TRANSAMERICA BICYCLE 2015: Days 21-23: This world of ours....

Day 21: Sonora, KY to Falls of Rough, KY (41.6 miles)

Day 22: Falls of Rough, KY to Utica, KY (48.8 miles)
Day 23: Utica, KY to Sebree KY (28.1 - or as Dana says: 'an active rest day')

Ear Worms:
Sarah Fulford: Hey There Uncle Sam
Pat Benetar: Heartbreaker

Riding the roads of Western Kentucky...

Most amazing sunset over Falls of Rough lake... magical way to end a day of cycling

Moments and milestones. That is what these past three days have been about. On day 21 we passed into Central Time Zone. On day 22 my odometer hit 1000 miles. Coming up here we'll be crossing into Illinois. I can't even begin to believe it, but I'm almost a fourth of the way through this trip. I got an e-mail from my uncle asking how I could be so relaxed about it all, and I guess I'm maybe only just now starting to comprehend what I'm doing. Because I think to actually do it, you can't really understand it. You have to just start in and go or else you probably would never start! For a few moments these past few days I even felt absolutely one with my bike. These birds would fly next to me and we would be going the exact same speed. So there we were together, the birds and I, rolling along, flying through the wind. It was pretty amazing and beautiful.

crossed into Central Time!!

Right now I'm sitting here with Dana and McKaylie (Mud and Glamour n' Guts), Janice and Catherine, and two new rider Jim (from Poulsbo, WA) and Andre (from Germany) here at the Sebree Baptist Church bike hostel.

We've been riding Western Kentucky, which besides having the most respectful drivers (points to Western Kentucky!!), they have lawns. And I mean LAWNS. And lawn mowing. And lawn decorations. I mean seriously, there have been some pretty amazing decorations. I think one person started it and everyone along the highway followed suite.

These past few days have been great biking with Ed, but now he has ridden on past as the rest of us took a short riding day. But I so enjoyed getting to know him and share the experience with him - like all the gas station stops and rest stops and restaurants, incredible camping at the Falls of Rough lake, or speaking of falls.....Yep, hit a BIG MILESTONE: 1000 miles biked... and subsequently came to a stop sign, got my foot stuck in my toe clips, and just flopped right over on the pavement. Got a nice scratch on my knee but other than that, I am fine! It was pretty hilarious.... I joked that I'm just practicing up for when I get those clipless pedals. (yes, I biked through the entire Appalachians in tennis shoes, apparently losing 30% of my power every time I turned the pedal, so I'm ordering bike shoes that should be in Carbondale for me)

Ed and I in front of Charlie's guesthouse

Also met up with Janice and Catherine! (58 and 67 years old respectively!!) I've been reading their entries in guestbooks since the very first day of this trip, so it's great to meet them. We've stayed the last three nights at the same place, so we've become another little bike brigade again. Janice has been planning this trip for several years and then Catherine heard about it through a friend and called her up asking if she could come along!

MOMENT:
Sitting here at Ed and I's campsite watching the sun go down over the lake at Falls of Rough. It's casting a beautiful glow over the bikes and tents, the crickets are coming out, the warmth of the sun on my face. There's this incredible post storm brilliance. A perfect evening after a big time storm that we managed to miss by pulling under a ballpark picnic area spot. We were coming through McDaniels and saw on the horizon this huge billowing cloud with lightening bolts and both of us were just like "no way." So we pulled out, checked the radar which looked pretty bad and I told McKaylie about it so just a few minutes later they pull into the covering too! So we all four hunkered down for quite the rainstorm. It was pretty fun actually - because we weren't in it of course! And we were all there experiencing it.

yep, there's a storm a comin'

it got wet.

MOMENT AT THE UTICA FIRESTATION: Just got called out to the field where the fireflies were just putting on this incredible light show. Like being in a huge stadium at night with camera flashes. Expect even more powerful in that we were standing outside the Utica Fire department in a field watching this with the crickets and bullfrogs and an occasional dog barking in the distance. It was just like 'wow - here we are in Western Kentucky, almost to Illinois, in this field full of fireflies. And we biked 1000 miles to get to this spot. Through an entire time zone!! It just put everything into perspective and I really felt how special this whole trip is. Because we bike for these moments.

Or the moment at Dooley's store just 8 miles before Utica. Ed and I stopped there and Janice and Catherine were just coming out from it. We were talking to a welder named Riley about life and how much he would like to do what we're doing. And we go into the store to be transported back in time a bit. to the old-timers having conversations about ginseng root digging and the older guy remembering doing that, finding some... about his planting potatoes that morning but his wife still has a whole list of things for him to do so 'he best be getting on.' About Riley's amazement at Catherine being 67. His eyes going wide saying she could bale hay for days no problem. That was worth everything to have that.

Dooley's store. A step back in time.

I'm thinking about all this camaraderie, this community that has formed on the road. This WORLD we have. Ed and I stopped at this convenience store and I ate a banana, throwing it in the trash. Well I guess Dana and McKaylie stopped there too and she saw the banana peel looking very fresh, saying..'oh Coty must have been here!' We are all just this big extended community doing this. Like McKaylie knowing I had been at that store because of my banana. Or us leaving the 76 chalk sign and them finding it. Or hearing about other riders chatting with that same welder from photos they posted on instagram. Or my couchsurfing hosts from Bardstown texting me to say they saw Mark ride by. We are our own social networking community. We ride with each other for awhile then go our own way but we still have our friendships and stay in touch, watching out for each other.....

Ed chalking the unmarked turn!

And they found it!!

And this thing that Janice said tonight: "If I can ride my bike across the Transamerica bicycle route then surely I can move to a new place." (She is going through transitions herself). But it's true, if I can do this, then I can do pretty much anything.

I know I won't be able to fully comprehend all of the experience until it is done, but I have this image of me, maybe on the 2nd day of the ride, stopping for lunch at this junk shop.. that was just three weeks ago! Yet it feels so long ago too. Look at all the people and magic that has happened! And yet we also just at the beginning of it all too.

And how none of us ever know what day it is. Only where we are and maybe where we are going the next day. But the day of the week? The date? None of that matters in this world that is only our own - our own little cyclist world. Where we watch fireflies dance and sleep in fire stations and churches and city parks.

THIS TRIP!!!!