Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Day 19

Tuesday, July 26

Miles today: 73

Another hot day, but the ride wasn't too bad. About half way through, we got to talking to two men in their yard. They were in their 70s and had been friends since they were 15. One was a woodworker, and he gave us a tour of his wood shop on his property and some of the projects he was working on. They also told us about a church in Sebree that would let us stay for free, but they weren't sure exactly where it was. We had a nice chat with them, filled up our water and went on our way.

A cool thing happened this afternoon- a man pulled over in front of us and waved us down to pull over. He handed us three giant ripe tomatoes that he had just picked from his garden and said "there you go, now all you need is salt!" I'm pretty sure that something like that would never happen at home, and it really made us so happy. The kindness of strangers takes places in many different forms and never ceases to amaze me!



The highlight of today was our evening with Violet and Pastor Bob. We rode a long 71 miles into Sebree, hoping to find the church that we had heard of that would let us stay.



 A rest stop at an abandoned building on the side of a road:


We found it easily on the route and knocked on the house next door where Bob and his wife Violet live. They were happy to have us and said that they were waiting for 2 more cyclists and dinner would be at 9. We walked down to the church, where there is a hostel for cyclists. One man was already here, John Paul (from providence RI!) so we talked with him while we waited for dinner. He is also going east to west, by himself. Around 9:15, bob and violet decided we should eat because the other two weren't here yet. Dinner was a feast- lasagna, garlic bread, green beans, homemade pickles, iced tea- all delicious! Around 10pm, the other two guys arrived- Johnny (from England) and Matt (Washington DC). We sat around the table for hours and shared stories and laughed so much it hurt. We also managed to find room for dessert- blackberry cobbler with vanilla ice cream. It was so amazing to sit at this table with people from all over, and Bob and Violet, who are so incredibly kind to have us. We had such a great time and even though we were exhausted, I didn't really want to go to bed. Nights like this make us feel a little more normal, even though we are so far from home. Strangers have become instant friends on this trip... I never thought that this would happen so easily and so often. I have mixed feelings about leaving Kentucky tomorrow. I'm excited to be making progress on the route, and on to the third state, but sad to be leaving the state where we made so many great memories with our new found friends. I do have great hope for the rest of the trip though- every day is new and exciting, even though the basic concept is the same- rotate legs all day until dinner.




Ben eating breakfast in the hostel.




Matt and Johnny planning their route for the day

2 comments:

  1. You'll always remember this special day. Just one of the day's events would make it special, but you had many. I guess they grow them nice in Kentucky. I have to say the pictures are great!

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  2. Nobody ever offers me a tomato.

    ReplyDelete