it and went back to sleep. I assume it was a dragon.
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