Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Dogs, Appalachia and Noisy Bread

Day 56, August 26, Utica to Madrid, 76 miles, 4600 feet ascent

My intestinal track is not happy, but on I ride, starting at about 11:00AM. Shortly after I start, a golden retriever, tried to....well retrieve me. Not as a friend. He came within 3 feet of me at full speed. I waited, aimed and hit him right between the eyes with my pepper spray. That dog learned two things that day: Bicyclists do not always good targets and this was not a good day for him. The additional favor he can not get, is that I may have saved him from being hit by a car and of course any driver would not get hurt.
Otherwise uneventful, all of it beautiful. I found a nice level ground behind a church and made camp.
One interesting event has been radio. I have only listened to (Internet) radio maybe two hours total. The station was NPR (know to the more conservative folks as "Radio Free Havana"). They had a series on farming in America. I was an awesome feeling to ride through some of the kind of fields they were talking about. Honorable mention: My shoulder. It has completely healed and I now ride pain free. Isn't the human body awesome?



Day 57, August 27, Madrid to Bardstown, 77 miles, 3700 feet ascent

A few more dogs chase me. I met up with a German guy, who said it well: Why would you let your dogs run onto sometimes very busy street if you love them? He found good words. He also told me about a great website warmshowers.com. They connect long distance bicycle riders with people willing to host them. I have signed up since.
Otherwise uneventful day. Still not feeling well. By the end of the day I was so finished, and so hot, I needed a motel. I just could not stay out. Felt good.
I must say Western Kentucky felt like a harder place than Missouri or Kansas, people have not been as open or friendly to me. Even the religious messages were more pointed. On one Baptist church the sign read:
Speak to be heard
Move to be seen
Shut up about your accomplishments



Day 58, August 28, Bardstown to Berea, 93 miles, 5900 feet ascent

 A few more dogs, one more sprayed. I was riding through tobacco fields. Never knew what they looked like. It is a natural plant, not all natural is good. I saw some trucks with the harvest of about 3000 pounds of the leaves on the back of a trailer. When they stopped, I asked them if they had a smoke. They said no....and did not think it was funny. I did.
I was so sick that I started looking for a motel at around fifty miles or so. Then I got very lost.
Changed course to a bigger town of more than 4000 people. There was no motel. At first I felt defeated. But all that know me, that never is more than a fleeting moment. First I decided to reward myself. I bought a large can of beer, not really knowing how that would affect my body, the state it was in or effect any more riding. Well it was like medicine, I do not understand why. Believe me, it was still not an easy ride, but I rode about 40 more miles, bought groceries. By the way I confirmed again, why you should not go to the store hungry. Here is a list of what I bought for dinner/breakfast:
1/2 Gallon of rice milk
2 Bananas
3 Plums
2 Avocados
4 lb Of oranges
1 lb Of sausage
1lb  Of bread
2 lb Of frozen vegetables
12 oz Box of blueberries
This was so big, I could not of it into my trailer. I rode one mile with those bags on my handle bars,wobbling like a drunk sailor. I found a city park, ate and....crashed
It was one of those rare times, I slept the sleep of an exhausted man.



Day 59, August 29, Berea to Booneville, 53 miles, 4200 feet ascent

I woke up to a headache. Having gluten sensitivity, and haven eaten a pound of bread for dinner, was of no help, I am certain. In my defense, it was the first loud (crunchy) bread I had seen since I left Carson City, Nevada. I had actually seen a few places before that sell baguette, but they were always out. It was the first day of the trip I took some Ibuprofen in order to ride. To be exact, three, during the day. I could not get going until 11:00AM.  I was entering the Appalachian mountains. The initial climb out of the city was very hard. It was really hot. I have never sweat so much in my life. The only way I could ride was with my bandanna over my forehead to stop sweat from from running into my eyes.The town had a nice setup behind a church, available to people like me. A sink, cool shower, benches and a roof. It was very comfortable. I was grateful and slept decent, almost 7 hours.



Day 60, August 30, Booneville to Hindman, 66 miles, 6400 feet ascent

I got going. Very nice weather. I had gotten lost more days than not, for the last 2 weeks. This day was no exception. I did not know exactly where I was and had been riding on one of the scariest roads of this trip, when I had another flat. The first one on my front tire. This tube held more than 3000 miles. Not bad. Lucky me, it happened next to a side road and I saw a cool, four feet long snake. A harmless black racer. I was able to videotape it sliding into it's den. Bad news, I was out of tubes, the old one had burst. I forgot to restock, dam logistics. A really nice guy picked me up, brought me to his brothers house, who used to own a bike shop, fed me grapes and gave me water. Just a sweet person. His brother who used to ride a lot locally, had crashed because of a dog before and get this, once because of a squirrel. It ran perpendicular into his front wheel, got stuck in the spokes and the turned into the fork, where.... it could not fit. I bought two tubes and started to install them. As I pulled out my tools from the little bad beneath my saddle, I found a hmmm, sigh, a tube. Embarrassed, I quickly zipped it shut.
I continued riding and landed up in Hindman as darkness fell. I knew there was a bicycle hostel. Even with help, it was very hard to find. Almost no signage. The road leading up to it had an astonishing     26% grade for the last 100 yards or so. It was the first time I pushed my bike up a hill, in my socks, so I can bend my toes for enough grip. I roused the unhappy owner of the hostel. He complained that I should have called, even though he knew that it was left off my map to do so, and thus I could not have known. He fed me dinner and I slept in a very large made, up for this, tent. I was the only guest, nice.


Day 61, August 31, Rest day

I landed up warming to David, my beautifully quirky host. We talked quite a bit. He had a snake phobia, while living amongst them. He was a good resource for some things. In 20 years of living on this property, surrounded by woods, he had seen 7 venomous snakes on his land. Killed them all.
He had been a teacher and an actor among other things and I enjoyed his wit and humor. He served beautiful dinners and breakfasts to all his guests. Late in the day, I was joined once more with Darin who arrived at the hostel. We were genuinely happy to see each other and exchanged stories. It was a nice and relaxing day.  




Dietmar's tidbits and other silly questions.


What is the third ingredient in Tropicana 100% juice after water and concentrated juice?
Natural Flavoring


What is natural flavoring?  (without Google please)
The answer is in the book "Fast Food Nation"


How many of you, are uncomfortable about how little we know about what we eat?


How many ingredients are in (at least the one I found) white, enriched, healthy, bread (counting white flour as one)?
39


Total miles so far:  3312 miles

Total ascent so far: 214.400 feet



3 comments:

  1. Dietmar

    Work friend of Astrid. Just caught up today. I've been reliving my college days solo motorcycle journey across the US.. complete with several flat tires, and a dive into loose gravel on the side of a Wisconsin highway. I bike, but 50 miles and 4000 feet is the best I've done. I can't even imagine 200K elevation gain. Just think, even this intensity will fade. But right now, isn't it incredible! It is just reading
    about it.

    Thanks including all of us.


    -neil

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  2. Hadn't read your blog in a long time. Seems like ride has been the adventure you had hoped for :) Will revisit your blog soon. Missing you in the neighborhood
    .

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  3. I had no idea that the dogs were so bad that you had to spray some nearly every day--eek! No wonder I had no dog problems in Kentucky...they were probably still recovering from you when I biked by the day after. So, thank you?

    And it was great to see you again in Hindman. How pleasantly shocked I was when I saw you in the passenger seat of the car coming back from groceries!

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