DOR 13

Day of ride 13…. perhaps the happiest/sad day of the trip.

It’s my last day of riding for my first leg.  Only 50 miles so that means getting to camp early and hanging out with the family.  This is such a fantastic group of riders.  I know they will still be fabulous in CO but I’m extremely happy that I had the chance to get to know them for the past two weeks.  It just flew by (except for when we were climbing the hills).   I’m gonna miss a lot of fun and good times but not a day will go by that I won’t think of them.

Today’s ride was still hot, even early in the day but thankfully we are leaving the mountains so the climbs were shorter and mostly not as steep.

Dogs are still chasing us around almost every corner.  Not sure what happened when we crossed the border but the dogs are definitely more interested in us.  Mostly they get excited that we are riding by.  They sprint after us, most are too old or too fat to make it out of the yard but occasionally one will keep up and hang with us until we send it home with a squirt of our water bottle in the face.  Our precious, precious water.

I’m gonna miss life on the road but I must be thankful for having this opportunity.   I do have a great job that I must attend to and a puppy that misses me (I’m sure).

Kentucky is nice.  Things are going to flatten out and probably get windy real soon, so I’ll have to keep up with the rider blogs.  A few people are blogging and that will either make me miss them more or maybe (hopefully) feel like I haven’t left.

Tonight we are in another dry town… actually not completely dry, it’s moist.  Which means there is beer somewhere, we just have to find it.  So we did.  One restaurant had beer.  Had.  We bought all of it.  Kip claims I drank a third of it.  That might be true.

I have found my people!   And now I must leave them.

My hammock hangs in a soccer goal, we are camping in a sports field in Berea tonight.  Population is around 14,000 so that’s a nice change from the Hindman and Boonevilles of KY.  Fun fact for you, the students that attend college here go for free.  Tuition is covered and they are all required to work a job for the school to earn that tuition.  Acceptance rate is about 11%.  Sounds like a pretty sweet deal!

All right, as much as I’d like to stay up all night and never have to leave, it’s bedtime in Berea.

-mlg