Friday, June 18, 2010

Day 17: Rough River Dam, KY to Sebree, KY - Ben Dymond

After demolishing the all you can eat dinner last night at Rough River Dam Lodge, we went back for the breakfast buffet! Needless to say we ate a ton of food and borrowed a few sausage biscuits for lunch. The campground and lodge were awesome and a lot of us discussed how it felt that we weren't really embarking on an incredibly long journey since we have been stayingin plush settings with wifi and showers. We could definitely make the trip a little harder if we wanted to!

We are definietly getting faster at knocking out mileage, especially when the goal is in site. Our ride today continued through farm lands of Western Kentucky as the terrain and buildings are starting to look more Midwest everyday. I definitely saw a few huge corn silos and massive operations for storing grains. Today we passed our first West-to-East TransAm bikers who must have started super early on the West coast to make it this far by mid June. Unfortunately, I was riding along at a good clip when they passed. Some other riders talked to them when they passed by our water stop. On one final note, today was my first ride using my iPod and headphones - only the right ear in the beginning and then both ears. The music definitely increased my pace significantly as I busted through 25 miles at a good clip. Following the ride, I stopped at one of many dairy bars that we will start encountering as we approach the Midwest.


Our stop tonight was at the First Baptist Church in Sebree, KY. This is definitely one of the best places we have crashed yet!! Actually, in my mind it is probably #1.5 in terms of coolness as #1 is still the Cookie lady's house. The bottom of the church - the youth center - is hooked up with a big screen TV, a pool table, ping pong table, kitchen, and an indoor 4-square court taped on the floor! There is also a set of sweet maps including the USA, Europe, and the world where riders tack their home location.


The minister and his wife, Bob and Violet Hardison, are fairly famous on the TransAm. They have been hosting cyclists in their house/church since 1979 when they discovered they lived on the TransAm route. They are famous for feeding all of the cyclists with a home cooked meal using real plates and cloth napkins to make them feel at home. I can't even recall what our dinner consisted of because the spread of food was too large. We are definitely the largest group she has ever fed and we were certainly able to help with the cooking and clean up.

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