Today was brutal. It was not supposed to be, but after sleeping on the dusty ground at Booneville church and the storm whipping up all the dust, V’s asthma and allergies were raging last night so she used her inhaler and took Allegra again, along with her normal Montelukast allergy medicine. Well some combo of that caused her to wake up short of breath, shaky/trembly, lethargic, and really not fit to ride a bike in hills and heat. But we were stuck - there is no accommodation in Booneville, tent camping (even though there is no campground around here and we would have had to stealth camp somewhere) was not a good option because of heat/humidity during the day and the expected thunderstorm later today. The best option was to ride and try to make it 49 miles to Berea where we’d booked a motel room for the night. Today’s terrain was not as bad as recent days, but the route elevation profile can be misleading, and there are always more hills than it shows, and often the ones it shows as not-too-bad in fact ARE bad. That happened today. Overall the ride was better than other days but there were some awfully steep hills and V just didn’t have it in her to ride. We were in the middle of nowhere with no services whatsoever and few good rest places. We went so slow that it got to be late morning started heating up early in our ride than it typically does when we start early and ride at a normal pace. She was such a TROOPER and worked soooo hard despite her severe fatigue to do what she could. But since there really was no good accommodation option before our goal of Berea, we tried to make it. We loaded up on calories around the halfway point at the Subway in McKee at 1:00, but it became apparent at about 2 pm that we were not gonna make it the 25 more miles to Berea at all, let alone before the storm hit. So we looked for and soon found a (you guessed it) covered church front patio to rest under and figured we’d be there all day resting and waiting out the storm, and HOPED we wouldn’t get wet on that small patio. V then decided to pull the plug at that point and said she couldn’t ride one more pedal stroke that day, she was too exhausted and it would no longer be safe to ride on this busy, narrow, mountainous, and trafficky road with a storm about to hit and little to no road shoulder to ride on, especially if it got to be dusk or evening. I was very proud of her for making the right decision, even though we had a comfortable motel reservation in Berea just 19 miles away. Safety first, after all!! Uncomfortable is better than stranded in a storm or dead. So it all started great at the church…shaded from the sun, water available (we were able to sneak a hose bath on the side of the church and also wash out our bike shorts - you never want to ride two days in a row in the same shorts without washing them because that begs infection and saddle sores), and pretty far away from the road behind a closed gate so cars couldn’t drive in (we’d ridden around the gate in the grass to get in). We thought we’d likely be left alone all day and night and would likely sleep there, so we started to roll out our sleeping pads for an afternoon nap as I was tired and V was nearly comatose. But then the church cleaning lady named Brittany suddenly showed up in her car, unlocked the gate, and came right up to where we were. She was kind and didn’t ask us to leave, rather she seemed supportive and concerned for us being cyclists that needed shelter from the coming storm. She went inside to clean and let us come in and use the bathroom and charge our phones. During her 45-60 minute cleaning session, the sky opened up with lightning, thunder, hard rain, and hail. It did blow sideways and we did start getting wet under our covered patio unfortunately so V couldn’t sleep, poor thing. Brittany left but 2 minutes later came back and got out of her car in the pouring rain and asked if we’d like it if she left and came back in her truck to DRIVE US TO OUR HOTEL in Berea!!! I looked at V knowing what our answer would be…YES, THANK YOU!!!! Twenty minutes later, we had our bikes all repacked and sure enough, she and her husband Jimmy showed up in a huge Dodge Ram pickup to help us out. In the pouring rain I loaded the bikes into the back of the truck, hoping I could get them stabilized enough that they would neither fall out of the truck on these twisty Kentucky highways with cracked pavement everywhere nor shift positions during the drive and break a shifter, brake lever, or derailleur. Nineteen wet, fast, bumpy miles later we were safely at the Red Roof Inn in Berea and a quick bike check revealed no immediately apparent damage. The kind couple posed for a picture with us and refused to accept any gas or dinner money we offered them. There’s a term for folks like this in the bike touring world: trail angels. Brittany and Jimmy were our trail angels today (two days ago a Kentucky state highway worker was our trail angel, kindly stopping and handing us ice cold Gatorades out of his cooler as we pedaled up one one particularly hard climb!!), saving us from a wet night sleeping on concrete, and ensuring Vanesa had a warm bed where she could comfortably sleep and rest her temporarily broken self back to normal. Then, in Berea, our amazing Red Roof Inn host Rakesh, with whom I had arranged by phone 10 days ago to allow us to have some package deliveries of things we need on the road but couldn’t buy along the way, and with a big smile when I told him who I was, reached under the counter and pulled out three packages he’d been holding for us. He graciously via phone had allowed me to have packages shipped here even though I could not be sure we’d be staying here as hotel guests because when I’d originally called I didn’t know what day or what time of day we’d actually pass through Berea. Well, we feel super lucky and rewarded for having chosen this particular motel and we did stay as guests here. Rakesh keeps a very clean place, only charges $60/night, and has been extremely kind, helpful, and gracious. Normally these budget motels are somewhat meh, tolerable but definitely not nice. Well this one IS pretty nice…kudos to you, Rakesh. I spent 30-some minutes chatting with him last night, during a down time when Vanesa had crashed but I wasn’t yet sleepy, about his original home in India, and our home in Portland, and his time living in Panama as well. And when earlier this morning I mentioned that the room was immaculate, with really comfortable beds and pillows, how impressed I was that he offered such good quality and service at this price point, and that only one thing wasn’t just right (the bathtub drain plug wouldn’t stay up so the water wouldn’t drain while showering), he insisted on immediately coming to our room to fix the plug. Which he did…and he then spent 15 more minutes of his valuable time kindly chatting with both me and Vanesa about home, family, hotel life, eventual retirement, and traveling desires. He and his wife run this place, live on site, and give everything they have to make their Red Roof Inn a great place for their customers in hopes they’ll return again. So if you are ever in Berea, Kentucky, please stop here and support this kind gentleman and his family at this motel. Oh, and when we wanted to use the coin-operated laundry machines on site this afternoon, he gave us free detergent too! So…being so comfortable here, and with both of us being fatigued and needing a reset, we decided to stay an extra day here and rest. We walked to Cracker Barrel for a decent enough breakfast, and then to Walmart for some salad mix, cut mixed fruits, Greek Yogurt, and bananas so we can eat a healthy dinner tonight before we get back on the road tomorrow. And after I finish this blog, and get the laundry folded and repacked on my bike, I am going to get straight to doing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING but laying on my big butt in this fabulous bed. Ciao for now…