Day 2: Berea KY to London KY
Well, that was a lovely stay at the historic Boone Tavern Hotel. For the first time on one of these tours I have opted for a single room rather than rotating roommates. I made the decision early in the registration process when I was a little more concerned about covid issues. Lots of upsides to the arrangement, and those who routinely do it say I'll never go back. One upside I'm enjoying right now is being able to set the temperature as I please and keeping the room cool enough for me to sleep comfortably. Downside is not having a roommate to chat with, and not getting to know the other ladies as well, particularly the new ones. So far, though, the upsides are winning.
The hotel provided us with a buffet breakfast in a private dining room. Very nice, but we know better than to get used to it! Nice flowers in the garden on the way out to the trailer.
We use both good old-fashioned cue sheets and Ride with GPS files on our phones for navigation. The Ride with GPS files are particularly nice because they "talk" to you - alerting you of upcoming turns or points of interest and again when you need to make the turn. The app also gives us the elevation profile for the day and how many "climbs" we have ahead of us. Today was supposedly 6 climbs, although some people apparently had 7 identified for them, and - I don't have a clue what qualifies as a "climb". Our biggest climb of the day was within the first 10 miles, but it was fine - grade about 6% for the whole thing.
We continued with "rollers" off and on all day, and some of the longer climbs had a lot of double digit climbing in them - never a good thing for me. Seventeen percent was the highest I saw, although my GPS tends to not register the grade when I'm going too slow. All to say - it was a very hard day! But - looking ahead - there are several much harder ones still to come.
The area that we rode through was rural/country/hill country. Very green and treed. There doesn't seem to be a lot of farming, per se, but a few cows, horses, sheep, and alpacas were sighted.
Houses were pretty basic and there were a lot of trailers. Not a lot of money around these parts. Oh - and quite a few barking dogs. Thankfully most are fenced, although two did run out onto the road as they chased us. Plain and simple - I hate it when dogs do that (and when owners let them). I really don't want to be bitten, but I also really don't want to have them knock me off my bike or get caught in my spokes. Everyone made it through safely, but a lot of elevated heart rates in the moment.
Lots of photogenic (and patriotic) dilapidated barns.
We stayed mostly on quiet backroads all day. The upside is very little traffic, and I must say that all the drivers have been very patient with us. The downside is no shoulder and sometimes they were in need of a little maintenance. One short section of road was gravel and was much safer to walk.
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