I am worried about access to sweet team we move more north and east. Last night we ate in a Mexican Restaurant (nothing else around). I asked for sweet tea, but they did not have any. I watched a stero-type southern man come in for dinner with a nice panama hat on and ask for mountain dew pop. No one available. He asked for sweet tea-no. You should have seen his face!! So he ordered an unsweetened tea and put about 6 packets of sugar in it—not the same.
We left Henderson at 5:40 am. Leaving was easier than arrival as traffic has not picked up.
I have started to notice a change in the “yard art” as we move North/northeast. People have statues of the Virgin Mary. There are still lots of Baptist and Methodist churches and very few Presbyterian.
Our morning has been overcast skies-so welcomed. We travelled on the outskirts of Owensboros, KY (population 55,000) and avoided any traffic. Matter of fact they routed us through corn and soy fields. So nice to ride on these county roads.
We saw our first tobacco fields today. They were small and in the side yard of houses. When we were on the great rivers ride we saw a lot more.
We saw a beautiful brick home and it had statues of giraffes in the front yard. I took a picture for my friend Cathy!
We have noticed that everything is GREEN and growing. We learned from the locals that they had 14 inches of rain in April and everything is growing rapidly.
On our way into Lewisport we saw two nuclear reactors on the Ohio River. They were operating.
As we near the Ohio River and I read more in my book, I come to realize how important the Ohio River was to the African Americans as they sought freedom. If you made it to the Ohio River you knew you were close to freedom, because the system was in place to “conduct” African Americans to freedom. Up through Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee and parts of Kentucky there was not a formal system and African Americans were mostly on their own. Kentucky was much divided in its view point as they had ties to both the north and south. The Term “sold down the river” came from Kentucky during this time due to the fact that you could not be sure whom to trust in Kentucky or they would sell you down the river. It always seemed from the slaves in Kentucky to be “so close, but so far” from the anti-slavery Quakers, Methodists, Presbyterians and free blacks living in Ohio, Indiana and Illinois.
Arrival time 1:00 pm
63 miles, 11.4 mph, 5 hours 23 minutes of ride time and 1700 feet of gain
Critter Count
7 Rabbits
1 majestic blue heron
July 17th Brandenburg, KY (2 more nights in Kentucky. We will drop into Indiana for two nights)
We are in a rhythm on our days as we leave Lewisport, KY at 5:40 am. We are watching the weather closely as they are predicting hot weather this Wednesday and beyond. We are checking the terrain and weather to make changes to our day. Today was supposed to be an 80+ day, but we checked the GPS for a shorter route which included parts of the original plan.
A third of our day was cruising along the Ohio River. Now you might think this is flat-not so. Up and down then more up and down. We climbed up to 800 feet and had a beautiful view of the Ohio River. On the road we saw two turtles strolling across the road. We stopped and Bruce picked them up and placed them on the side of the road. More tobacco fields along the way with corn and soy.
We stopped at the Holt House. It was boarded up but was in the midst of a renovating project. Holt was a leading statesman who pushed to keep Kentucky in the Union during the civil war. He was the presiding judge over the assassination trial for Lincoln. There were 8 convicted and 4 were tried. One them was a woman (Robert Redford made a movie recently regarding this woman called the Conspirator) who was the first woman to be hanged.
SHOUT OUT TO ESTHER HAPPY 19TH MONTH BIRTHDAY!!!
Stats for July 17th
Arrived in Brandenburg at 12:25 pm after a stop at the Dairy Queen. Bruce had a Blizzard and I had a Cherry Arctic Blast.
55 miles, 10.6 mph, 5 hours and 11 minutes, 2600 elevation gain.
Critter count
1 deer
4 dogs
July 18th New Albany, Indiana
Left at 6:40 am-you say “What?” Well we did not realize there would be a time change. So as Bruce is making “I am tired and want to go to bed” noises at 6:00 pm, I am like “Are you joking?” Then we look at the clock in the room and my phone—call the front desk to confirm the time change. So we did set the alarm for 5:00 am to see “how dark it might be” and see that it is pretty dark. Bruce slept a little longer and I did some yoga.
In the evenings we have been playing Cribbage. My Mom and brother used to have pretty challenging games for money, but Bruce and I play for fun. I have won 2 and he has won 1.
To get to Indiana we had to cross the Ohio River. It was early and the bridge was a small bridge. I wondered how come we were going into Indiana for a couple of nights? The reason I learned is to avoid Louisville, Kentucky. It has a population of 500,000+ not a good place for a bike.
The roads today were real country. Dotted with small farms, dogs and very narrow road lanes.
We went into a town of Corydon, Indiana. It is the site of the Battle of Corydon Indiana’s only civil war battle fought on Indiana soil. I also learned that this is the 150th year anniversary of the Civil War.
OK this will be my last rant on restaurants!!! We go into historic Corydon expecting to find a home town café. The one home town café is closed on Mondays. (We also found out that home town cafes also close at 2:00 pm on Sunday or do not open at all) We ask a local where to go for breakfast. He says “over the hill.” Yesss over many hills and we find a McDonalds. (Corporate American have taken over small businesses) Inside are all the locals eating breakfast. One table has all the ladies and the other table has the men. We sit at the ladies’ table. They were so concerned about us. We learned about a road to New Albany that was better than the one we were taking. Love the locals. We were informed the Cassius Clay was born here.
One of the locals talked with us about the weather. He said we were riding “roofer” hours. We start early and try to get off the road by 1:00-2:00 pm. We are watching the weather forecast nightly and the early morning. The next 3 days will be very bad and we are adjusting our riding schedule to try to lower the amount of miles we cover based upon the weather and terrain.
Some of you may have noticed we are hoteling it. Yep—we don’t know if it is our age, but the idea of a tent with the lows of 78 at night and high humidity is not as appealing as a hotel room with air conditioning with or without cockroaches.
Just outside of Corydon, Indiana we saw our first Lutheran church and cemetery. Gosh how weird out in the midst of Baptist country.
In Lanesville, Indiana we saw our first Protestant cemetery, no church. Most of the cemetarys we have seen are either Baptist or family.
We have some “tourist” time in New Albany. We look for a restaurant and the museum. Guess what they are both closed on Mondays. This is the down side of biking we are only here for an afternoon. So we search for a restaurant and find a cute little Cuban Tapa place. Great food—Empanadas.
As we came into town, Bruce got confused and took us down a one way street the wrong way. Oh well we made an entrance.
Stats for July 18th
Arrived in New Albany at 12:00 pm
43 miles, 10.8 mph,4 hours and 2 minutes ride time, 2200 feet of gain.
Critter count
9 dogs
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