Day 71: Hopkinsville, KY

Day 71

July 26, 2015

Miles: 56

Marion to Hopkinsville

We arranged with Roz last night that we would have breakfast at 7am this morning.  She is an early riser and I think she expects others to get up early, too.  When we arrived for breakfast at 8:30am  yesterday morning, she asked us if we were still on west coast time.  We got the message and that is why we were at breakfast at 7am this morning.  We weren't really awake, but even so, we had another great breakfast and conversation with Roz and after packing up all our stuff, we were ready to start pedaling at 9:15am.

Di with the incomparable Roz

 I know, 9:15am is still not an early start, but it is a little better than what we've been averaging lately.  The day was cooler than it had been in a while and the skies were overcast.  After we had ridden for about 12 miles we felt the first drops of rain.  We spotted a large, open-ended storage barn and made a bee-line for it.  We made it into the shelter just as the rain turned into a heavy downpour.  It was satisfying to watch the rain come down while we were still nice and dry.

Di and the hay keeping dry

Our bikes look so little in the hay tunnel

Di watching the rain come down

Me showing my impatience to get going again

It rained for 30 minutes or so and we waited another 15 minutes for the water to drain from the streets a bit.  It still looked like it could rain at any moment, so we were hoping it would hold off until we arrived at the next town, Princeton.  Our maps say that Cerulean has one grocery store, so we planned on eating our lunch there.  When we arrived in Cerulean, however, we found that the grocery store was closed down.  This has happened to us quite a bit in these small towns we go through: stores go out of business very fast.  With the one eatery now closed down, we resorted to our  old standby: eating on the church steps.  Di rummaged in her food bag and produced a few snacks for us, such as cashews, trail mix, granola bar, and a peach.  We noted that is was not yet noon and we had already ridden 37 miles and we laughed at the fact that we ride very efficiently on rainy days.

Di eating lunch on church stairs again

 We rode mostly through farm country today and we saw tobacco crops for the first time today.

I hope this is tobacco.  I was wrong about the ostrich and Lois had to point out it was an emu.

Also for the first time we were chased by dogs.  Kentucky has a reputation for loose dogs.  Not loose in the moral sense, unless you believe that a dog biting a human is immoral, but loose as in unleashed.  Most of the dogs we saw merely barked at us or pretended they wanted to bite us when in reality they were merely showing off for their friends and family.  Four dogs, however, ran after us with ugly intention.  We were able to repel the first three dogs by taking out our pepper spray and holding it in a very threatening manner.  At the sight of the spray canister, the dogs immediately backed off.  I guess they have encountered the pepper spray before.  Thankfully, dogs have a decent memory.  The fourth dog, however, was a different story.  Di was riding in front of me and the dog first chased her.  He at first seemed very menacing, then backed away when Di showed him the evil pepper spray canister.  He then decided to run at me.  I had passed him by this point, so he was coming at me from behind and was quickly catching up to me.  I grabbed my pepper spray, but because he was directly behind me the dog couldn't see it.  He kept coming and was now scarily close.  I didn't know what to do, so I yelled, "I have pepper spray! Don't make me use it on you!"  Surprisingly, this did nothing to slow the dog down and he was almost at my back tire.  I have heard stories of cyclists falling from their bikes because a dog bites their back tire or rear panniers and causes the rider to lose his balance.  I was unenthused about this prospect, so even though I am very much a pacifist, I decided to use the pepper spray.  I turned around as much as I could, took careful aim at the dog that was less than five feet away, and fired.  Instead of heading for the dog, the spray from the can shot out at a 45 degree angle towards the side of the road.  The dog, however, stopped running at me and stood in the road with a quizzical expression.  And I know exactly what it was thinking.  It was thinking, "Man, are you kidding me?  I'm five feet away and you miss me by a mile? That's pathetic!" I must admit I was a little embarrassed I couldn't shoot straight, but at least I didn't shoot it into my own eye.

A dog's worse nightmare

We made it to Hopkinsville by 4pm and checked into the Hampton Inn.  It is always our goal to get to our destination before 4pm, so I guess we need a rainy day to achieve that goal.  We got cleaned up and went for dinner at the Mexican restaurant next door. 

Di is ready once again to eat Mexican food

Di was happy with her fajitas

I'm even more excited about going to Nashville now than I was before because Andy and Paige are going to spend the weekend with us.  Wahoo!  They will fly down on Friday and stay until they fly out on Monday.  I can't wait!

Andy and I back when my beard was under control

Tomorrow we ride to Springfield, TN, about 50 miles away.