Golconda, Illinois, to Marion, Kentucky -- 38 miles

We woke at 6 am and got on the road at 6:45 am. It was cloudy and HUMID outside – Lenny said it felt like we were biking through syrup. We stopped at Cave-in-Rock, to see the cave where pirates used to hide out and rob the flatboats that came down the Ohio River. Lorraine thought it was pretty cool, but Lenny thought it was pretty disgusting. She explained to him, “It’s a cave in a rock, it’s not the Holiday Inn! If you were a pirate, you’d be living there too, along with the pigeons, bats and mosquitoes!”

We took the ferry across the river – it was free, paid for by state funds. A tugboat chugged past us, towing barges loaded with coal that stretched a thousand feet back. When we arrived on the other side of the Ohio River, we had come to our 9th state – Kentucky. 

We saw “horse-and-buggy” road signs and found out later that an Amish community had moved to Kentucky about 20 years ago. We stopped at the Pilot House convenience store to get a map of Kentucky and some granola bars. When we asked a young man if this is where we would get tourist information, he said yes and added, “Welcome to Kentucky!” It was a nice greeting and the first time we were welcomed to a state. 

The woman working there told us to visit Yoder’s Variety Store – an Amish store; she said it was just down the road on the right. We asked what they had there, and she said, “You name it!” It turned out that Yoder’s Store sold everything from jellies and spices to Amish-style black hats and boots. Lenny talked to Melinda Yoder, who is 12 years old. She asked him questions about our bike ride and told him about her cousins from Montana who came to visit for her sister’s wedding. Lenny asked if she had ever visited her cousins in Montana and she said no, but some of her siblings had, and it was her turn next. Melinda was joined by two younger sisters and a young male cousin who she said probably didn’t understand us because he only spoke German. She has 9 sisters and 3 brothers! She said that she likes to bicycle, but prefers riding her pony in the fields. We bought some dried pineapple, dried papaya, and mustard pretzels – yum!!!

As we were leaving, we met Rich Jirsa who started biking along the Northern Route, then rode down to follow the TransAm route. He told us that he had landed in the hospital a few days earlier with heat exhaustion, so he was taking it slower now. We continued biking to Marion and stayed at Tobin’s Tourotel motel. We had a great meal, including the best pork chops ever, at the Magnolia House restaurant.