Day 20 & 21: Goodbye Jamie! We're off the Transam and headed to Nashville

Berea, KY to Harrodsburg, KY to Columbia, KY

2 Day Mileage: 47.7 + 73.5 = 121.5
Total Mileage: 1,223.4
2 Day Time: 4:26:39 + 5:31:02 = 9:57:41
Total ride time: 4 days 15:34:15

MSquared Velo Snapchat Day 20

MSquared Velo Snapchat Day 21

 Morning of day 20: I hit snooze on my watch at 5:45 and reset it for 6. Ryan's phone went off at 6 with my watch, I reset my phone to 6:15, Ryan hits snooze. Ryan's second alarm goes off at 6:04 and he hits snooze. Ryan's first alarm un-snoozes at 6:09, he hits snooze again. Ryan's second alarm un-snoozes at 6:13, he hits snooze again. My watch goes off at 6:15... I am officially up.

 As a reminder Ryan needs to get to the Harrisburg post office to pick up his new tires before noon (45 miles away) and I need to meet Paul Goodwrench in Paint Lick at 8 for two new spokes (8 miles away). 

 I was early and Paul was right on time. Paint Lick is a cute little town about a mile and a half off the Transam with half of the 9 buildings closed down. While Paul showed me how to removed the cassette and install new spokes on my tires, he explained the guy who owns one of the office buildings in Paint Lick is buying out the closed down buildings and wants to make one a restaurant with rooms for cyclist above, one a brewery and one a bicycle shop. They both want to re-route the Transam to go through Paint Lick to revive his hometown. As a cyclist, Paul knows various routes that he states are a lot better than the roads the Transam takes now.

"They'll come hose your ashes down" - Paul

Paul is my savior of the trip. There are no bike shops anywhere nearby in the next few days and losing two spokes caused my tire to be out of true, thus rubbing against the break as it spins and slows me down. It rubs so much that last night we had to loosen the rear brake to the point where it no longer functioned. 

 With Paul's expansive knowledge of the bicycle he fixed this and a few more things on Jasper before taking off an hour and 15 minutes later. 

Paul and Me

  Jasper now runs beautifully and I have two extra spokes in case of another mishap.   

 I was on my own for the next 38 miles to meet Ryan in Harrodsburg. It was slow moving until a bought my first Mountain Dew (It's dew country out here) purely for the caffeine and popped on the audiobook for the first time in a week. It was nice to have some alone time again.  

 Kentucky really started to shape up as I made my way to Harrodsburg. Not so many crazy dogs and trailers anymore.

I reached Harrodsburg, spotted Ryan, did a little FaceTime, met some locals who loaned us a pumped, ate some amazing Mexican food and found our sleeping spot for the night. Another Pavillion in a park with picnic tables to sleep on. At least we got to monkey around a little.  

"I feel like I'm riding a carousel"

    We ended up meeting two deaf guys traveling the country west to east. We wrote notes and signed with them as much as we could. It was incredible to meet two guys doing this trip deaf. I would be afraid of everything if I was them, especially sleeping in a tent with no way to hear each crack of a stick or chip of a bug... Then again maybe that would only make sleeping easier.  

 We could agree on one thing... We all hate the effin' dogs in Kentucky. They even went as far as to buy air soft guns to ward them away.  

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Last night was miserable sleep. It was hot and the Pavillion lights never turned off. But we headed to McDonalds for breakfast and a large iced coffee. There we said our cliche goodbye's to Jamie. Jaime will continue on the Transam heading west while we divert and go south toward Nashville!

Today was one of the best rides of the trip. We opted to follow US route 68 south towards Columbia, KY. Not only does it have wide shoulders but since it's a parkway and we are out of the Appalachian's it was rolling hills the whooooooole way. We were averaging over 13 mph and not killing ourselves over giant grades. Meaning we weren't dripping sweat all day... But still sweaty.

Once turning off 68 we headed toward our Warm Shower hosts, Gary and Diane. It was then when we realize how unbelievably beautiful the landscape is and how expansive the Kentucky sky is. It was nothing like I have ever seen before. The three of us were all smiles as we blasted music through the country side.

Gary and Diane are going to be a hard Warm Showers host to beat and they are my first ones! After being greeted gently by Buddy and Buster, their dogs, Gary quickly showed us to his garage where we could keep our bikes safe and dry and then directed us right to the pool. I saw the pool from the street and was so excited when he said we could jump in. Nothing felt better than falling into the pool (see Instagram).

After the pool we got that warm shower we were promised and then enjoyed a beer, lasagna, ice cream and brownies and the company of 4 cute dogs. 

Today was a good good day. I can't wait for tomorrow! 84 miles to Bowling Green.