We awoke at 4 a.m. with plans to leave by 5 to get a jump on the heat and wind, and we actually were out the door by 450…a record for us. A quick stop at McD’s for breakfast and coffee and we were on the road by about 515. The ride out of Berea was glorious, finally relatively flat compared to the Appalachians we just conquered. We had ridden 15 miles by 630 am and it was sooooo nice…the dawn, the birds chirping, then the sun rising, and all on quiet roads with little to zero traffic. We rolled up and down gentle inclines and declines, near babbling brooks, past farm animals, and no dogs chased us. I saw deer, squirrels, a skunk, rabbits, and a lot of brightly colored birds. It was probably the best ride thus far, despite that neither V nor I are feeling our best at the moment. We’re tired because it’s been hot and humid and hilly, and V is still struggling with allergies, bug bites, and asthma. But we’re having fun doing what we can and resting when we need to. We continued on through the rolling Kentucky countryside, continually commenting to each other how this was such a beautiful ride. We had finished 30 miles by 930 a.m. so we rested and stretched and let the doggie play under a corner shade tree for a while. Across the street I popped into a Dollar General store to pick up a few cheese and crackers or peanut butter and crackers snacks (these are the best combination for bike touring snacks: cheap, good calorie content, real food, fewer preservatives and chemicals) and some Kind bars to replenish my on-bike snack supply. Right at that point it started getting hot and windy so it was less pleasant, and traffic started picking up as it’s Saturday and everyone was taking their boat to the lake…it made for some tense riding. We hit about 45 miles as we rolled into Burgin and stopped as soon as we saw the Burgin Dairy Bar for a cold Pepsi (V) and a chocolate/vanilla swirl waffle cone (me). You can’t get Coke at the fountain in many convenience stores and restaurants here in KY - Pepsi has a stronghold here and employs a lot of people and people are loyal to their Pepsi products. If you want a Coke you have to buy it in bottled form, which IS available in stores. The 5ish miles between Burgin and our destination of Harrodsburg was super narrow and trafficky, not nice, but thankfully we were past the lake so weren’t getting passed repeatedly by trucks with boat trailers. Just trucks and trucks with landscape maintenance equipment trailers and trucks with empty trailers and trucks with junk trailers. It was a relief to get off that road and pull into hot Harrodsburg at 1215, done for the day 50 miles!! Except……..we don’t wanna camp in the 90+degree heat and high humidity with a big thunderstorm coming. Again!!?? Seriously, the weather has been keeping us in hotels more than we had planned. It seems everyday there’s a huge rainstorm we’re either trying to outrun, or wearing Gore-Tex as we ride in, and we’re trying to find covered shelter outside like at a church or at a motel so we can both stay dry and dry our clothing. Or it feels too hot to camp. Or we’re just soft and we want to relax in a real bed in an air conditioned room, maybe. Anyway, we looked at the one motel in Harrodsburg near our route but it was disgusting, expensive, and required a deposit we couldn’t get back if we left earlier than 10 a.m.; oh and the lady clearly didn’t know the ADA Service Dog laws about them having public access - she would only rent a smoking room to anyone with a service dog. Needless to say we left. An online search revealed little available here, apparently there’s a big graduation happening, and we ended up getting an overpriced Quality Inn room 4 miles out of town off-route and uphill again. Ugh. After a very brief stop along the way to repeat yesterday’s Walmart healthy meal purchase of a fruit platter, yogurt, and a bag of salad mix (well, and just MAYBE some chunky Chips Ahoy and a couple of Starbucks frappuccinos), we hammered the last couple of hot, uphill miles toward our Quality Inn. As I crested the hill and looked to where I expected to see it on the right, I was supremely disillusioned to see a sign that said “Quality Inn - 9 miles”. WTF!?!? We just rode 4 extra miles, after Google maps had told us the motel was only 2.9 miles away (that’s weird, Google!). Another 9?!?! And then I spied the tiny, ACTUAL Quality Inn sign in the distance shortly up the road…thank god. When we pulled in, the nice owner Dave welcomed us and checked us in quickly. Unfortunately the only room he had was on the second floor so we had to lug our loaded bikes up a flight of stairs…no fun, but certainly not a deal breaker. Now we chill comfortably in this honestly very mediocre and overpriced room (I miss Rakesh and his amazing $60 Red Roof Inn in Berea!), but at least the bed itself is amazing and it’s quiet here. We’ll sleep like babies!