Day 22: Bardstown, KY to Upton, KY (59 miles, 979 total)

Today I ran over Amish horse poop. Being free from the burdens of modern technology, it squished under my tire in a manner all together differnt from it's city-slickin' counter parts. Instantly, I knew there was something special about this poop; it was so very pure, simple and of high quality. Yep, that was one special terd, until I squished it.

Seriously, today we biked into some Amish country. We were not really expecting it, but when a horse and carraige carrying two zipperless men past us in the opposite direction, we were pretty convinced.

Today, started with breakfast at the Hampton Inn (Thanks again Joe!). This was my first time staying at a Hampton Inn, so I didn't know what to expect, but that place has one fabulous complimentary breakfast. I had a sausage and egg biscuit, fresh fruit, oatmeal, sausage, eggs, orange juice and cranbery juice. Most of these complimentary breakfasts are a joke, but not this one.

While looking over the maps last night, I started feeling pretty discouraged about our progress. I need to be present and accounted for at Boulder on August 15. So we have that deadline, plus two breaks (of at least five days) for weddings in June and July. Being aware of that, I started feeling like we might run out of time (which would be terrible).

So, I knew we needed to start blasting miles, but there are some hinderances to that. Most come from our reliance on finding a (legal) place to stay for the night. Our guidebook suggested that from Bardstown we go about 38 miles to Hodgenville for the night. Well, if we keep having sub-40-milers we will never make it to Oregon on time, so I looked ahead on the route for the next place to stay. Unfortuneately, that next place was 95 miles away from Bardstown. So we were faced with a rather short day or a extremely long day. Those options are like the choice between Mountain Dew and crab juice, both are terrible.

Looking closer at the map, I found camping available at Upton, KY which is about 15 miles more down the road than Hodgenville, BUT it is 5 miles off the route. Frustrated, I closed the guidebook, folded the map in a half-assed way and set them aside. I discussed my concern about our time constraints with A.K. and together we decided that we would make a decision of where to go in the morning.

At breakfast this morning, A.K. took the time to count the number of days we had from today all the way up to August 7 minus six days in June for Rebus and Nic's wedding and six days in July for Alecia and Matt's wedding (six days is required to travel to and from plus all the duties associated with being in a wedding). That leaves us with 53 days as compared to the 58 days remaining in the guidebook to complete. So, we suddenly find ourselves five days behind schedule!

Obviously, we do not need to follow the guidebook exactly. We can (and will have to) start doubling up a few days of riding. Plus the August 7 deadline isn't strict, but finishing on that day only gives us one week to get back to San Diego, pull our stuff out of storage, rent a truck and haul it out to Boulder to an apartment that I hopefully already have. That is going to be tough. But it won't come anywhwere close to as bad as not finishing this trip. I am determined to finish!

Anyway, the point is that we need to make-up some serious miles and that notion is putting a bit of stress on us and at times, tension between us.

We left breakfast with the plan to ride as though we were going for the 95 mile day, with the option to stop in Upton depending on how we were feeling/doing.

The morning's ride took us through more bluegrass farm country, although we did first pass the Heaven Hill Distillery on our way out of town. A few miles out I rescued another turtle from certain roadkill death. Soon we found ourselves in Howardstown, just shy of 30 miles at 10:30AM. We were making great time, especially conidering how warm it was getting. We stopped in a small market for a cold Gatorade and on we went.

After many more farms and increasing heat, we arrived in Buffalo (11 miles down the road). We stopped in at a tanning salon, errr, I mean market for a bite to eat and another cold drink. Inside we soaked up the cool, air-condintioned climate. After some rest and a quick conversation with a man named "Junior," we were on our way again.

Onward we biked in the heat unitl we arrived in Sonora. Again we stopped for a cold drink and to make the decision about going for the long haul. Thus far, we had been making great time; I was still feeling good, so I was pushing for the long ride. Anne Katherine, on the other hand, admitted that she did not have enough in her to go another 45 miles to the Rough River Dam Campground. We opted to ride the 5 miles south into Upton.

The road to Upton was scarred with marks from the shoes of horses pulling carriages like the one we had seen several miles back. We passed a couple of Amish farms that were selling fresh strawberries, jams, baskets, and quilts. Bill, the owner of the local market here in Upton admitted to us that the Amish strawberries are much better than the ones he sells in his store!

Bill gave us directions to the campground and wished us luck on the trip. We bought a fistfull of broccoli from his store and headed to the campground. On the way, we passed a few Amish on the roadside selling freshly baked goods. The table full of breads, pies and cookies looked really good.

Soon we found the Avery Campground, which is really not much more than an oversized backyard with a lot of grass, a bathhouse, many shade trees, and equally as many hose bibs. We paid the woman 7 dollars to sleep in her backyard and pitched the tent.

Next, we decided to walk down to the Amish bake sale. I am so glad we did too. We bought two bags of cookies and a loaf of bread for $3.50! All of the stuff is wonderful. They were also selling fruit pies for only 4 bucks.

Upon returning to the campground, I promptly took a cold shower (it is still really hot) and A.K. took a nap. She has now been napping the entire time I have been writing. I think I'll wake her now so she can shower and we can get to cooking dinner.

Oh, I almost forgot, Bill the market owner told us that James had been here a few days before. It is funny how he may be about 100 miles ahead of us, but we keep hearing about him!

Adios,
Jeff