Day 31. Behold Berea. Berea, KY

John standing in front of the Berea Visitor Center. 

I woke up at 6AM feeling groggy with sore legs as usual and began to contemplate my situation. Having ridden the last 6 days in a row, I knew I was due for a day off of the bike. I also knew we probably had the toughest week of riding the Appalachian Mountains coming up as well. On the flip side, I've burned up two of my four spare days in my schedule to the reunion and I hated to burn up another day, especially when it was to be such a good weather day. Lastly I contemplated that the next 3 or 4 nights we will be in bike hostels or camping in very, very small towns so a down day in the next few days would be less interesting and enjoyable. Talking with John who's had 5 straight days of riding, we agreed to enjoy ourselves more and explore Berea for the day, on foot, no bike!!

Our first stop this morning was at the Visitor Center where we met Schaerme and got ideas for our day in town. When we explained we were cycling through on our way to the Outerbanks she gave us this really nice Berea Cycling athletic shirt!  Score!!!!!  Our day off is starting well. 

No down day is possible without doing laundry.  The only laundromat was about 2 miles away but we walked at least 3 miles to find it. I let my new Berea shirt do double duty and wore it so I could wash the shirt I was wearing. John wanted to wear his new shirt too but I told him we would look even more peculiar to the locals if we had matching shirts and vetoed it. 😩

The city of Berea and Berea College have an interesting history going back to the Underground Railroad and the abolitionist movement that clashed along the Ohio River between Kentucky and Ohio.

A Berea College building we passed. They say Berea lies between the Kentucky Bluegrass and the Appalachians as the banner supports. 

Cassius Clay, the original one, not Muhammed Ali, was born to one of the wealthiest plantation and slave owners in Kentucky. He graduated fromYale in 1832. While at Yale he heard the abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison speak which inspired him to become anti-slavery. It was Clay who granted 10 acres in Berea to abolisionist John Gregg Fee to start Berea College in 1855. 

Since this was a down day and by noon we had already walked 5 miles we learned about a free shuttle in Berea. After finishing our laundry some helpful people helped us locate a nearby bus stop. John captured me with my clean laundry working my phone to find the bus schedule. We ended up waiting about a 40 minutes but we enjoyed the shady spot and the bus ride was a hoot, worth the wait. We wanted to head back towards the college and take a free tour.

Unfortunately no tours today but Julia, a Beria freshman working at the Student Store offered to tell us all she knew. Besides the stuff about Cassius Clay and John Fee we learned that Berea College is free for the 1600 students that attend. The liberal arts school enrollment is focused on the people of Appalachia and requires students to work about 10 hours a week as part of their tuition. Obviously there is a large endowment as well but it was cool to see all of the students so happy and closely tied to their college.  Here Julia has just showed John how to play Skittles on a table made by the students. 

Berea College is also famous for its arts and crafts. These brooms on sale at the student store are made by students and sell for about $50!

At the Student Store student Rebecca throws a pot. It made John and I recall one of our Rochdale friends we'll soon see at the Outerbanks, Charlie Knott. Charlie majored in Construction Technology at Purdue but he loved to throw pots!!

Back at the Holiday Motel we meet Joseph who we think is Eugene's, the general manager that checked is in last night, life partner, maybe husband. We're not sure. Joseph, a native of New Jersey tells us about his cross country bike ride back on 1976, riding from Philly to Portland, OR celebrating the Bike Centenial. He got by on eating jerky and cookies he said.  He also told us as a 14 year old he went to Woodstock. He was a character.  We are meeting all kinds of characters on the trip. 

John and I enjoy our last dinner in Berea at the Boone Tavern and Inn where most of the staff are also students. It was a fine meal and the only place in the county to get a beer. We learned earlier in the day that there are varying degrees of "moistness" in the dry counties. Thanks for that KY!!🍺

As the sun sets over Kentucky John and I say good bye to Berea and Berea College. It's been a very nice day.