Hello Appleachia

Its been a bit so I'm a little hazy on the few days out of my last post. From Russelville I cycled through the day and into the night when I arrived in Glasgow where I caved and took a room at a motel to wash up and get a good nights sleep. I headed out the next day on the rolling hills of Kentucky and took in the beautiful air and green life that covered my surroundings. I found myself at the end of the day in Cambelsville, a nice little college town where I found the first coffee shop open past dark I had seen in a while. I took my time there, relaxing until about closing time and chatted with a guy that worked there who was from Michigan, I didn't catch what brought him down there but he was a very good natured guy and gave me the last of the coffee and some kind of delicious rasberry pastry. I didn't feel like going to much further in the dark so I cycled down back roads in town before coming accross some woods with a single old abandoned house in real bad condition. I opted out of sleeping inside and camped out behind the carport.





I got into Harrodsburg the next day, about halfway between Cambellsville and Lexington, and found another nice little coffee shop to dawdle some time away. I heard it was going to rain that night so I set out in search of a place to squat and wait out the rain. I came accross a huge barn behind the Kroger, it looked like it had been a while since anyone had been in so I unloaded my stuff, climbed around on the support beams then got into my going out clothes and cycled into Harrodsburg sans 60 pounds of gear to take in the night.





I woke up to the rain the next morning and slept in as long as I could. Eventually it eased up and I was preparing to head out when I saw a truck pull up in front of the barn. uh oh. Some guys came in talking to eachother and I let out a nervous "hello?" needless to say they were a little confused about what I was doing there. I explained my situation and that I was just getting ready to leave and they were cool about it. I guess they work for some guy that owns about half of Harrodsburg and just get paid to check on all his property, probably to make sure there aren't people like me sleeping there. By the time I got on the road it was already late afternoon so I decided to take it easy, I made it to a park a little out of town and found some bushes to lay out my sleeping bag.





The next day I headed for Lexington and got into town pretty early,

I hopped online the next day at the local library to send out some messages on warmshowers and couchsurfing trying to predict where I would be in a few days. It had been a few days since I showered but it had been way too long since I had had any substantial human contact and was really craving some conversation, its a fun road, but a lonely one. it was a pretty easy city to navigate, it has this huge traffic circle surrounding the inner city which I followed to where route 60 changed from north to straight east and took it to Winchester, home of the Ale81 bottling company, an eastern Kentucky ginger ale that I came to love. It was late when I got in and they had a theater with movie tickets for 6 bucks so I thought about taking in a movie but they were cash only and I was a buck short so I went to wafflehouse instead for a place to sit for a bit before I found a place to sleep.

I left the next day hoping to make it to Morehead by that evening, I was especially excited about arriving here, my map showed it to be in the northern part of the Daniel Boone national forest and it had been forever since I had been in some real wilderness. I got into Morehead around 730 and saw a marquee advertising a production of 12 angry men being put on in town at 8, my eyes lit up and I rushed to find the theater and a restroom where I could change into some more appropriate clothing. I suppose it was meant to be for me to miss out on the movie experience in Winchester, I had really missed live theater and thouroughly enjoyed the performance.

It got out a little past 10 and I thought I might as well check my messages to see if any of my emails were succesful. I was happy to hear a response on my voicemail from Joshua Roe who I found on warmshowers. I called him back to find that he was at a party at a friends and without a vehicle, I figured I had called too late and missed my chance and was planning to camp out but Josh insisted on coming out to meet me at least. He arrived in a few minutes in his friend's car and said he would love to host me for the night and wouldn't mind leaving the party to do so. We tore apart my bike trying to get it into his friend's sedan, went out to taco bell for a quick bite to eat and to get aqquainted, and stopped at the party to meet his friends and see the other side of Kentucky.

a quick word about Josh, an all around stellar dude, he had a great life philosophy that embraced following your heart over following the standard path and lifestyle thats been embedded in us. He himself had done some cycle tours along with spending a significant amount of time in a few foreign countries and some summer in Alaska which made me want to get up there even more.

After the Party we went back to the cycle shop he worked at where I showered and watched some of the 2009 tour de france while we chatted about this and that and he tuned up my bike. We spent the night sleeping on the shop floor which still beats camping. I woke up surrounded by bicycles and took a look at my freshly tuned bike with new handlebar tape, brakes and a nice tight new chain.

