Scottsburg, the town I stayed in last night is exactly 30 miles north of Louisville, so today would be a short day. I don’t really like these short days though – I get my hopes up that it will go by quickly and I never get into a proper groove which causes the hours go by slowly.
It was pretty much a straight shot south along a state highway. My shoulder started out being maybe 3 feet wide which was pretty nice, but over the course of 20 miles it slowly dwindled down to the 4-6 inch shoulders that seem to be the norm.
Stopping in a convenience store for a drink, I had a conversation with the guy who worked there about my trip. I felt weird telling him I was on my trip because my life was boring (this is a partial truth, I’ve been trying to come up with a good answer for when people ask me about why I’m doing this). But telling this to a guy working at a convenience store in the middle of nowhere seems wrong. If anything he should be the one bored to tears.
As I approached the city I turned off the state highway onto a suburban road for a few miles. Not to have a day go by without a dog encounter, a huge dog came running up to me and it was apparent this was a very vicious dog that wanted a piece of me. The wife of the owner was screaming at it but the dog didn’t react at all. I didn’t even try to pepper spray this one since I thought it would just be angered. Luckily the owner came out of the house and got the dog to go back inside, but it was probably my worst dog experience thus far. These dogs are really getting to me. I think I have about 5 more days of riding through territory that will probably have lots of dogs before I suspect the occurrences will start to subside.
Anyways, as I came to cross into Kentucky, the only bridge into town that wasn’t an interstate had a big “road closed” sign. Just my luck, same as in West Virginia. There were several cop cars parked by the barricade to the bridge and I waved at an officer. He begrudgingly stepped out to say I could take the sidewalk across the bridge.
Turns out there was a triathlon going on and the runners came halfway across the bridge before turning around. Towards the end of the bridge there were lots of spectators sitting on the sidewalk which made getting my bike through very difficult. I wound up having to navigate through a maze of police barriers and eventually cross the race path to get into the city.
Finding my way to the b&b where I will be staying for the next three days, I took a shower and went to find dinner. Being in a large city gives me more options than fast food, american food, or sometimes Chinese food, so I picked out an Indian restaurant, biked to it, and locked up my bike only to find that the restaurant was closed due to a fire. Wonderful. So I looked up another one and biked to it and had a great meal.
Today’s mileage: 40 miles
Total: 1115 miles
