meanest dogs, friendliest people

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Next day I zoomed through Whitesville and made it to Sebree: it was my longest day yet: 77 miles.

Here are some notes about riding and Kentucky:

-There are these big beetles that fly and hit you so hard it’s like being snapped with a rubber band.

-The heaviest headwinds seem to come in the wake of passing semis.

Sebree
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-The librarian in Berea told me this story. They had notices for people to keep an eye out for drug addicts, and listed a description. They'll wear sunglasses to hide their eyes and long sleeves to hide track marks. They will look skinny and undernourished and of course have terrible personal hygiene. He said he read the notice and thought that, though he didn’t know about drug addicts, they’d given a spot-on description of a bicyclist.

-I have two spots on my face on either side of my nose where my skin is dry and chapped. They are right where drips of sweat, running down the crease of my nose from my sunglasses like little salt tears, run onto my cheeks and I repeatedly wipe them away with the back of my gloves.

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-Lawns and gardens are meticulously maintained.

-The people in Kentucky are as kind as their dogs are defensive and snarling.

- From a local “The black barns you saw are tobacco barns. Regardless of what you think of tobacco use, it's a beautiful plant in the early fall when it turns golden yellow. Raising tobacco is very labor intensive, these days much of the labor comes from hispanic workers that travel between farms. The income from tobacco is what has helped Kentucky stay a state of small family farms. The tobacco quota system ended several years ago and many small farmers have struggled ever since to make ends meet. Some raise cattle. Kentucky is a state of contradictions, it’s in the Bible belt but is mostly known for vices such as tobacco, bourbon and race horses. Kentucky families split between the north and south during the Civil War. Even now northern states consider Kentucky a southern state, southern states consider it a northern state."

Cute farm in Amish country
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-In Sebree, the neighbors to the Baptist church call you in from the road, into their home, get you a cold drink, set you up a mattress in the youth rec-room in the church, give you a clean towel and a shower, take all your dirty things to be washed, then sit you down at their own dining table and stuff you as full of home grown, home cooked food as they possibly can. They ask you about your trip like you’re the first and bravest person they’ve met crossing the U.S. on a bike, and not the hundredth this year.

- She wanted to wash All of my clothes, but when I tossed my socks on the pile I thought, “it seems a shame to wash them again already after only 3 days.” Three days -nearly 200 miles- same socks!?! Yeah, Roden, they’re really too clean to need washing already.