Day 30 - Nickerson, KS to Larned, KS - 61 mi

First off, check out our Tribune article from Chanute, KS a couple of nights ago!

After downing some AmeriCone Dream last night I slept in to a lazy morning - as did everyone else. We rolled out of the campground around 8 am with the thought that we only had a 60 mile day and we could crank it out before noon (which happened). We rode through probably the most desolate section of road yet where there were no services (water/food/restrooms) available. It was key that we had a support vehicle for water and snacks!

(campsite from last night next to massive grain silos)

The ride today was super flat and we were able to cruise anywhere between 17 and 24 mph on the ride. We rode through flat agriculture land and past massive beef farms. It was pretty gross to get passed by trucks hauling (even empty) manure from the farm to the fields.

We have been extremely lucky on our trip in terms of weather and today was no exception - the skies were beautiful and the temperature not extremely hot. So far on the trip, we have not had very much rain and the temperature has been manageable enough that you can bike through the hottest part of the day (1-3 pm). Today the lack of headwinds prompted a horizontal pace line for communication sake rather than pace.

(Leigh Graziano, Bret Taylor, and Ben King)

Over the past week we have been running into more and more TransAm cyclists - specifically those heading from West to East. We have encountered many solo cyclists and smaller groups of 2-3 people carrying their own gear, but today we ran across our first group of the trip - the ultra plush America by Bicycle group that will be heading to the East as we go West.


After doing laundry at the local laundromat, I am currently enjoying a cold Miller Lite before heading to the local public pool across the street!

Day 29 - Cassoday, KS to Nickerson, KS - 90 mi

After nailing out 100 miles yesterday I had no problem falling asleep. On the trip I have started using ear plugs to reduce the group noise throughout the night, but last night I could have probably fallen asleep without them. We are currently staying at small town parks throughout Kansas so everyone is a little bit more grungy as we haven't had access to showers or laundry facilities in a few days.

This morning I took the liberty of riding Joe Ferrell's bike as he was one of the two route leaders manning the van all day. This was super fun for two reasons. First off, his racing bike weighs about half of what my touring bike weighs (notice the one hand pickup - not so easy with my bike) so I was able to pedal at the same rate but move less bike around the roads.


Secondly, he has a set of aero bars attached to the front handlebars of the bike so that i could drop down and pick up extra speed while pedaling. This made for a pretty fast morning, but I am used to riding in my Brooks Saddle and Joe's seat was not quite as comfortable. I equated the experience to riding his zippy little BMW around this morning before switching back to my Cadillac in the afternoon to prevent a sore back/body in the morning. This was definitely a good call as my knees, back, arms, and bum were getting tired/sore by mid-afternoon.

Today was an experimental day with bikes for me and an experimental day with mileage for the Carbondale Crew (all the guys from SIU/Carbondale) as many of them planned to head out around 4 am to destroy (or be destroyed by) a 200 mile day to an air conditioned hotel room and a day of rest afterwards. I politely declined my invitation to the ride and decided to stick with the back-to-back 100 and 90 mile days.

We definitely started riding through production agriculture Kansas yesterday and it was in full effect today. I saw fields of corn, wheat, sun flowers, soy beans, and hay to name a few. This reminds me of my childhood being raised in Wisconsin where you see the massive sprinkler systems strewn through the fields to water corn, etc.


I found myself riding late this afternoon thinking - man, I haven't taken very many pictures today! I kinda felt like today's ride was semi-monotonous and forgot to really take many pictures. We hit a really picturesque road in Kansas yesterday where I was snapping photos of the wide open plains and fields, so today's ride was much of the same but not quite as pretty. I probably need to make an effort to take more pictures of the group of people so I remember the conversations, friends, etc.

On a side note, I did come across this road sign today and wanted to put in a shout out to my wife Salli who is currently working hard in the North woods of Minnesota (specifically the Marcell Experimental Forest) doing field work for her PhD at the University of Minnesota and probably waging an all out war against black flies, mosquitoes, and chiggers.


What up wife!?!

Day 28 - Chanute, KS to Cassoday, KS - 98.5 mi (+1.5 mi)

A few things that I have noticed about Kansas outside of the nice people: (1) the clouds roll through extremely fast as the sky can change from a daunting storm to clear blue in a matter of hours, (2) with the sky in mind, the sunset and sunrise are quite epic if it is not cloudy.


