Day 15 – Utica, KY to Marion, KY

Well, we’re in Paducah. It should be noted, don’t mock Paducah. I might have poked at this city in yesterday’s post. Unfortunately it exacted its revenge.

Another great day weather wise. It’s hard to argue with the weather we’ve had so far on this ride. It was chilly enough to throw on arm warmers for the first little bit. Today was the flattest day we’ve had since day 2, but the landscape was decidedly different. Farms as far as the eye could see for most of the day.

 

We rallied in Clay KY (about 46 miles in) for lunch. Heidi got there in advance of JP and I  and started setting up shop. Apparently an elderly local had been eyeing the MCC on the way in to town and stopped by to chat about the Airstream.  Heidi gave him a tour of the MCC and showed him all the features. He also mentioned hosting some cyclists a few years back – letting them camp in his yard.  Gotta love small towns.  And who knows, maybe Clay KY will be home to the newest Airstream owner in a few days. 🙂

Lunch was at a park, so the boys were able to get out and stretch their legs. Dax is still not 100% slide safe, but thankfully his brothers are happy to (try to) help.

We finished the ride up in Marion KY. On the ACA route, we’d be crossing the Ohio on a ferry at Cave in Rock. Unfortunately there’s not an available hotel for miles in any direction on either side of the river. So we went for the next closest Ohio crossing that was near the route, Paducah. Paducah isn’t really “on” route but we can get started just across the Ohio tomorrow and ride north to rejoin the ACA route. I was hopeful to be able to ride right out from the hotel, but that would mean we’d have to find a bridge that was bike friendly to go across the river. So before we hit the hotel, we decided to try the bridges to see if they were passible.

First off, we hit a huge traffic jam on the way in to town on the interstate. One lane was closed and traffic was backed up for over a mile at a total crawl. We finally got off the highway and checked out the bridge on US-45 over the Ohio. Turns out it’s a 2 lane steel deck bridge that must be about a mile long. It’s narrow enough to have a 25 mph speed limit. Totally not safe for bikes.

 

Then we decided to loop back and check the interstate bridge on the off chance there was a sidewalk or bike path on it or something. We hit another work zone heading across the bridge. This one actually stopped traffic for nearly 30 minutes.  So we sat, and sat, and sat on the bridge… Not only were we only 4 miles from the hotel, it was clear there was no way to get a bike across this bridge. So the trip across the river was a total bust. We spent well over an hour verifying that there’s no way to ride a bike across the river. Paducah was angry that I mocked it, and it returned the favor by mocking me.

We also learned that below 10mph, our GPS will give us speeds at 1/10th mph resolution. Cuz that’s useful.

There’s a rail bridge to the west. Maybe we’ll try that in the morning.

 

Tomorrow we start riding in Metropolis IL. I would say something like “Metropolis is not aptly named” but I’m afraid that would come back to bite me.