Day 51, July 17

Springfield to Berea, KY
82 miles

Gian Carlo, another cyclist who was camped in the park with me:

The Mordecai Lincoln House, near Lincoln Homestead State Park:

Mackville, KY:

Park near Harrodsburg:

East of the town of Burgin the road got very busy with traffic, especially trucks towing boats. They were all headed to Lake Herrington. It was a nice area but I was happy to leave the traffic behind once I got past the lake.

Quieter road east of Bryantsville:

By the time I got to Kirksville my water bottles were nearly empty. I also realized I hadn't been drinking as much as I should and was getting a bit of a headache.  Since there was nothing in Kirksville, or even before Berea, it was looking like I was going to be very thirsty for the last 12 miles.

At the corner of 52 and 595, where my map showed nothing, I found a church group holding a homecoming celebration at a community center and asked if I they had any water. I was expecting just some hose or tap water but they insisted on giving me three or four bottles of bottled water. They were wrapping up their celebration and also offered me cake, chicken dumplings and all sorts of other food. Their generosity was very appreciated and and I ended up taking some chicken dumplings to eat for dinner later.

In Berea I had a bit of difficulty locating my destination for the night. I was planning to stay at Fire Station #2, which hosts cross country cyclists and provides access to a bathroom and showers. The navigation app on my phone showed it being about a mile away from where it actually was. After a call to the station I was finally able to locate it and I set up my tent on a grassy area behind the building.  There was a huge row of BlackBerry bushes nearby. Since I was told to eat all I wanted I had a large bowl of them for dessert.