Day 26. Hallelujah for the First Baptist Church. Sebree, KY

7:30 start from Marion with 2:30 arrival in Sebree, KY.  We had modest headwinds most of the day as we headed mostly E or NE. Cloudy skies with peaks of sun in the afternoon and temps in 50's and low 60's. Much better than a rainy day!!

We had initially planned to ride another 25 miles to a little town called Utica, but after a wrong turn by me to start the day cost us 5 miles and facing headwinds most of the day we took advantage of the wonderful hospitality the First Baptist Church offered cyclist like us. This stretch of our route has very few hotels or B&B's. If we had made it to Utica, we would have hoped to have been guests of the volunteer fire department. 🚒

The church has been welcoming cyclist for years. This wall map has 4 years worth of push pins in cyclists home cities. There were probably +500 pins in it.  Angela is pointing to our starting point in Colorado and our current location in Sebree. 

This map is just from this year. I'm pointing to our destination of the Outer Banks at Cape Hatteras.  The blue bundles on the floor are cots for cyclists. There was a shower for us as well!  The worship leader Monte (I'm writing the blog in the front lobby of the church) just told me when they did an addition in the rear of the church they added the shower just for us cyclists. 🚿

Retired Pastor Bob and wife Violet live across the street from the church and take care of us cyclists. They been helping cyclist like us for over 30 years. They are still very active in the church as well. Later this evening we've been invited over to see Violet and have some desert. 

Mike, retired sheriff from Folsom, CA now cycling from Astoria, OR to the end of the TransAm Route in Yorktown, VA scoops ice cream while Violet cuts the strawberries for our desert. Violet showed us pictures and postcards of the 1000's of cyclist she and Bob have hosted over the years. Truly very gracious and special people.