Later we stopped at a car wash. The bikes cleaned up nicely, but we shouldn't have done that. Just as washing your car makes it rain, so it goes with bikes. We got dumped on as we were wending our way through Owensboro. If we had been a half hour earlier, we would have stayed dry.
The sun came out as we rolled up to the motel, but we were drenched.
Another buffet dinner. This time at Shoney's.
We navigated out of town using Google on Greg's smart phone. We found our way to the Horse Fork bike trail to get us back on the Adventure Cycling route. On the trail, Greg had a long conversation with a local lady cyclist originally from Costa Rica who was going our way.
I think this is soybeans growing in vast fields that stretch to the horizon in places.
The corn must be 8 feet high here.
We're camped by the lake in Vastwood Park in Hawesville.
We had lunch at a Mexican restaurant and dinner was a pizza at a restaurant in the park. One is not supposed to get fatter on a long-distance bicycle tour. :=)
It was a little cooler today so despite more miles and a lot more hills than yesterday it wasn't a hard ride. And we still have lots of lush, beautiful scenery.
After a long climb after Stephensport we stopped at this store for a soda. Ms. Esther, the Amish lady at the checkout, was very friendly. Another talkative fellow was explaining to us why we should buy a jar of John Ellis water, the cleanest and purest water in the industry. It has extra oxygen and just a tablespoon added to your regular water makes it much more healthful. Add it to your water bottle and you can do 40 mph up the hills. Among other things, it cures cancer. Greg said that was very interesting and he would have to look into it.
To be fair the store does have a very interesting collection of foods and other items and is definitely worth a look.
There are no campgrounds near Brandenburg and our call to a Warm Showers host was unreturned so we are motelling it once again.
It's Indiana on the other side of the river.
Still lots of pretty scenery.
About 5 miles into the ride my shifter failed. This was on the twist shifter for the Rohloff hub. One shifter cable had frayed right where it enters the shifter housing and was hanging by a thread. We spent a couple hours by the side of the road trying to fix it. To make a long story short, I think some pieces of shifter wire probably broke off and got jammed inside the housing.
So I rode about 45 miles today on a single-speed bike. I could stop, get off the bike, and pull on the cables to shift gears but for the most part I rode in the same gear.
I called the Parkside bike shop in Louisville and will take the bike in there tomorrow morning.
I wonder if they sell the butt drug Chamois Butt'r in this shop in Corydon.
We took the "Big Four" pedestrian bridge over the Ohio River to get from Indiana back to Louisville in Kentucky. Here's a photo of the river from Riverside Drive, before the bridge, looking back at the auto bridges.
On the pedestrian bridge itself:
As we got to the other side, two local cyclists, best friends Christa and Lindsey, stopped to hear our story and chat. Christa ended up offering to let us stay at her house but it was out of the way and the logistics weren't working out. But they did give good advice on a place to stay (not where we were planning) and a good place to eat.
Their recommendation for dinner was "Against the Grain" where we had a good meal and lots of conversation as we sat at bench tables outside. Then we rode the few blocks to the hotel through the dark city streets (with almost no traffic), arriving at the hotel after 10 pm.
After we got back to the hotel, Greg decided to ride to a couple other local bike shops to see if he could find an interesting jersey. As he was riding down the street his bike hit a pothole and the cell phone popped out of the handlebar bag onto the street, breaking the screen. So it looks like we will be staying in Louisville another day so Gret can get his phone fixed.
For dinner we walked about an hour to a restaurant Greg had spotted in his journey, the Grind Burger Kitchen. It started to rain just before we got there. They are supposed to have some of the best burgers in town. The burgers didn't quite live up to their reputation, but Greg was overjoyed to see they had his favorite beer of all time, Dogfish Head 120 minute IPA, on tap.
After dinner we took a cab back to the hotel since it was still raining. The driver was from Francophone Africa so he and Greg had a nice conversation in French.
Then on Saturday when Greg tried to get to the repair place by bus, confusion about bus routes and schedules meant he didn't get to the shop before they closed. We decided just to stay two more days in Louisville. I am still running ahead of schedule to get to Ohio, the hotel had a two-day special price, and they were still predicting rain. It is supposed to be dry tomorrow, Tuesday July 24.
Wherever we go people are amazed at what we are doing. This is Gigi, whom we met outside the hotel with her friend Velveeta.
Last updated July 30, 2018