McDaniels, Ky to Utica, Ky – 50 Miles
Woke up at 7 AM without an alarm again. I’ve never been a morning person. Ever. But this bike touring thing has me going to bed early, sleeping the night through, and waking up with the sun. Don’t get me wrong, there are still days I feel like rolling over and going back to sleep (and do sometimes), but something about the rhythm of waking and sleeping with the rise and set of the sun feels good.
I took my time getting ready for the day, took a shower since there was one available (sometimes don’t know when the next one will come), packed up, and grabbed a good breakfast at a nearby diner.
It was a pretty uneventful day and I was planning on keeping it kind of short. The charity I’m riding for is working on setting up a service project for me in Carbondale, Illinois, so I’m sort of setting a pace such that I don’t end up getting there a couple of days before the project. In all honesty I welcomed the excuse to quit riding around 3 PM.
The scenery has been pretty consistent and I think riding the last three days on my own are starting to wear on me a bit. Listening to a lot of music while I ride. I just let it play through the speakers on my phone. It’s plenty loud enough to hear and feels safer than headphones.
Tonight I’m staying at the Volunteer Fire Department in Utica, Ky. They let Trans Am cyclists sleep in their common room and use their shower and kitchen facilities. Pretty awesome of them! Unfortunately I didn’t know that you could sleep inside until I had already set up my tent. It had started to rain by the time I arrived and I wanted to get setup before it started coming down too hard. Once I had everything setup I was trying to figure out how to get inside to shower when I ran into Blake, a firefighter here. He informed me that I could sleep inside if I wanted.
Blake’s been volunteering at the Fire Department for 5 years – since he was 15! He has a full-time job and just stops whatever he’s doing when his pager goes off notifying him that there’s an emergency. He says the frequency of calls varies quite a bit. Last week they had a day where they had to go out 17 times and sometimes he’ll go a month not having to go out at all.
It’s a bit strange being the only one here with all these fire trucks and equipment. I had a lot of down time since I got here early. Took the opportunity to do some laundry, and clean my bike. Glad I did too, because I found a missing bolt on my rear rack. I have some spares, so I replaced it and checked the rest of the bolts to ensure they were tight.
I only took one photo today. Not really sure what prompted me to take it either. It was an old building with a Coke signs above it next to a convenience store I stopped at.
Looking forward to an early start tomorrow since I won’t have to tear down a tent or anything when I get up. Just hope they don’t get any calls in the middle of the night tonight!
