Onward to Carbondale it is...and Our first 100 Mile Day!!

So we did our first century today (100-mile ride). and got to Carbondale Illinois. I didn't realize it, but we almost went through Illinois in one day! pretty crazy. It was flat the entire time and there were corn fields galore. Its interesting to see the different stages of development vary from field to field. I always imagined that it was pretty uniform from field to field. It's not though. Maybe that's a dumb assumption, but I never grew up on a farm, so I don't know these things.
I wasn't that tired considering we did 100 pretty quick miles today. My but hurt a little, but my legs were fine. We ate at Taco Bell and slept behind a fence in a brush field behind a ball park. It was okay except it rained just enough to require a rain-fly at about 4 AM. and Then it got so hot at 6 AM I had to remove it again. Not such a great night's sleep. We all woke up pretty early because of the heat, packed up, and searched for a hotel we could sleep at for tonight. We found one and hit up downtown Carbondale's bike shop scene because Jacob's chain stay broke yesterday morning. Not a good thing... Jacob bought a new bike, a pretty sweet Raleigh bike with a carbon fork and STI shifters. He got it for a steal too. So while they were moving all the crap from his old bike onto the new one, we went down to the local coffee shop/bar and had a beer or 3 or 4...
We ended up meeting a crazy old Vietnam Vet sitting outside. He told us about growing up in Chicago, a little about guns and a lot about life, or something like that. His voice reminded me of Tommy Chong a little bit. He was entertaining to say the least. He brought us across the street and bought us all a bunch of shots and beers and talked to us for a few hours. After that we went up to the bike store for a bit, got Jake's bike, did some adjustments on mine, and finally went home to the hotel, a little more tipsy than originally planned...but whatever...it's vacation.

Hot dogs and Hamburgers You Say? What!?!...Homeade Ice Cream Too? No Thank You, I'm on a Diet...

We got up and rode another 80 miles to Sebree (See-bree...don't ask) Kentucky today. We rolled into town at the famed Sebree hostel. Supposedly this will be the nicest hostel that we will stay in on the trip. It was definitely incredibly nice. The common room was huge, the fridge stocked with chocolate milk and oreos, sandwiches, etc. They had showers and a tv...all for free. The family even fed us hot dogs and hamburgers as soon as we rolled in. It was amazing. The ride to Sebree was pretty flat, and there was so much corn I couldn't really even fathom how much corn it would produce. The fields were so extensive that It looks like grass far off in the distance. Mile after mile after mile of corn fields. Sometime there were soybeans but not too often. It was a pretty fun ride though b/c you can just hit the accelerator and fly until you're flat out exhausted, and then recharge and do it again. The flat-lands are fun...

Crazy Chapel Hillians

We woke up after a long night of 12 oz. curls and rode 80 miles to Rough River state park where we met a guy from Chapel Hill doing the Transam route for a bit, then I think he was headed up to follow the Lewis and Clark Trail, through South and North Dakota...pretty twisted. Supposedly there's some rugged terrain through that way and some large gaps between services.
Rough River state park had the first shower we had taken in close to a week (since Berea I believe). So that was the most welcome and incredibly long shower I've taken in quite some time. The ride was pretty easy, nothing to complain about. I mean I guess you could complain about the heat, but it's summer, and it will always be hot. The heat is something I've learned to deal with pretty easily. I get sort of cold inside restaurants, grocery stores, etc. pretty quickly now. Although a nice, well air-conditioned hotel room doesn't really bother me for some reason. Maybe its mental. I don't know, either way...showers are nice...

Inside the Belly

The ride into Mammoth caves wasnt' so bad, we only had to ride about 30 miles from where we set up camp in Munfordville the night before. Unfortuneately we missed the tour we really wanted to go on, but we still go tto see some interesting features of the cave. I'd never been in a cave before adn the initial descent in from the entrance we took would have been incredibly intense, if it weren't for the steel staircase. I wasn't so happy about how commecial it seemed. There were small auditoriums set up in some of the larger rooms so the tour guides could speek to the crow. I guess its necessary for the general public, but I was sort of annoyed. I wanted to see it without all the seating and fluffy crap. Oh well. Jacob, our resident cave expert told us he'd take us to cave he k,nows really well when we all get back to NC, so I think I'll probably do that in the fall or something. We spent the night in the national park campground and ended up meeting some girls from North Dakota who were more than willing to share a 2 cases of beer with us. Two cases you say? Nah, that's okay, I hate beer...
So we drank into the evening and did some star gazing. The stars were out pretty good that night, although nothing like they will be further west I would imagine...

