My Old Kentucky Home

No, I never actually lived in Kentucky.  However, years ago I lived in Tennessee, and part of my working world included parts of Kentucky.  Not the parts that we are in right now, but parts of southeastern Kentucky where we will be headed soon.  It will be interesting to see if some of these areas have changed much.  I hope so, as they were not very prosperous areas, but I don't suspect much has changed.  I'll come to see in the coming week as we will be here for a while.  Think about this: Kentucky's width encompasses the width of Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and butts up with Virginia.  This is a wide state.

Entering Kentucky

Today, we quickly passed out of Illinois, and into western Kentucky.  We actually left a bit later, after I had a chance to talk to my office.  I'm sorry to hear about the demise of MJ's younger dog, Baxter, who had to be put down last week.  RIP Baxter.  We left the very nice cabin at Cave-In-Rock State Park, rolled down the hill, through the deserted(looking) downtown and onto the dock, and promptly got onto a ferry which took us to the other side.  This is the first time on this trip that we've been delivered to another state by boat.  We were delivered into Illinois by bridge, but that seems pretty ordinary compared to taking a boat across the river and landing in another state.

Between states on the Ohio River ferry

We quickly rolled up the hill into Kentucky for a very pleasant day of cycling.  We knew that our target, the First Baptist Church of Sebree, Kentucky, wasn't going to be 60 miles, so we had a relaxed day today.  The day started in the 60's, so it wasn't too hot, but we knew it would be humid.  The roads into Kentucky were rolling, so we needed to do some climbing today, but never was it very steep or very long.  And the scenery in western Kentucky is very beautiful.  Rolling hills, a lot of very nice farms, a LOT of corn!  Oceans of corn!  Very tall corn.  

We took our first break today, barely 12 miles in, and since we had had only leftover Subway sandwiches from yesterday to start the day, we looked for a breakfast spot in Marion, Kentucky.  We spoke to a couple of gentlemen on the main street in town and discussed restaurants.  The Marion Cafe, on the main street, had closed years ago, but still appeared to be closed for the day.  (kind of spooky).  They suggested 88 Dip, down the road about a quarter mile.  We took their suggestion.  88 Dip seemed to be the local hangout.  We walked in and there were a number of people having breakfast.  Like always, we talked about the trip with a couple of people as we were coming in.  Most people are pretty interested, and it certainly is a conversation starter when you tell them we're coming from Oregon and headed for Virginia.  We had some big cups of coffee and some very nice breakfast, and we finished as the place was emptying out of customers for the morning.  We hadn't gotten our check, and Jerry had to go ask if we were going to be able to cash out.  The waitress said that another customer had picked up our check, and that we didn't owe anything.  How very nice was that!  What a nice way to start off a new state.

The 88 Dip in Marion, KY. Thanks for breakfast

We continued on our way today, and really besides the stops, there was nothing to report on the road.  The day continued nicely - we had a Gatorade stop in Clay, where we spoke with the Bimbo Bakery delivery man about our trip.  He was a runner and sometime cyclist.  Nice guy.  We went on, heading toward Dixon, our target for lunch.  When we did pull up in Dixon, we saw the City Hall building, and decided to ask where a good place to eat might be.  The very nice woman at the desk apologized, said she was new to the job and didn't live in the area, but she suggested the local gas station, and possibly QT's, down the road.  We asked what might be better, and she honestly couldn't say.  She said that the gas station has that Hunt Brother Pizza, which is a staple of every gas station we've seen from west coast to here.  Yuck.  So we figured we'd check out QT's.  It was about a quarter mile in the other direction, and it turned out to be called OT's.  It was a very nice little restaurant that is only open Tuesdays through Fridays (yeah, it was open when we were here) and from 11 to 2.  They were only serving take-out, but they allowed us to sit outside, and even provided an umbrella for an outside table.  The lunch was very, very good.  Almost Little Clay House good. (almost).  What a very good find, and here the city hall woman couldn't decide if the gas station food was better.  She needs to promote local businesses a bit better.

After lunch it began to get a bit hotter, and the humidity stayed high, so we were wearing down even on our short day.  We had been through a few more small towns and then suddenly we were upon Sebree.  As we came into town we could see a sign up ahead that said "Cross Country Cycling Hostel," and we had arrived at First Baptist Church.  Dylan (sp?), the young pastor, came to greet us from his lawn mower, and showed us around.  It was fantastic!  They have a youth ministry at their church and they have a great big spot for their youth, including ping pong tables, pool and fooseball tables, meeting spots, a lounge area, and best of all for the cyclists, a shower AND a washer and dryer, AND WiFi.  They hit all the right buttons.  They opened this ministry years ago, and typically have about 2-300 cyclists come through per summer.  This year he said it is less, but it's picking up now in July.  They were so generous with their facility and with their time.  We cannot say how much this really helps a cyclist out, especially as this is about the only option for miles and miles.  And instead of parking at a campsite behind a store, cyclists are treated like celebrities.  How very nice.

The Sebree Cycling Hostel

Their youth ministry and a cycling haven.  

We finished the day having a take-out dinner from the Sebree Dairy Bar, where they serve a terrific chocolate milk shake with generous portions.  After a trip to Subway for tomorrow's lunch, we were done for the evening.  After a bit of work, and this writing, and a quick view of the International Space Station crossing the sky (Jerry has an app that shows what's in the sky - last night we saw Jupiter from our cabin) it is off to sleep on their lounge couches for the night.  Thanks First Baptist, and thanks Kentucky for a very nice first day.