Day 14 – Sonora, KY to Whitesville, KY

Welp, we’re on the Ohio River tonight. We don’t cross it until Monday morning, but the landscape has changed and you can almost smell the Mississippi. Tuesday we’ll cross the Big River and be in Missouri. Crazy. The crew is making good progress.

The morning started with a ride in the MCC up I-65 to Sonora. As we were unpacking, a local rider cruised by and asked us about the ride. I think we were more interested in the fact he was riding a fixie. I can count on my one hand the number of recreational (ie: not TransAmerica) cyclists I’ve seen on this ride… to see someone on a fixie in rural KY was pretty awesome. Apparently he had just got it and was getting the hang of it. Good luck, man. I’m definitely jealous of your ride 🙂

All in all the ride was uneventful. It was a beautiful day for riding (high 70’s/low 80’s, some cloud cover, and a light breeze from the west). The landscape is starting to flatten out even more, tho we ran in to a pretty serious climb when we crossed the Rough River. It was one of those “ran out of gears and just start mashing pedals” type of climbs. The map says it’s 300′ in elevation and I think we picked most of that up in a 1/4 mile. That climb definitely got JP’s attention.  😉 But he persevered and made it to the top. He’ll be climbing the Alps before too long.

As we ride the TA route, we get a lot of knowing waves from cars that pass us. While we haven’t seen a bunch of TA riders, it’s clear that the locals along the route have seen their fair share and know what we’re going through. It’s always nice as you’re climbing a hill or sweating bullets to have a little encouragement from passers-by. And sometimes we see signs letting us know there are cyclist-friendly folks around. We ran in to a little shop outside of Eastview KY that had the following sign up.

TA cyclists can get a bite to eat and camp in their yard. Very cool. We spent a few minutes talking to the proprietor who was very interested in our story. Apparently he was having a bluegrass band in tonight and was hopeful some cyclists would be around to enjoy it. Unfortunately we’re about 60 miles downrange from him and can’t make it. Maybe some other westbound folks are there tonight…

JP is still a bit beat up from all the climbing in Western VA and Eastern KY. He ground out 46 miles and called it a day. I pushed through to our end point at Whitesville and hitched a ride in the MCC to the hotel in Owensboro. After we got settled in, Heidi and I cruised around town a bit to get a feeling for the place. We ended up at Breck’s Bike Shop looking for some Chamois Butt’r. (for those that don’t know, Chamois Butt’r and products like it are designed to help lubricate your skin so that long rides in the saddle don’t turn in to a “pain in the ass”. Oh yeah, I went there).

We pulled in to the parking lot at 4:02. Right as we were pulling in, a couple of cars were pulling out. I was afraid that they had just closed, and indeed that was the case. However, upon seeing the MCC emblazoned with all the logos and URL’s, one of the cars backed up. It was one of the Breck’s staff who had just closed the shop for the day. He asked what we needed, and I obliged . He jumped out with a smile and opened the store back up for us. Very, super cool. It’s fantastic to go to an LBS that goes the extra mile like that. If you’re ever in the Owensboro area and need something bike related, stop on by Brecks 🙂 Note: they’re getting a fancy new roof on the building, but I imagine the crane will be gone by the time you get there.

Also in Owensboro, we saw the World’s Largest Sassafras Tree. Yes, that’s a thing. Apparently it was saved from being cut down by a “local woman with a shotgun”. Heidi risked life and limb for the photo below. Seriously, a storm was blowing in and the first photo she took was blurry because she was getting pushed around by the wind.

That’s it for the day. Time to fill the water bottles for tomorrow and hit the sack. We’re taking a bit of a detour tomorrow because we can’t find anywhere even close to the route to spend the night. Our next update will be from Paducah. Yep. Paducah. I’m stoked to finally go to Paducah.