Monday August 10

The night at the city park in Marion Kentucky concluded uneventfully. Just the way we like them to. The tortuous heat never left us however. All of us are now doing the baby powder thing to take the edge off the stickiness.

I was awake and moving around at 6:00 and by 7:00 we pedaled away from the park and headed back into town to visit a café. Everything remained dry overnight which is a pleasant change. The Coffee Shop and Grill was not a real coffee shop the waittress explained when I asked for some half and half. It is a restaurant that serves coffee! I hate that powdered creamer stuff. Rather drink it black. We all had a breakfast and were on the road again by 8:00.

The temperature was 78 degrees at 8:00. I think it cooled all the way down to 74 degrees overnight! We are no doubt in for some steamy weather. Not wanting to waste any more time, we pedaled away and 2 hours later took our first break of the day having pedaled all of 22 miles. The hills were a little easier today and we took advantage of that fact. The first break today occurred in the town of Clay where we all enjoyed an ice cream cone and relaxed for about 20 minutes. Our destination today is the Baptist Church in SeBree Kentucky where cyclists have been pampered for years. Now it’s our turn. And since SeBree is only another 20 miles, we can afford to relax just a little bit.

We stopped again just 9 miles down the road in the town of Dixon Kentucky. Here we located a convenience store/deep fry food establishment where I puchased a gatorade and 4 chicken strips. Lewis has sworn off chicken now as we’ve been seeing scores of semi-trailers hauling chickens in cages from the farms to the processinng plants. Back in Kansas both Donna and Lewis thought about eliminating beef from their diets because of the feed lots where all the cattle were stacked up waiting for the same ending as todays chickens. Lewis doesn’t consider McDonalds cheeseburgers to actually come from cows! It’s probably the same thing for Chicken McNuggets.

It’s about 11:30 when we pedal away from Dixon with only another 12 miles remaining for the day. This is the best way to beat the heat. Just stay out of it. It is easily in the upper 80’s pushing 90 at the this time. With 70% humidity, it feels worse than it actually is. We pedal up and down another 6 miles of hills before Lewis and I are waylayed on the side of the road. Actually, an old guy who watched Donna pedal by just before us, decided to try and force some ice water on some unsuspecting bicyclists. Initially I declined as Donna was pedaling ahead and was unaware that the offer had been made. But when I asked Lewis if he wanted some icewater, he didn’t hesitate. So we parked the bike in front of their house and went on in. We were immediately blasted with airconditioning which makes the heat even worse once you have to go back outside. But you only live once and ice water on this day certainly hit the spot. I ended up having 3 glasses full. Before we could get away, we were shown Fred and Lora’s spotted, horned, sheep. Evidently these are a rarity. Fred explained how they got their name from the Book of Jacob in the bible. They are actually called Jacobs sheep. There were a dozen or so of the sheep which were skittish of us. I snapped a few pictures including a couple of newborns (3 days old) one of which Lewis was invited to hold. He chose to just touch it in the head. I wasn’t surprised. In addition, they had a cat with kittens, a puppy rat terrier (Lewis wants this kind of dog now) and an Australian shepherd dog. At this point we had been seperated from Donna for nearly a half hour. I kept expecting her to knock on the door at any minute. She didn’t. Lewis and I said goodbye to the Greenes and got back on the bike to pedal away. As we were just getting ready to leave, Donna finally shows up. She had ridden back looking for us but failed to see the tandem in front of their house and rode right by. She was becoming just a little frantic at this point, but Fred and Lora now had a chance to visit all over again, this time with Donna. We spent another 20 minutes there and actually went out to the barn again so Lewis could show Donna the sheep.

Fred and Lora have lived here for almost 20 years and we are the first cyclists to stop. Evidently Fred has been trying lately to get them to stop with no success until we happened by. Since our day is done with just another 5 miles, this was a pleasant distraction. Fred had the opportunity to show off his carving skills while Lora was just as proud of her doily making skills. In fact, she gave one to Donna as we were leaving. Another keepsake that will always remind us of this sweet older couple from Kentucky.

We pedaled away from the Greenes and less than a half hour later were rewarded with the city limit sign for Sebree. We found the church with no problem. While pulling up to the office we were greeted by a young man who was the youth pastor. Trent showed us where to flop and that’s just what we did. We enjoyed the air-conditioned comfort and all of the amenities. A couple hours went by before I made a trip to the IGA to get dinner. Tonite we have spaghetti and garlic bread. A cantalope and some bananas for desert and a gatorade chaser. Life is good here in Sebree Kentucky!