Day 40 - Bardstown, KY to Danville, KY

44 Miles / Day 40 of 50 / Bardstown, KY to Danville, KY

Working to get back into our routine of rising early we woke up on the edge of the golf course around 6 am. We lucked out and were only a few miles from that glorious Macky D's breakfast. A few egg and cheese McMuffin's later and we were on the road before 8.

One piece of advice we've heard from people coming across going the opposite direction was to ask locals and venture off of our bicycle routes once you're deep into Kentucky.

It's been the first time this trip we have the option to take more than one road to our destination. Today's ride we had found an alternate route that saved us a few miles.

We rode straight through the morning sun and into the early afternoon heat. It was one of our shortest rides of the trip, we're going slowly to Barea, KY because Jack's older sister can come down from Ohio and meet us on Sunday. It's time to pump the brakes and drive slow homie.

As we neared the outskirts of Danville Jack heard a sharp "pop" from his back tire. Yup, another spoke down. He could not have had better timing though. Danville was home to the only bike shop within a few hundred miles in any direction of our route. Our luck continued as the Danville Bike and Footwear was open on Saturdays.

Ernest was the mechanic and owner and greeted us with a jokingly harsh southern accented "Well sure der young feller, we can fixer up dat bike no problem 't all."

Ernest and his son Andrew ran the bike shop. Ernest had rode across the USA in the summer of 1977, one year after the inaugural bicentennial cross country bike ride that started this whole bike across the country thing. He had a picture book from all the 35mm stills he had taken on the trip.

Thank you Andrew and Ernest.

Lesson #80: The kindness we've experienced this ride apparently wasn't all that kind back in the beginning.

In the summer of 1976, to celebrate America's 200th birthday, the Trans-America bicycle route was born (the route we are on) to celebrate the party. Droves of young people came out, as he described, on 10 speed bicycles with little more than jean shorts and an adventurous spirit.

Small towns and mom and pop stores across the route apparently weren't always keen on hundreds of people descending on their town / shop, using everything and anything in sight (bathrooms, showers, etc.) and then leaving abruptly. Ernest said many stores had signs up the following summer of 1977 when he rode that read "No bikers" or "Cyclists not welcome here. Don't come in."

Thank you Ernest for laying down the path that has eased people's anger. We've enjoyed the generosity on the route, especially gas stations that were the only water in hundreds of miles that now have signs that read "Cyclists welcome."

Ernest helped me put on a new back tire I had been carrying since Illinois, I ran my old one as long as I could. The tread had cracked in multiple places exposing the bare bones of the tire. Jack had his spoke replaced and wheel trued and we pumped our tires and lubed the chains to get ready for the final 700 mile trek to the Atlantic.

Ernest rode on another cross country trip many summers after '77. This time on a tandem bike with his son, who was 10 at the time.

Lesson #81: Libraries are the livelihood of a community.

Jack and I took the rest of the afternoon to make the most of our rare extra couple of hours by grabbing food at the local pizza shop and spending time in the greatest place on earth, the library. The Danville Library was gorgeous, and recently renovated. Great to see families, kids, and community members have such a beautiful space to gather at and call home.

Thank you Ernest and Andrew for the stories and help getting our bikes tuned and primed for the last leg of the journey.