Today we ventured out into the "flat lands" of Kansas to find that there are some hills - specifically the Flint Hills which are like 1-2 miles long each. Following the hills, we did actually hit the flat lands of Kansas and were able to cruise through the farm lands and see miles off into the distance.


We are currently trying to nail a few extra miles through Kansas if the winds are not too strong so that we can make it to Pueblo, CO by July 4th to be in a populated area with fireworks!! We pushed through 98.5 miles today and made up one half of a travel day - tomorrow the plan is to also make up another half travel day.

Being fairly new to road biking, I have never ridden 100 miles before - my longest ride to date was our 93 mile day a week or two ago. As I neared the campground today my odometer said 98.5 miles and I had to push through the pain and ride on for another few miles to hit the century mark (first 100 mile day!). Technically this is cheating, but it is still a 100 mile ride for me personally even though it wasn't quite all in a TransAm day's work.



Sorry about the short post! We are short on power and internet!!

Day 27 - Pittsburg, KS to Chanute, KS - 62 mi

Wow - how to describe our dinner last night (in no way can I do it justice)...first of all the dinner was out of control. The people of Kansas have been stuffing us with food! We had a great dinner followed by delicious dessert, but the story of the night was definitely hearing from the volunteers that fed us and their stories.


Each volunteer introduced themselves and told us how they are associated with MS - to cap the night two women told us how they have personally dealt with having MS (one for 35 years). It was an extremely inspiring talk as the main speaker (after popping a wheelie in her wheel chair!!) discussed how research has progressed over the years and that she is now able to go up to 3 years without an MS relapse (previously it was approximately 2 months). She explained many of her life's details and this made everyone realize even more that MS is an extremely debilitating disease and still has a long way to come. The two ladies discussed how BUS4MS affects them personally by providing hope on the darkest days of their struggle. They expressed the fact that we are simply raising the awareness level of MS as we ride across the country, but we are also continuously raising money for research and MS related treatments.

Needless to say, everyone was left speechless and truely inspired to tackle Kansas and beyond!

Our stop in Pittsburg was wonderful and we were able to spread the word about MS with another newspaper article located here. On a side note, many of our press releases can be found on the BUS4MS website here.

Our ride today was highlighted by @#&%$ WIND! It was pretty brutal traveling West, but we have been getting exponentially better at drafting off of each other in straight and diagonal lines to avoid the wind. When traveling North today (with the wind behind our backs) it was a LOT of fun to average 25-28 mph with effortless pedaling.

We arrived in Chanute, KS to yet another friendly warm welcome with a free lunch and dinner provided by some local MS volunteers. In Chanute, BUS4MS paired with the local MS society to build a ramp for a patient about three weeks ago. The work was done by a local contractor, but our fundraising efforts this year (up to around $90,000 but shooting for $100,000 - if you haven't donated please do so!!!!!) paid for the ramp! This picture was taken by a local reporter as we plan to generate another newspaper article spreading the word about MS and BUS4MS.

(BUS4MS founder Don Fraser, wonder woman Amanda Clark, and myself)

The party/food tonight is located at a pretty sweet public park with tons of playground equipment, a pond with beautiful picnic areas, and a sweet train engine where 2/3 of the team posed for a picture!


On the hospitality scale so far:
Virginia - 1
Kentucky - 0
Illinois - 1
Missouri - 0
Kansas - 1

Woot Woot! Until tomorrow blog addicted patrons!

Day 26 - Ash Grove, MO to Pittsburg, KS - 73 mi

These days, our rides are frequently ending with a pool and either some sweet hospitality or a building with AC to sleep in. Last night we slept in an AC building and got to hit up the local community pool free of charge! It is really refreshing to jump straight into a pool after finishing off a long day of riding. I have heard that this is going to be our typical routine through the Midwest states (really Kansas).

Speaking of which - we entered the flattest state on our trip, Kansas - the mecca in the middle of our journey where we get a break from hill climbing and dare to dream of a vicious tail wind that allows us to travel 20-30 mph for a really long day (120 miles or more). We got to experience a few things Kansas right off the bat. First was a small country diner that specializes in homemade pies - nothing like a slice at 10 am! Second was both a headwind (while riding West) and a short 5 mile stretch of tail wind (riding North).