We drove into town to get some breakfast and the car back to Josh's friend. After searching through town to find something that was open on a sunday we were faced with the reality of bible belt culture and had to settle on sonic. I was originally planning to head out that day, but Josh offered me to spend another day to take in town, I thought it would be a shame to be in and out of this beautiful forest town in a day and was really enjoying his company so I took him up on it and I'm really happy I did.

We met up with his friend Melissa who came out to see him before he leaves once again for Alaska in a week. She was a very good spirited bubbly girl, we drove out to one of the bigger hills and did some hiking to get to a rocky overlook and the most breathtaking view I've seen for a while. From our view point we could see miles of huge rolling hills covered in different shades of green in every direction all the way to the horizon and the distant lake. I'm kicking myself for not taking my camera. We spent a few hours just taking in the view, soaking in the sun and talking about everything. We dropped Melissa at a hair appointment in town and went to get a closer look at the lakes and parks in town. We went down to one of the lakes and spent some time just skipping stones and shooting the breeze before heading back to Josh's house in the hills.

Josh lives in a little place in a thickly wooded hill. The house feels like someone is in the process of moving in or out. The furniture was limited to a few scattered chairs, one little table, and a mattress in his roomates room. Josh's room consisted of clothes scattered on the floor with no bed. We left there soon to pick up Melissa with her new red hair and drove back to his place. There we had a fire in his pit and sat around talking and just enjoying the beauty of everything around us, Melissa had to leave as it got later, we said our goodbyes and spent some more time sitting around before laying out and sleeping under the stars.

He took me to the local coffee spot the next morning and I eased into the morning over a cup of coffee and a slow game of chess. The time rolled around for me to head out so we got someone to take a picture and left for west virginia.

Josh knew someone in Huntington, a town right over the border of west virginia so he called him and arranged for me to meet up with him when I got into town. I got in past dark and roamed the streets following the directions that Matt gave me. I almost missed his street when I heard someone yell out and saw Matt and his roommate Alan out in the street coming over to me. They welcomed me warmly and brought me over to Matt's beautiful house.

Matt and Alan were extremely easy going and funny and I felt at home right away. They have an adorable dog who took a bit to warm up to me but was very sweet after that. We had some dinner and hung out on the porch chatting over beers until Alan had to leave to go to his girlfriend's and me and Matt retired to sleep. I had a nice breakfast with Matt the next day and decided to take some time riding around town before heading out. I rode with Matt to pick up some groceries then rode into the local park and along the river for a bit. Unfortunately Alan wouldnt be back until 1 and I went on my way before getting to say goodbye, I packed up my stuff, let Matt try riding my bike around fully loaded, and made my way to Charleston.

The hills here are getting bigger and bigger, where as Kentucky was constant up and down little hills where you could go on momentum a lot, here are the long slow giant climbs followed by wonderful coasting before another huge hill. I waved to a cyclist on the other side of the road getting closer to Charleston and saw him in my mirror again 10 minutes later. He rode behind me before a bit and I tried pulling to the side to let him pass and he went by and took a side road and cycled out of sight for a bit. about another 10 minutes later I hear from behind me, "what you got in the case Tim?" the mystery cyclist was my warmshowers host for the night Jerry who had rode out to make sure I found his place alright.

To put it bluntly, getting to his house was hell, Jerry and his wife live on a beautiful hill right outside of town and to get there we went up the steepest grade I've been on since big bear probably. There were several places I felt like I was gonna fall over backwards. We finally made it to his place and I was drenched in sweat, I rinsed off quickly before sitting down to dinner with Jerry and Jan. They were wonderful hosts, the dinner Jan prepared was the best I've had in a while. I learned about the travelling and touring they had done, they have done a lot of tandem touring and actually had a bike friday (a company that specializes in foldup or easy to take apart and store) tandem. After dinner and some delicious coffee cake baked by Jan, Jerry took me to his office and we looked over some possible routes to my next destination, Keedysville Maryland to visit one of the few good friends I made at Umass, Julia. We found a great route that would take me through a state forest for some ways and into the mountains.

This morning we had a delicious hardy breakfast before saying goodbye to Jan. I rode down the hill and into town with Jerry where he bought me a cookie and a full loaf of sourdough at a little local bakery. He rode with me a while longer to get past the city before we got some pictures and he turned around and said goodbye.

I hope to make it to the state forest by tonight, I look forward to the mountains.