Boonville, Kentucky, to Pippa Passes, Kentucky -- 72 miles

We woke at 6:30 am and started biking at 7:30 am. The roads out of town were busy and the sky was foggy. When we got to the bottom of a hill, the fog had gotten thicker, so we pulled over to the side of the road. Lenny repaired Lorraine’s cyclo-computer while we waited for the fog to lift. The terrain was more hills to climb. We stopped at a grocery store in Buckhorn and talked to the owner. He had us sign his bike log – at the top of the page, it said, “You’ve climbed 2 mountains to get here, and you’ve got 2 more to leave, so why not sit down and rest awhile?” He said he had 60 bikers sign the book last year, and there have been 80 visitors so far this year. He told us to be careful of the coal trucks, because sometimes they get overloaded and the coal can fall off. We found the drivers of the coal trucks (like the automobile drivers) of Kentucky to be quite courteous.

We sat on the porch of the post office in Chavies to eat our PB&Js for lunch. For part of the route, we rode along Route 80, a major highway with a large shoulder – it was still unnerving to hear the sound of semi- trucks whizzing by. When we came off the highway, we were riding along a country road and decided to stop in a convenience store to fill our water bottles. The store owner said the tap water is not fit to drink because of the salt content, so we bought a gallon of water instead. He said there is little well water fit to drink in Eastern Kentucky because of all the blasting they have done for coal mining. He said it cracks the rock and causes the water to mix with contaminants. He also said that in his lifetime, he has seen the land become much flatter because they have taken the tops off so many mountains by stripmining. We asked about the economy, because the last store owner we spoke to in Booneville said things were getting worse. He said things were not too bad in his county because it is pretty industrial, but he wonders how people get along in other counties. He said with government assistance being reduced, there is not too much money to go around. He told us a couple stories about other bikers that had camped on his land and of two women that had borrowed his truck to go see a bluegrass festival. 

We rode another 14 miles to get to Hindman, where we thought we would spend the night. One hotel had closed and directions to the other began with, “You ride about a mile up the mountain…” so we decided to continue to the hostel in the next town. Before we left, we stopped in Yoder’s Grocery Store, owned by Menonite or Amish proprietors who are not related to the Yoders we met earlier in Kentucky. We spoke to a young lady who asked why we were dressed so strangely, and we told her that we were biking across the US. She asked, “Is this a dream of yours?” and Lenny enthusiastically replied, “Yes!” She wished us a safe journey, and we were off to have dinner at the mall restaurant in Mallie. Lorraine had chicken stir-fry and Lenny had chopped steak. We finished the last 8 miles to Pippa Passes and stayed at the hostel, which is hosted by Charlotte and Edward Madden. The Maddens have been hosting cyclists since the original BikeCentennial event in 1976. Fortunately, we had the whole air-conditioned room to ourselves!