TransAm Day #10 Breaks, VA - Hindman, KY
TransAm Day #10
June 4, 2018
Breaks, VA - Hindman, KY
71 Miles
Ride Time 5:44 Hours
Tour Total 666 Miles
details at: https://cyclemeter.com/4b2d99e24f1383f2/Cycle-20180604-0852-69324
It’s come to my attention that there’s a story currently attracting a lot of attention on a rival blog. Let me set the record straight. I did not pluck feathers off a chicken today on the side of the road in Kentucky. Here’s what happened. Two weeks before the tour began, Charlotte and I visited the Golden Kingdoms exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Nancy Princenthal had written an excellent review for the New York Times. The comprehensive survey traced the art and luxury items of the ancient Americas that included extraordinary feather mosaics. In ancient South American cultures some feathers were prized more than gold. With this in mind, today as I was screaming down Kentucky State Route 23 heading into Virgie, I spotted on the side of the road a large freshly killed hawk, with long beautiful feathers. I slammed on my brakes and set my bike down. I ran over and collected a few choice specimens, which are already sealed in a specially packed envelope and are on their way back east. Good find. No chickens. End of story.
I got up at 6am for stretching before breakfast. Brian sent me a text that he was already on the road. At breakfast the thick fog was rising up out of the gorge. The buttes became islands in the sea of white.
After breakfast I rode down the hill to the Kentucky border which I immediately tagged with a #rustycrank sticker. Take that Mitch McConnell. I’m gonna tag your whole state! Steve H caught me in the act and took a photo. I’m worried he’s going to alert the local authorities. It was my third state line crossing in three days.
I was sharing the road with coal trucks as soon as I crossed the line. I got mud and gravel stuck in my left cleat from the vandalism and I couldn’t fasten my shoe into the pedal. In addition my brakes were loud and squeaky. It was cold out. Virginia creeper was still everywhere.
I was pleased to find bicycle route 76 signs continuing into Kentucky. They changed color to bright green and it now read US Bicycle Route 76. Additionally I found myself on the Trail of the Lonesome Pine.
There was jewel weed growing everywhere. The other day I explained jewel weed’s medicinal properties as a poison ivy antidote to Steve G.
Many of the houses here are faced with Lowe’s Tyvek paper. Every yard has a Beware of Dog and a No Trespassing sign. They have bear boxes for trash out front, and a lot of back yard trampolines. I’ve seen several Duck Dynasty T-shirts. I've been concerned about the dogs and have already encountered dozens, but just about all of them were on chains or in pens. Our guide and translator, Steve H, told us that the dogs are primarily used for hunting.
Every one of these tiny towns of nine people has a post office. I wish they would divert some of those funds to the Brooklyn South 4th St. 11211 location.
For the first time in a week I'm dry. The humidity isn’t nearly what it was in Virginia. I get soaked with sweat climbing these hills. The sweat is now evaporating.
The mountains and hollers here are steep, twisty, and tightly folded. These are some mighty old hills.
This is coal county. I had been on the Coal Heritage trail in Virginia. My first county in Kentucky, Pike County, is America’s Energy Capital. The road cuts through the hills revealed layers of shale, a telltale sign. I passed many closed coal mines today.
At my first road stop, the clerk asked me where I was from and I replied “Brooklyn NY”. When Steve H arrived, she asked “Are you from New York too?”. She was selling fresh tomatoes grown in Tennessee. A guy’s car out front wouldn’t start, and a friendly young man jumped out of a nearby pick-up truck and ran over and got it going.
Steve H has been talking about these small town Kentucky grocery stores and their bologna sandwiches. He described them as poor people‘s high energy food. I found a sandwich shop in Virgie (after the plucking incident) and the nice lady working there knew exactly what Steve H was talking about. She said that her family used to sell half inch slabs of bologna to the coal truckers and they would eat it with crackers. Unfortunately she didn’t have bologna sandwiches today, so I ordered otherwise. Over lunch I learned that Steve G is a fellow unicyclist.
As I was leaving the store, I was warned that I had a bad hee-all coming up, worse than the one I had just done. There was no shoulder on that second pass, and I had to share it with coal trucks.
I caught a little tail wind towards the top. Thank you Jesus! Steve G caught me and passed me. He said that skinny guys have an advantage over big guys on the hills.
At the Floyd county line I saw the Last Chance Bar and Liquor Store, and it was closed. I was heading into a dry county. Rusty Crank is gonna have to wait until Berea for lubricants.
Coming into Hindman there was no shoulder with a rubble strip right down the white line with heavy car traffic to the left. Ugh. I was joined by Matt. I'm noticing a lot of rehab places around these parts, probably from the methamphetamine epidemic here.
When I got to the Baptist church in Hindman, there was an Adventure Cycling van and trailerparked out front. I had caught up with the assisted tour that left from Yorktown on May 1st. There are 20 cyclists sharing the community room floor and one bathroom.