(Ben King and Leigh Graziano cruising along on our tail wind stretch)

After crushing the last part of our trip (flat) in a sweet pace line with a few other people, we arrived at Wheat State Pizza across the street from Pittsburg State University, home of the Gorillas. This is the first of many activities today that make us feel like royalty.


First on the list of awesome activities was annihilating a free pizza/salad buffet for the cyclists while meeting patients who have MS at the pizza joint. This was a great experience as we all met with a few of them individually and will hear more from one of the patients over our dinner (details later). Second, we made it into town early enough to catch the USA vs. Ghana world cup soccer game which we unfortunately lost 2-1, but it was fun to watch!


Third on the list is our housing for the night at the Pittsburgh Middle School where there are showers, AC, and a basketball court! Fourth on the list is our free dinner provided by some of the same folks that hosted us for lunch. Since this blog entry is before dinner I don't really know the details, but I know we will hear the story behind one of the MS patients who has joined us today.

Day 25 - Hartville, MO to Ash Grove, MO - 76 mi

Not only did we invade the central square of Hartville last night with our tent city, probably one of the largest contingents of bikers to stop there at one time, but many of the crew also tried to scare off the locals by practicing the ancient art of Yoga.


Our ride today started out pretty good as we climbed some small hills and hit up a fairly good pace. We covered the first 40 ish miles of the day at a pace of approximately 16.5 mph. Then came the sun and heat...the second half of our ride today was much slower as we encountered major heat and sun waves along with "rolling" hills that turned out to be much larger than expected and weren't really roll-able. They required much pedaling - especially in some of my lower gears. Never the less, we did encounter a sweet sign with Stephen French in tow to make for a hilarious moment.


On a weird side note - upon entering Missouri the road signs have become letters where we are riding rather than numbers. There are definitely still numbered roads, but the majority of our riding has been on random roads like V, F, BB, or AA. Speaking of random roads, we have definitely been in the middle of nowhere Missouri and some of our rest stops have become road side setups because towns are becoming more and more sparse as the trip goes on. This will probably change in the state of Kansas, but I fully expect us to reach the middle of the moon nowhere in Utah and/or Nevada.

Day 24 - Eminence, MO to Hartville, MO - 81 mi

I finally got a good night of sleep last night! Thanks to some NyQuil...I heard a lot of comments this morning from many people that they are definitely lacking in the sleep department - myself included! According to Bret Taylor, a rider from last year and route leader this year, we are hitting the week(s) of the trip where our body is breaking down prior to hitting the week/remainder of the trip where we start feeling stronger until SanFran!

I awoke feeling a little drowsy and wiped that away with a can of Mountain Lighting (a Wal-Mart special) and some freshly baked pancakes by our fearless leader Don - even some blueberry pancakes!

I hit the road with Joe Ferrell this morning only to continue climbing through the Ozarks - by this afternoon I felt like we were pretty much done with mountain climbing and will most likely only find rolling hills, etc. until we hit the flat lands of Kansas (a light at the end of the tunnel!!). Along our ride this morning we found a sweet fire tower and I took the time to check out the view - I came to discover that Joe is afraid of heights, although he did make it up about 3-4 flights of stairs.



We continued to roll through some fairly steep hills this afternoon and made a conscious effort to limit our stop times to as few minutes as possible. This allowed us to keep our time on the bike to a minimum and beat the heat! The heat index today was not nearly as bad as yesterday and we were able to finish up the ride around 3 pm to get out of the sun. We are currently hanging out at the Wright County Public Library and the Courthouse - planning to camp in basically the town square! This afternoon we were joined by a fellow named James Rupe who hosted the team last year - unfortunately, we are not staying in his home town this year, but he met us today to ride into Hartville.


Today ended with a delicious milkshake and some french fries at a local diner before I plan to cook up a mini-feast. I am actually fairly full as I made an effort to eat a lot of food today - I am slowly growing sick of Power/Cliff Bars as many others on the team have expressed the same viewpoint.

Our newest YouTube video has been posted if you didn't check out the link yet!

Day 23 - Farmington, MO to Eminence, MO - 88 mi

Phew - we stayed at an awesome bike hostel last night in Farmington, MO. The building was converted from an old jail to a hostel with 14 beds, fo-hardwood floors, A/C, a refridgerator, a microwave, and a separate room to store bikes safely! Only problem was that I could only nab 4 hours of sleep from midnight until 4 am when some of us awoke to get out on the road by 5 am and beat the heat!