Doesn't Kentucky Make Bourbon or Something?

We left Springfield this morning around 9:30 and got into Bardstown KY and hour or so later. As we rode into town we saw some road signs pointing to some distilleries around the area. SWEET... I love bourbon. In the interest of saving some time and miles, we decided to forgo the Maker's Mark distillery and went to the Heaven Hill distillery. Negative Nancy (Rob) tried to dull my excitement by telling me that Heaven Hill was the lowest tier bourbon on the market and not to be so excited because it will be gross. I told him I was sure they made some nice single-barrels or something, as distillers don't just make rott-gut liquor. Master distillers like to drink the nice stuff too... Boy was I right. Heaven Hill is the home of Elijah Craig, and Evan Williams (who does an incredible single barrel bourbon...award winning actually) As we rolled onto the distillery grounds we were punched directly in the face with strong vanilla and bourbon scents I will never forget. The smell comes from the "angel's share" or the volatile alcohol released from the barrels during the aging process. We went on a guided tour, learned some things about bourbon and the aging process that I never knew, and got to sample the Evan Williams single barrel, which I've had 2 bottles of prior to this...it's good stuff. We also got to try some Elijah Craig 18 year. The Elijah was definitely my favorite. The first bottle of liquor I ever bought when I turned 21 was Elijah Craig, but it was the 12 year. So after that we left town and set out for Munfordville, about 40 or 50 miles away. Tomorrow we're going to Mammoth Caves National Park...the largest cave system in the world...sick! That should be really fun, and I'm really excited about it. It's about 80 total miles off course, but definitely worth the trip.

Smooth Sailing on Smoother Pavement

Today was probably my favorite day on the road thus far. The morning started out quite well. We left Berea and hit some small rolling hills. It was fairly easy riding with some slightly steep hills with which to contend, but nothing compared to Eastern Kentucky. We went off course a bit to go to a bike shop in Danville KY. Danville had a bike shop and Rob's and Jacob's bikes needed some work. So while the bikes were in the shop we went to a coffee shop/bookstore/sandwich shop with really good food. They also had the first sweet tea I was able to find in days...I love sweet tea. I don't think I'll be able to pedal without it when I can't find it out west. We sat down and ended up talking to a guy named Nate who was thinking about doing the trip himself next year. He asked us a lot of questions about the trip, our motivations for doing it, cost etc. Then he told us how to get around the whole "dry county conundrum...that is, go to an Applebee's or similar chain. Apparently they can serve beer in a dry county. So Nate borrowed a friend's car and drove us to Applebee's and bought us all a round. Beer is good...
Danville was a very nice town with a lot of character. Apparently we missed a huge town brass band celebration weekend by about a week. Too bad. After the beers we went back to the bike-shop, got the bikes back and left town with the quickness so as not to run out of daylight before getting to Springfield KY. The ride from Danville to Springfield was the flattest and fastest riding we've done thus far. It was fun because you can make the ride as easy or difficult as you like. It seems like you can always go a little faster. I like to push myself to the limit. I got to a point today where I was, at any given moment, teetering on the edge of exhaustion. Its really fun though. If I find that I've pushed myself a little to hard, then I back off a little, stop pedalling and recharge. My rebound time is really fast now. It takes only a few minutes to feel completely recharged and ready to attack the road again.
As we got into town Jacob and I ate at the local Mexican restaurant. The food was great and they had beer! We had a few, I got a free 32 or 34oz beer for drinking one without stopping. I think I drank it in about a minute, with very minimal spillage. I impressed myself, and then had to chill a while before the next one.
We slept under another pavilion in a city park next to a playground. Jacob and I played on the seesaw and Rob climbed on the monkey bars. Come to think of it, maybe we had more than a beer or two...

Doing nothing in Berea

We left the hotel around 11 AM and hit the town. We found the library at Berea College and set up base for the day. The cam[pus was very nice, lots of large tress and walkways a plenty. We all spent some time catching up with our blogs, and calling friends and family, etc.
Then we explored the town a little, found out what the college kids do, and did some window shopping. Rob bought a really nice window. We ate dinner at an Italian restaurant with the best garlic bread I think I have ever had. After dinner we went around campus looking for places to set up camp. We found a nice pavilion-type structure right next to the tennis courts and the track, and we finally got some rest.