She said: We made it to Hazard Kentucky today. Yesterday's post was kind of short, because we were feeling a little tired and discouraged. But everything worked out great. Paul's bike had a problem and it took us all afternoon, and a lot of driving to locate a bike shop (we actually had to go back to Virginia to find one). The bike mechanic was gone for the day, so it was Sunday morning when Bill from Adventure Damascus repaired the shifter. Thanks Bill! Well, it was back to Kentucky where Paul had left off-the sun came out after a morning of downpours. We are definitely in coal country. There are places you ride through where you can see the mining, coal plants, the railroad runs through everywhere, coal yards with large trucks parked, and homes with coal trucks in the driveway. I was glad this was Sunday, and Paul got through a few miles without the trucks running....we'll see what tomorrow brings. Saturday is tag sale day in this part of Kentucky. People drive their "stuff" to the nearest main road, set up tables etc. and just park for the day. Another thing I noticed today was garbage, alot of it on the sides of the road, and the different way they keep their garbage waiting to be disposed of. Everyone has a little chain link box to keep their garbage bags in, away from wildlife I imagine. You can see one version in my picture of the coal station by the train tracks. We are still in the mountains, and every time I drive up a 3 mile (or sometimes longer) stretch of steep, heavily banked switchbacks I am amazed at how well Paul peddles over them...I guess living in the valley was good for his training. I am so proud of how well he is doing.
He said: well back on track. after an odyssey yesterday that saw my front derailleur act up as it had from the beginning i had 67 miles by lunchtime but only had my small chainring. that's actually all i needed yesterday because it was up, up, up ...... coast down with brakes tapping the whole way down. told of a bike shop about 15 miles away we opted to try and get it fixed once and for all. 200 miles and 6 hours later we were back in virginia at a bike store who's mechanic would be in at 8 a.m. sunday morning. so saturday night we did something we never do (well hardly ever) we bought a lottery ticket. won't know if we won till tuesday, but if we do we will be sending out a share of the winnings to the winner of our " most frequent blog commenter contest" keep your fingers crossed craig! after spending an hour or so cleaning the bike, eating and she doing her blog we called it a night. we slept in till 6, packed up and headed out. so, in the good news department it went from bad to worse when mechanic Bill said" good news, bad news, your shifter is broken and i don't have one of them but i can have one by wednesday. now, Damascus Va. is a nice town but unless we were going to start hiking the Appalachian Trail for our trip instead of biking east to west , there really wasn't a lot to stay for till Wednesday. then our luck started to change, (sorry Craig ) when owl ears ( thats sharon , you know kind of like eagle eyes)and Bill both heard the shifter click while Bill was playing with it(not supposed to happen if it's broken) to make a long story longer with the help of a screwdriver supplied by moi, to unscrew a screw that's not supposed to be unscrewed the shifter parts were realigned correctly( probably for the first time since i've had this problem from day one when i purchased the bike) Thanks Bill and a maple syrup prize for you! the rest of the day was pretty uneventful except for two dogs. i was lulled to sleep by the first one. contrary to other blogs we've read, the dogs of Ky. have either been reasonably well behaved or been fenced in their yards. seeing a nice chain link fence along the front of this property , i thought nothing of the dog running alongside barking and snarling . but he knew something i didn't, the fence was only in the front. so when he exited the yard in high pursuit i had to shift into a higher gear and vamoose!(thanks again bill)
speaking of vamoose brings me to dog numero dos. got my first flat and was so busy trying to find a safe place to stop and change it i hadn't seen #2(the dog) looking around i see this Lolalike dog staring at me from across the street like i was some kind of burrito /taco/enchilada. but since i had come to a stop it was game over. luck definitely changing. ended up in Hazard, Ky. haven't seen any dukes or daisy but took a picture of one of the locals at the sunday night rodeo. stay well. 76 miles.
That's really not a local, that's sharon duke. She traded in the bike she wasn't using. So now we should be riding off into the sunset together. Okiedoke.
Tried to get a picture of some of the coal stuff. Hard to find a place to pull off to take a picture. There is a garbage cage in the left foreground.
It is hard to tell from the picture, but this truck was forced over the embankment by Daisy's new ride. Really it was about 10' below the road on a steep uphill "you ain't gettin that truck back" road.
Hey! Don't count me out yet--- it sounds like your luck is changing for the better if you got your bike fixed! My palms are itching already. Please be careful with the coal trucks, if they're anything like logging trucks up in Vermont most of them will be under the impression that the road is strictly for them. I can plainly see that you're in Kentucky-- the Pepsi machine has an equal amount of Mountain Dew.
ReplyDeleteGlad to see the Lola dog made the blog! Its good that the bike is fixed and that he accepts Maple Syrup as well as cash :) We hope you enjoy the Mammoth Caves. Mike and I stopped there on our way back from Miss. but we only made it to the cave closest to the parking lot. Have fun on the detour and keep on pedaling.
ReplyDeleteWe're glad to hear some of your minor setbacks (which could have been much worse)have not kept you down. You must not have showered the morning of Lola met up with you... and you thought it was because yhou weren't moving!!! Sure are glad to hear that you guys are doing well and being safe. We certainly are having fun following along. Continue to be safe and enjoy the adventure!
ReplyDeleteWait a minute. No postings since Sunday? We won the lottery didn't we and you're not telling. I would really like to go into work tomorrow and tell my boss I've become independently wealthy. What gives?
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