Day 2

I meant to post this last night but as soon as I hit the bed I was out.

Anyway, yesterday was an interesting day. It started out with a nice little baby wipe shower and laundry in a sink type event in a grocery store bathroom. Followed by an interesting conversation with a guy that was drunk at 9 in the morning. Really nice guy but after a half hour talking with him I was ready to get back on the road.

The first stretch had a lot of hills and I was going against some serious winds but nothing I couldn't survive. I came across a parade which was pretty cool. Shortly thereafter I had to adjust my route due to a road closure. Fortunately it was pretty quick and painless.

Shortly before I stopped for lunch I pulled off on the side of the road to take a quick break. Just a quick snack and some gatorade. Well about five minutes later I hear sirens and two cop cars and a fire dept vehicle pull up. Apparently, somebody thought I was a motorcyclist (due to the pannier bags on the back of my bike) that got in a wreck. Haha so me and the officers joked around about it for a bit and I was on my way again.

After my lunch break I knew I was a little bit behind so I was hoping to make up some ground. For the first 20 miles I was excited because it was all flat and I was making up some serious ground. Then disaster struck. Let me tell you, the winds and hills I was complaining about earlier I will never complain about again. These hills I hit were insane. One of them I had to actually push my bike up. I probably wouldn't have had to if I wasn't hauling close to 100 pounds of gear but all that weight made it nearly impossible. Needless to say that slowed me down a bit.

Originally, I was planning on getting some miles in after dark just to get as close to Louisville as I could (at that point I knew I wasn't going to make it all the way) but I surveyed the roads I was taking and realized it might not be such a good idea. So I stopped in a little town close by to find a motel. Couldn't find anything on my own so I stopped by a local restaurant and that's where I met Ted. He directed me to a local B&B but he wasn't sure if it was still open. So I go to check it out. Sure enough it wasn't open. As I'm trying to formulate a new plan, Ted pulls up and sees that it's not open. He then proceeds to ask me if I need to bike the whole way. In response to me saying no, he says, "Just wait here, I'll be back in 10 min with my truck so I can take you to the nearest town." I was so relieved!

So he picks me up and we have some good conversation. Then, I hop on my phone to call the hotels in the town we're headed to. The first one I call has no vacancies and tells me two of the other local hotels don't either. Well, I call the fourth and final one and they don't either (Indy races going on). My heart drops.

We get there and I'm thinking I'm going to have to tent it again which isn't so bad, it was just super cold that night. We pull up to a Best Western and immediately the people out front say, "Somebody having a bad night?" Come to find out two of them work there. They then tell me that they'll set me up and take good care of me. I was welcomed in with such kindness that I will never forget. They found me a room and even gave me $20 off the normal price. I was ecstatic! I was so fortunate to have come across such great people and am very grateful.

I was telling my brother that it's only been one day without normal amenities but I was already so thrilled just to have a sink to wash my hands in.

Well I'm off to Louisville!