Today's ride was really long and the weather forecast said that the heat index/temperature was supposed to get around 110 degrees F - hence the early departure. Our group was able to knock out 45/50 miles by 10:30 am, but then we stopped for a second breakfast, stopped again for a milkshake, and stopped a third time to go swimming in a SWEET river!! The water was super cold and just what the doctor ordered as the day was heading into the 1 pm hour. The only problem with all of these stops is the fact that the temperature kept rising. After departing the river around 3:30 pm, we had 13 more miles to complete in some super hot weather.


On a side note, the flora and fauna has really changed after we hit the Ozark Mountains. Being married to a forester, I definitely noticed that the forests changed from typical decidous forests on the East Coast to stands heavy with coniferous trees (we also rode through the Mark Twain National Forest today). This was noticable by scent when biking through and smelling the pine trees. Furthermore, the type of roadkill we ride past has changed. East of the Appalachians it was typically rabbits, deer, skunks, racoons, etc. The past two days we have seen some of the normal dead animals, but we also have seen a few dead armadillos as the scenery has changed to a drier climate (semi-desert-ish).


On that note, I am off to try and catch a few more ZZZZ's before our ride tomorrow!

Don't forget to check the BUS4MS YouTube site tomorrow for a new video posted by Don!

Day 22 - Chester, IL to Farmington, MI - 50 mi

This morning we awoke in Chester, IL which is the home of Popeye. The town was loaded with statues of all the characters from the cartoon and there was a central park with the story of the creator.


After passing through Popeye land we were poised to enter Missouri (our fourth state of the trip!) via a bridge across the Mississippi. Upon entering Missouri we were thrown into a valley of agriculture production and then started climbing through our last hilly/mountainous state until Colorado. Today we entered the foothills of the Ozark Mountains and will be climbing through them starting tomorrow (110 heat index tomorrow on our 90 mile ride!?!).



Keeping the thoughts of tomorrow's extremely hot adventure out of mind, we entered Farmington after riding through Missouri wine country and stopping for a shade break at a local brewery/distillery. The day got better as we arrived around noontime, grabbed a bite to eat, and headed to the local water park! The awesome Midwestern pool/water park had two slides, a kiddie pool area, and a lazy river! Nothing like more sun and dehydration after a long ride in super hot temperatures!


While passing through Kentucky many of the crew shaved their facial hair to match the local flora and fauna. Unfortunately, I had freshly shaved in Blacksburg and didn't have a full canvas to work with. The time has come (after leaving Kentucky and even Illinois) to join the locals in the hollers of the Ozark Mountains!

Day 21 - Carbondale, IL to Chester, IL - 45 mi

After a relaxing day in Carbondale, I had a hard time falling asleep! I finally got a few hours of sleep and awoke to pack away some necessary supplies that I purchased at Wal-Mart last night.

This morning we rolled down to the local collegiate radio station WDBX 91.1 and were on the radio for a 30 minute clip about Bike the US for MS. Everyone introduced themselves and mentioned their hometown. The DJ interviewed a few of the folks about their experiences and the overall tour. All of this was after we found out that the local newspaper ran an article about our yard work for the MS patient and featured a little bit about the Carbondale Crew.


Post radio interview, we ventured over to the Long Branch Coffee House for a free breakfast donated by the owner of the place! It was all vegetarian food, much like Gillie's in Blacksburg. I had the breakfast burrito with black beans, eggs, salsa, and many other delicious options.


After demolishing our breakfast around 10 am, we got a really late start on a 100 degree Fahrenheit day of riding (though it was only around 45 miles). The ride was much different than many things we have done to date because it was super flat as we approached the Mississippi River. The highlight of the river today was a coal processing plant that moves coal from train cars (the coal is typically from Wyoming) and stores/loads the coal via conveyor belt at a rate of 6000 tons/hour to barges that hold 2000 tons (it takes 20 minutes to load the barge!).



We are staying at a lodge for the Fraternal Order of Eagles in Chester, and they have the works, including: pool tables, air hockey, shuffle board, food/beer, and outdoor volleyball. Everything costs money as it is a public restaurant/bar, but it is a pretty cool place to crash and enjoy a cold beer and dinner before camping out in their backyard.

I forgot to mention the extreme whirlpool that went into effect at Seth's house on our break day!!!

