Day 30. Sunny Sunday! Berea, KY

8:30 departure from Springfield with a 5:30 arrival in Berea, KY. Sunny day with moderate temps and mild but mostly favorable winds today. Still a lot of hills with 3,500 ft. of climbing. 

We woke to a foggy morning with a full moon setting in the west. The fog soon gave way to full on blue skies and sun. ☀️

Since Angela isn't here to save the turtles by moving them off the roadway it's up to me to save them. This one was quite brave and never sucked his head in, even when I picked him up. 

I really enjoy seeing the turkey vultures, even if they make their lifes living off of dead carcasses along the road. I like the way they soar so freely and I like the way they open their wings to the morning or setting sun. 

Lunch time at the Lake Herrington marina after about 40 miles. Always trying to eat healthy when we have the chance, John and I both had steak salad with Blue Cheese dressing, downed with a large glass of sweet tea.  We had ridden the morning with only one short stop at a convenience store so we were ready for a nice lunch rest and the marina, with the boats coming in and out was a perfect setting for us to pretend we could just hop on a boat instead of our bikes for another 30 miles this afternoon. 

The last 26 miles today we routed ourselves off of the TransAm Route because to be honest I just couldn't take any more constant up, down, left turn, right turn, repeat again, and again....on a  narrow two lane back road. The traffic hadn't been light on the back roads either so we often would have cars backed up a few minutes while we climbed up another 500 ft. long 11% grade. We chose US 27 into Lancaster shown in this picture of John in the square for a quick break off of our saddles. It worked out to be a good gambit. We started getting up to 18 or 20 mph often and for the most part had good road shoulders for safety and no more traffic than the back roads had provided us this Sunday. It was refreshing to be able to set up a nice riding rythm and keep it up for at least a few minutes!!🚴

Berea, KY is situated just off of I-75 about 120 miles south of Cincinnati.  It has about 12,000 inhabitants and is know as the Arts and Crafts Capital of Kentucky. It's also home of Berea College, a liberal arts college and alas, is a dry county- no beers for Scott or John tonight!🍺😩

John picked the hotel tonight, the Holiday Hotel, one of the first we came to after crossing the interstate. And it was a short walk to the Cracker Barrel!!  🍽

Eugene and Bryn check us in at the motel. Bryn is the dog and Eugene is the woman, that's right, her name is Eugene. We chatted a bit and she told us her birth name was Elizabeth but at some point as a child her Grandmother made some mistake on her passport or something and her name became Eugene. She was funny. Tomorrow we get donuts for breakfast she said. 🍩