We arose early to leave from the incredibly comfortable Sebree Church hostel…and it was POURING rain. We knew it was going to rain, but that much?! It’s way easier to mentally tolerate when it starts raining mid-ride than when you wake up, look out, and see that you have to start in the heavy rain. Vanesa and I had a role reversal this day, though, and she wanted to get out and ride, her legs itching to pedal and her mind wanting to get an early start on the day. She had misunderstood my description of the weather report and thought it was going to rain all day, whereas I knew it was going to stop raining in 1-2 hours. I managed to get her to delay 45 mins but as soon as a tiny break in the rain came, she was like “let’s GO!!” So we left and within 2 minutes it was absolutely pouring again. I was a little annoyed at riding in such a hard rain but at the same time it’s kind of cleansing and strangely fun when it’s not a cold rain, which this wasn’t. It poured on us for probably 1-1.5 hours but then let let up and became drizzle and then just cloudy…but frustratingly that’s when the headwind started. So we pushed through some gorgeous Western Kentucky countryside but it was less enjoyable that it might have been because the hilly terrain was made harder by the wind. We eventually made it to Marion, which is the last town in Kentucky before crossing the Ohio River on the ferry to get to the tiny, historical, but kind of dilapidated town of Cave-in-Rock, Illinois. We lunched at a Subway in Marion (sadly, because the historical and awesome Marion Cafe had shuttered forever since I had an amazing meal there in 2010) and then hit the road to drop 12 miles to the ferry…it was a net downhill since we were dropping to river elevation, but there were a sneaky amount of uphills thrown in just to mess with us. And we were trying to outrun the next afternoon thunderstorm like is happening on most days lately and arrive in Cave-in-Rock before the rain hit. We didn’t. While waiting on the KY side for the ferry, we had to GoreTex up before the ferry arrived but we only wore it for 10 minutes because the spitting storm quickly passed. After the literal 5-minute ferry ride got us across the Ohio, we did our “we-reached-a-new-state” silly dance on video, and then slowly rode into Cave-in-Rock State Park right there at the riverbank, where exists a huge cave (that old-time river robbers/thieves used to hide in as they tried to escape detection) that is seen in 2010 and wanted Vanesa to get to see. Turns out though that it was a super muddy walk, not good for bike shoes OR sandals OR Crocs, so not happening for
us today. But hey, there were also riverfront CABINS to rent just up river slightly that we could ride to, like a half mile away. Easy. Except then we saw the hill. After all the hills we’ve ridden, we both said “no, not one more!!” and we turned around to ride the 1 mile to the cheap motel up the road that we’d seen listed on Google and on our TransAm bike route map. And then as soon as we started to ride the sky suddenly OPENED UP and we started getting the soaking we’d been trying to outrun a while ago. I popped on my GoreTex jacket and pants again, but V only put on her jacket because she figured we were only 1 mile from the motel and how wet could she get? And she’d just dry off in the motel. Good plan. Didn’t work, though. The rain was soakingly intense and when we got to the motel, it had closed. Forever. !!!!!! We were frustrated but saw a little convenience store just up the street. We dive in for cover, bought a can of beans (to go with our tortillas and cheese we already had) and sweet Hawaiian bread (for Nutella sandwiches…mmmmmm) for dinner. We had no idea if the riverfront cabins 1.5 miles away had any vacancy and there was no number to call to check. And the hill was huge and it was pouring rain. So we decided that though we’d wanted to be inside, we now just wanted cover. So the convenience store lady told us about a church back in town 1 mile away and she even called the pastor to ensure we we would have permission to camp there. We arrived at Potter’s Church and were happy to find it’s pavilion was big, pretty clean, had electricity, and had available water!! But V was freezing because even though it was about 60 degrees, it was windy and her lower body was soaked. So she took to changing as soon as we arrived and I got to setting up the sleeping groundcover, pads, and bags so she could slip into a warm bag as she finished changing. But changing revitalized her AND the sun came out for about 15 minutes before sunset, and we were able to sit down to our dinner of half a Subway sandwich from lunch, cold bean and cheese burritos, and Nutella sandwiches for dessert. Charge the phones a bit, charge our blinky taillights, brush teeth, and and lay down to sleep before even dusk had passed. We’re often in bed before it’s dark now because we’re getting up at 400-530 every morning to get ready to ride.