Day 20 - Carbondale Rest Day - 0 mi

Today's rest day was much needed. Many of our crew are sick and the day off from biking probably served us well - especially since we had an awesome day!

First on the schedule was to complete some yard work for a patient who has MS. We were vanned over to her house by Don in the BUS4MS van and all worked in her yard for about 2 hours, totally remaking how the house/yard looked. It was a great thing to do and everyone worked hard with great enthusiasm!


Following the service work, we all went back to Seth Milam's house for a pool party and bbq. There was a full spread of food including pork loin, all kinds of side salads, fruit salads, drinks, and dessert. The pool was definitely crowded as all the BUS4MS riders were swimming along with friends and family of all the Carbondale crew.

Other things that got accomplished today:

- paying a Bank of America credit card bill online

- declining the new yearly fee for my Capital One credit card and in turn, by declining the fee, having my card canceled by Capital One (good thing I recently got a different, better card!)

- having a lot of my laundry washed

- eating a lot of tonight's lasagna dinner and hopefully going to hit up the local Wal-Mart to restock on some food

Until tomorrow - adios!

Day 19 - Cave In Rock, IL to Carbondale, IL - 90 mi

After experiencing extremely hot temperatures yesterday during our ride, the plan for today was to get up around 4-4:30 am and get on the road to beat the heat (for our 83 mile day). I awoke at 4:20 am with a massive wind storm that woke up our entire group. I did not have my rain tarp on the tent so I was super nervous that the extreme wind meant a huge rain storm was rolling our way. Needless to say I was quick to take down my tent and ready to go! For breakfast I ate a peanut butter sandwich and a package of pop tarts with the plan to eat a large second breakfast in 20-30 miles (approximately 2 hours later).

Our plan to beat the heat worked! We arrived in Carbondale, IL much earlier in the afternoon after completing 90 miles - 3.5 of those miles I spent heading the wrong way with some folks until we turned around :(. Carbondale is kind of like Blacksburg in that we get a rest day here and many people on our team are from Carbondale, including: route leader Joe Ferrell, Geordie Dye, Brian Green, Seth Milam, Colin Schmidt, and Alex Pearlman.

Our Carbondae Party started at Seth Milan's parents house as we arrived to a pool and cold beer (delicious Fat Tire!). After hanging around for a bit, I departed to downtown Carbondale to get my bike worked on and head to dinner at Thai Taste on Main Street. Post dinner, we had a party scheduled at Tres Hombres downtown.

(Caleb King honoring the Carbondale Statue)


The bar party included a free keg of Bud Light provided so the cyclists could enjoy a cold beer. Some of the parents from Carbondale made us fancy T-shirts that say welcome to Carbondale and Bike the US for MS 2010. We all looked like an uber-coordinated group at the bar!



On a side note, I stopped proof reading my blog entries about a week ago so I apologize if the spelling or grammar quality has taken a hit! There are too many things to do in my typical nightly routine to spend the extra 30 seconds proof reading!!

Day 18 - Sebree, KY to Cave In Rock, IL - 56 mi

After riding through Kentucky and taking notice of how the state changed from poor, rural mountain culture to lush crop fields filled with cows and horses, it was time to move on to Illinois! Illinois, the land of Lincoln, even though I saw all those state parks in KY?!?


We had a relatively short ride scheduled for today so nobody was in a rush to get out the door - big mistake! Today was definitely one of the hottest days yet on the ride. After pushing through the heat and re-grouping in an a/c filled cafe, we all raced the last 12 miles of the trip (basically all downhill) to get to the border of said Land of Lincoln. It was pretty exciting as we had to cross over the Ohio River and the majority of us were not ready to bike through the raging river. On a side note, after crossing the Appalachian Mountains (leaving the Chesapeake Bay watershed) and entering the Mississippi river watershed all of the creeks and rivers have become silt laden and brown! Any who, we crossed the river via ferry and it was pretty cool!


Our final destination for the night was Cave In Rock state park in Illinois. Prior to arriving at the state park we were treated with some Illinois "Midwestern" hospitality as the family of Colin Schmidt was waiting for us with watermelon, grapes, Gatorade, apple juice, and brownies! Little did we know that the Carbondale hospitality was only starting. Our dinner for the night was paid for by Alex Pearlman's mother as we ate at Gee Jays Cafe where delicious fried food is their specialty (including fried okra, cactus, and zucchini as appetizers).


