The day began and continued unseasonably cool and over cast.
Rain threatened near the end but never got us wet. I was still weak from whatever lingering malady afflicted me the past two weeks so was glad to take first sag. The cool weather had Ross’s van reporting low tire pressure so I stopped at 3 gas stations on the way. None had air service. In Scottsville I parked at the Sonic Drive in and had a strawberry shake as compensation for using their spacious lot.
When the crew arrived Tom reported they had taken an early
exit off the scary US31E onto a side road Ride With GPS had not allowed me to use when planning. They found the reason. A bridge was out. Rather than return to US 31E they did a bit of cycle cross to traverse the mostly dry creek bed. Bob took over SAG and Tom, Ross, and I set out past the birthplace of Dollar General.
Tom's Comment:
The first seven miles were a gentle but steady climb with very light courteous traffic. Tom got quite a lead but Ross stayed with me. This is the sort of climb I would usually love. Today it was a grind. At the summit Tom waited and we all had a nice long coast back to cross US31E.
Circumnavigating Barren River Lake was mostly a pleasant roller coaster ride. We did pull off a few times to let accumulated traffic go by. Only one car ever yelled at us. Ross commented he didn’t mind the yelling as it confirmed the driver had seen us. About Half way round the lake Bob was waiting for Ross to assume sag for the day. I was unsure of being able to make the entire route so elected to keep Ross company for this most hilly section. The regroup site was a cross roads with a disused store whose empty lot had room for the van. Tom and Bob made very good time with no Bruce anchor.
Tom had declared beforehand that he’d sag the last segment. On the day he was up to the entire ride. Lunch was in a local restaurant named 5 Broke girls in Cave City. Unknown to me there were two of these, another in nearby Horse Cave. I’d given Ross the GPS coordinates to the wrong one so it was some finagling past a local festival to get Ross to us. We were also lucky to find them open as they were closing early for some reason I don’t remember and we were their last customers for 3 days. Food and service were excellent.
It was as we were leaving 5 Broke Girls that a light rain began. Radar revealed a thin tail of a much larger system passing over us. After a 5 minute wait, we set out to wet streets but no rain. Two miles later even the streets were dry. Our first mile was on busy US 31, then diverted to an idyllic side road that took us to the Quality Inn. We were met at he entrance by a couple having second thoughts about the quality of this Quality Inn. We assured them it was undoubtedly fine for us but we were probably not ones to give advice. It is a standard mid range motel with not enough electrical outlets for our many devices but fine otherwise. Supper was at a nearby Subway located in a Love’s truck stop.
All in all, a fine first day. I did better than feared.
Bruce
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