Mood:  a-ok

It rained, often hard, on the morning that W.T. and I visited Mammoth Caves yesterday.  The good news is that I didn't have to ride in it.  And I knew that a weather front was going to push it out of the way so that I would not have to contend with it today.

My goal for the day was to reach Springfield, KY.  My map from the American Cycling Association had it measured at 59 miles, and they are normally spot on.  As I was studying the map, however, I noticed that there was a highway that was shown but was not the recommended route.  It was clearly shorter but must have more traffic than the planned route.  The idea of knocking 4-5 miles off the day's total mileage won the day. 

As usual I awoke around 5 AM.  the odd thing is that this is only my second morning in EST zone, yet the body seemed to adjusted to it.  After performing all of the needed functions, I was packed and ready to go at 6 AM.  There was a problem, however---it was still dark out.  I debated whether to wait until it got lighter, then finally decided to get on the four lane road and ride hard for 1/2 mile at which place a wide shoulder appeared, and I could get out of everyone's way.  I have reflective tape on the panniers and on the triangular caution sign on the rear.  In addition, I turned on my flashing lights.  Waiting for a long break in traffic going my direction, I took off.  As the first car approached, it moved over in to the passing lane, as did the second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth cars.  At that point, I got to the point with the shoulder and knew I would be safe until I got to McDonald's, the designated breakfast place for today.  When I finished eating, at 6:30 AM, it was light outside, thus safe for bicycling.

The new route took me right through Hodgenville and into the country.  Traffic was light at first.  The scenery was very pretty with rolling hills.  None of the hills were back breakers, so the morning was progressing smoothly.  I arrived in the town of New Haven for breakfast #2, and couldn't find an open restaurant, but did make use of the convenience store in the middle of town. 

My next town, Bardstown, about 13 miles away, was going to provide lunch, I decided, then it was only 25 miles to Springfield.  On the way, I encountered several touring bicyclers, unusual in that I was off of the prescribed route, and the third one pulled over to chat.  We exchanged information.  My primary contribution was the different ways to cross Washington to get to Seattle.  He gave me a much shorter way to get to Springfield.  He said that the road was busy out of Bardstown, but the shoulder widened after a while and it was much shorter.  In fact it ended up being 8 miles shorter.

I have ridden many busy roads, but this one was one of the most uncomfortable rides because there was no shoulder, and when I was barely moving up the hills, traffic started to back up significantly.  Several times, I pulled off the road into a driveway and stopped in order for the traffic behind to clear.  I try to always watch approaching traffic behind me and today I was watching a semi truck coming up behind (and not slowing down) and there were two semis coming down the hill.  It was obviously going to be a tight squeeze so I pulled off the pavement into the grass, in order to give everyone comfortable room to go forward.  That is a seldom used maneuver, but I will not hesitate to use it if things start to look a little dicey on the road.

Ironically, for the most part, I am not the one that is worried about the car and truck drivers.  They, as a whole, have been extraordinarily courteous.  However, sometimes when they pass me they give me plenty of clearance but cut it awfully close to the oncoming car or truck.  they should be worried about each other.

That having been said, I have not taken so much evasive action as I have today.  Perhaps the other route would have been safer, but I still like having ridden 12-13 less miles to get to the same place.

Tomorrow will be a very short riding day, only 26 miles.  i'll be stopping in Harrodsburg.  It is a good sized town of around 8,000 people.

Again, no mishaps today.  As I crossed a bridge, the bridge was 1 1/2-2" higher than the shoulder, resulting in a jarring blow to the bike, bouncing it up in the air (and me along with it) but there was no damage to the bike, and I was able to retain control.  The blow was so hard that the water bottle, for the first time this trip, popped right out of its holder.  Somehow as it was bouncing around, I pinched it between my elbow and my ribs.  It stayed there until I stopped.

Will McMahan