There is actually a cave at the state park - apparently back in the day pirates used to raid folks traveling down the Ohio River and stash the booty in the cave!

On another note, Pepper Schuette, who has been traveling with us and has made his shop, Sundog Outfitters, and official sponsor of next year's ride is now up on the website!

Day 17 - Rough River Dam, KY to Sebree, KY - 75 mi

After demolishing the all you can eat dinner last night at Rough River Dam Lodge, we went back for the breakfast buffet! Needless to say we ate a ton of food and borrowed a few sausage biscuits for lunch. The campground and lodge were awesome and a lot of us discussed how it felt that we weren't really embarking on an incredibly long journey since we have been stayingin plush settings with wifi and showers. We could definitely make the trip a little harder if we wanted to!

We are definietly getting faster at knocking out mileage, especially when the goal is in site. Our ride today continued through farm lands of Western Kentucky as the terrain and buildings are starting to look more Midwest everyday. I definitely saw a few huge corn silos and massive operations for storing grains. Today we passed our first West-to-East TransAm bikers who must have started super early on the West coast to make it this far by mid June. Unfortunately, I was riding along at a good clip when they passed. Some other riders talked to them when they passed by our water stop. On one final note, today was my first ride using my iPod and headphones - only the right ear in the beginning and then both ears. The music definitely increased my pace significantly as I busted through 25 miles at a good clip. Following the ride, I stopped at one of many dairy bars that we will start encountering as we approach the Midwest.


Our stop tonight was at the First Baptist Church in Sebree, KY. This is definitely one of the best places we have crashed yet!! Actually, in my mind it is probably #1.5 in terms of coolness as #1 is still the Cookie lady's house. The bottom of the church - the youth center - is hooked up with a big screen TV, a pool table, ping pong table, kitchen, and an indoor 4-square court taped on the floor! There is also a set of sweet maps including the USA, Europe, and the world where riders tack their home location.


The minister and his wife, Bob and Violet Hardison, are fairly famous on the TransAm. They have been hosting cyclists in their house/church since 1979 when they discovered they lived on the TransAm route. They are famous for feeding all of the cyclists with a home cooked meal using real plates and cloth napkins to make them feel at home. I can't even recall what our dinner consisted of because the spread of food was too large. We are definitely the largest group she has ever fed and we were certainly able to help with the cooking and clean up.

Day 16 - Hedgenville, KY to Rough River Dam, KY - 59 mi

Hellloooo - velcome to my delicious blog...
(this is my biking alter ego)

A few quick side notes:

1) If you haven't already, check out this older video of some of our teammates from Southern Illinois University.

2) Check out the new YouTube video from BUS4MS

Last night we were fortunate to be able to sleep in a community center to avoid a fast moving Midwest thunder storm. Not only did we keep our tents dry and get a good night of sleep, but there was also an indoor basketball court where we played a little HORSE.

I awoke to a sore throat two days ago and I felt a little bit low on my energy today. This was even after the route leaders prepared some pancakes to fuel up the riders this morning. Our rides are definitely getting easier as folks are getting stronger by the day and the mountains are turning into hills with some wind. We are becoming more and more reliant on group riding to break the wind and make the pedaling easier. While riding in the Appalachian Mountains it was not super necessary to ride in groups as we would be going fairly slow up the mountains.

Our rides the past few days have been really pretty in a different way than I am used to. There are a lot of crop fields as we are starting to hit the agricultural section of America. We have also been cruising by a lot of barns adorned with nice ornaments - whether they are Amish barns or something like family crests?!?


This morning I was unable to pick up a second breakfast to fuel myself for the first 40 miles or so. Instead, as we passed into the Central Time Zone, I was able to snag a cheeseburger and some tater tots from a gas station grill. If you are wondering where we find food, often times the second breakfast comes from somewhere like a local diner or fast food like McDonald's, etc. Typically lunch has come from gas station grills where they cook up some greasy burgers or sandwiches. The other solid options have been $5 foot long subs at Subway when they are around.

(Kathryn Collura chillin with the locals!)

Our final destination today was Rough River Dam State Park in KY. We arrived in the early afternoon with plenty of time to shower, setup tents, and chill out at the lodge to rip some of their fast internet! The final stretch of the ride was a lot of fun with some rolling hills and beautiful scenery as we approached the dam and campground.


Tonight the dinner buffet at the lodge is on like Donkey Kong!!