Wed 22nd May

Monday 20th May.  68 Miles to near Hudson.

Tuesday 21 May 70 miles to Utica,.

Now cycling through Western Kentucky. Should cross the Ohio river into Illinois tomorrow. Rolling farmland with some big dips which means a hard slog up again. Fields opening out a bit like East Anglia. On Monday a couple of Amish families passed me in their horse and traps. Others were parked outside the hardware store.

A story About Monday night.

         My map indicated a campsite and hostel. I have done over 60 miles cycling and I am ready to find somewhere for the night. This is farmland I am passing through  and somehow not the area I would expect a campsite to be. Suddenly a man mowing the grass waves his arms at me to stop- (people are always mowing grass here). I stop. There is a large ramshackle barn by the side of the road with some long disused gas pumps. The 'barn' has a veranda along the side. I am taken inside an icepop is thrust into my hands - I have difficulty opening it. To the right are some tables and a TV is on. Lauren is looking at the high school graduation photos in the local paper. To the left is a kitchen area with a cooker; oven does not work but the hob and grill does.
       Behind is the shop. It has everything in it: tins of soup, nails, washing powder, mouse traps etc., etc..At the back is a store cupboard through which you can just squeeze (and I have not put on weight) to get to the surprisingly good shower. This is the campsite and hostel.
       I put up my tent on the veranda. The family are fantastic. They love passing cyclists. For tea they cook hamburgers, boiled potatoes, black eyed beans and sweetcorn, which they have grown themselves.  Apparently the Amish who live in the area, often call in. Lauren says that the kids like to watch the soap operas on the TV. Sometimes there is an emergency visit when they need to use the cell phone to call for the midwife!
 What did they charge for this?  Nothing! Lauren is about to start her teacher training so I hope that if she wants to travel and visit Scotland she will stay with us.


      The next night I stayed in the fire station. There has been a hurricane which hit Oklahoma badly, and poor weather was forecast, so they did not want me to camp outside. Yes, there were 6 fire engines all with Davies County printed on them..