Day 72, Sebree to Falls of Rough, KY

Miles – 71

Miles From Start/To Finish – 3,385/960

Ave Riding Speed – 3-24 mph

Hours Start to Finish – 8.5

Weather – Sunny and 88

Alarms went off at 5am and we once again rolled out of our sleeping bags on the couch in the basement of the First Baptist Church. I put on coffee and pumped up our tires to 75lbs while Kim filled our water bottles. We exited the hostel at 6:45am with clear skies, cool temp and a calm damp breeze.

We rolled past 4 other churches on the way out of the Sebree, population 1,600 and rode 9-miles east on Hwy 56 to Beech Grove and stopped at the convenience store for a little breakfast. We split a hamburger and a Gatorade. We chatted with a couple guys who were doing demolishing a small building next door. They were complimentary of our adventure.

The ride thus far was good, some hills that were manageable and a lot of the Kentucky farmland for viewing. After 17 more miles we pulled into a small country store on the west side of Utica. Kim went in to use the bathroom while I stood by our bikes and acted as the store greeter. A guy pulled up in front of the store and I noticed he had a bicycle inside his car. He exited his car and walked straight for my and introduced himself. I met Larry. He said he saw us pass his place a mile back and wanted to chat. Larry owns Be Real Sports in a town just north of Utica and likes to keep an eye out for people on the TransAmerica Trail. Be Real Sports is a bike, running and fitness business. Kim came out of the store and we chatted for almost a half-hour and found out his father-in-law owns the B&B we are staying at tomorrow night. As Larry was departing, Larry said to call if we needed anything while on the road and he recommended that we remember to wear our masks as Kentucky is lighting up red with the Delta variant. We appreciated his availability and the Covid update. We’ll be wearing our masks!

We rode 23-miles further through some hilly farm and forested terrain and approached a “T” in the road. Straight ahead was the Sugar Grove Bible Baptist Church. Kim and pulled across the road to the parking lot to have some water and take a quick break. A white pickup truck pulled up and the guy said that the church is open if you want some cold water, ice or just take a break. We met Pastor Dane and his wife Tammy. He showed us into the church and fellowship hall and we refreshed our water. He was a cool guy and lived across the street. Dane said he remembers the riders coming by his house on the inaugural ride of the TransAmerica in 1976 called the Bikecentential.

Shortly after we departed a guy pulled up next to Kim, on his bicycle, and startled Kim. We met Josh, from Florida. Josh, age 33, is putting on twice the miles per day than we are. We rode together another 3-miles together in Fordsville and stopped together at a small convenience store and chatted at the indoor bench while drinking some Gatorade and chewing on some jerky. Josh is well educated and decided he needed a break, quit his job, moved back home and set his sites on doing something out of the box and ride the TransAm. Ends up we were all heading to Falls of Rough for the night, so we departed and rode part of the 15-miles to our destination. There were some pretty good climbs on this last section so we told Josh to not worry about riding with “his parents” and feel free to ride on.

When we arrived in Falls of Rough, we rode through, what I believe was the town, and turned into the Rough River Dam State Resort, our home for the night. The resort was another mile off the main road.

We checked in and found our motel room. We had talked about meeting up with Josh for dinner so I called him and left a text message to meet us at the resort restaurant for dinner. He rode his bike over from his hotel and we sat down together and had a real nice dinner conversation. Josh and I had Kentucky Hot Brown and Kim had a burger and fries; side salads all around. The Kentucky Hot Brown, a layered bread, ham, gravy, tomato and cheese platter, was the recommendation from our waitress, a retired Airforce career veteran. She said she knew were biking and it would be satisfying. It awesome and good with a cold beverage!  

Kim needed a little sweet snack so we stopped at the gift shop for some peanut M&M’s on the way back to our room. When we got back to our room Kim showed me the bee sting, she got on her hip today so we searched our little kit for some pain rub or something. She took a Benadryl as it was swelling up pretty good and red for 6-inches in diameter. She was off to sleep by 7:30pm.

Kim wasn’t feeling quite right for most of the day and it’s about time for a rest day. We’re going to ride to our planned destination tomorrow, about 45-miles and try to do 2 nights if they have room..

The picture is the Kentucky Hot Brown I had for dinner.