June 4, 2018
Breaks, VA - Hindman, KY
71 Miles
Ride Time 5:44 Hours
Tour Total 666 Miles
details at: https://cyclemeter.com/4b2d99e24f1383f2/Cycle-20180604-0852-69324
It’s come to my attention that there’s a story currently attracting a lot of attention on a rival blog. Let me set the record straight. I did not pluck feathers off a chicken today on the side of the road in Kentucky. Here’s what happened. Two weeks before the tour began, Charlotte and I visited the Golden Kingdoms exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Nancy Princenthal had written an excellent review for the New York Times. The comprehensive survey traced the art and luxury items of the ancient Americas that included extraordinary feather mosaics. In ancient South American cultures some feathers were prized more than gold. With this in mind, today as I was screaming down Kentucky State Route 23 heading into Virgie, I spotted on the side of the road a large freshly killed hawk, with long beautiful feathers. I slammed on my brakes and set my bike down. I ran over and collected a few choice specimens, which are already sealed in a specially packed envelope and are on their way back east. Good find. No chickens. End of story.
I got up at 6am for stretching before breakfast. Brian sent me a text that he was already on the road. At breakfast the thick fog was rising up out of the gorge. The buttes became islands in the sea of white.
After breakfast I rode down the hill to the Kentucky border which I immediately tagged with a #rustycrank sticker. Take that Mitch McConnell. I’m gonna tag your whole state! Steve H caught me in the act and took a photo. I’m worried he’s going to alert the local authorities. It was my third state line crossing in three days.
I was sharing the road with coal trucks as soon as I crossed the line. I got mud and gravel stuck in my left cleat from the vandalism and I couldn’t fasten my shoe into the pedal. In addition my brakes were loud and squeaky. It was cold out. Virginia creeper was still everywhere.
I was pleased to find bicycle route 76 signs continuing into Kentucky. They changed color to bright green and it now read US Bicycle Route 76. Additionally I found myself on the Trail of the Lonesome Pine.
There was jewel weed growing everywhere. The other day I explained jewel weed’s medicinal properties as a poison ivy antidote to Steve G.
Many of the houses here are faced with Lowe’s Tyvek paper. Every yard has a Beware of Dog and a No Trespassing sign. They have bear boxes for trash out front, and a lot of back yard trampolines. I’ve seen several Duck Dynasty T-shirts. I've been concerned about the dogs and have already encountered dozens, but just about all of them were on chains or in pens. Our guide and translator, Steve H, told us that the dogs are primarily used for hunting.
Every one of these tiny towns of nine people has a post office. I wish they would divert some of those funds to the Brooklyn South 4th St. 11211 location.
For the first time in a week I'm dry. The humidity isn’t nearly what it was in Virginia. I get soaked with sweat climbing these hills. The sweat is now evaporating.
The mountains and hollers here are steep, twisty, and tightly folded. These are some mighty old hills.
This is coal county. I had been on the Coal Heritage trail in Virginia. My first county in Kentucky, Pike County, is America’s Energy Capital. The road cuts through the hills revealed layers of shale, a telltale sign. I passed many closed coal mines today.
At my first road stop, the clerk asked me where I was from and I replied “Brooklyn NY”. When Steve H arrived, she asked “Are you from New York too?”. She was selling fresh tomatoes grown in Tennessee. A guy’s car out front wouldn’t start, and a friendly young man jumped out of a nearby pick-up truck and ran over and got it going.
Steve H has been talking about these small town Kentucky grocery stores and their bologna sandwiches. He described them as poor people‘s high energy food. I found a sandwich shop in Virgie (after the plucking incident) and the nice lady working there knew exactly what Steve H was talking about. She said that her family used to sell half inch slabs of bologna to the coal truckers and they would eat it with crackers. Unfortunately she didn’t have bologna sandwiches today, so I ordered otherwise. Over lunch I learned that Steve G is a fellow unicyclist.
As I was leaving the store, I was warned that I had a bad hee-all coming up, worse than the one I had just done. There was no shoulder on that second pass, and I had to share it with coal trucks.
I caught a little tail wind towards the top. Thank you Jesus! Steve G caught me and passed me. He said that skinny guys have an advantage over big guys on the hills.
At the Floyd county line I saw the Last Chance Bar and Liquor Store, and it was closed. I was heading into a dry county. Rusty Crank is gonna have to wait until Berea for lubricants.
Coming into Hindman there was no shoulder with a rubble strip right down the white line with heavy car traffic to the left. Ugh. I was joined by Matt. I'm noticing a lot of rehab places around these parts, probably from the methamphetamine epidemic here.
When I got to the Baptist church in Hindman, there was an Adventure Cycling van and trailerparked out front. I had caught up with the assisted tour that left from Yorktown on May 1st. There are 20 cyclists sharing the community room floor and one bathroom.
When I rode through California, I tagged the state by pissing and shitting everywhere I could. Take that Nancy Pelosi
ReplyDelete