TransAm 2012 - Cycle across America

Saturday 9th June 2012
Day 21, White Mills to Utica

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Dog day .

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Start time: 07.10
Start location: White Mills
Start State: Kentucky
Start weather: cold
Total millage so far: 1028.11

Finish time: 13.56
Finish location: Utica
Finish State: Kentucky
Finish weather: HOT
Miles today: 82.76
Total millage so far: 1110.87
Today's top speed:40.1
Today's average speed: 14.8

Music played:
Frankie Goes To Hollywood - Welcome To The Pleasuredome
Franz Ferdinand - Franz Ferdinand
Gang Starr - Step In The Arena
Gary Numan - The Pleasure Principle
Glen Campbell - Greatest Hits
Go West - The best of Go West
Goldie - Drum and Bass Arena - the Classics

Blog for the day (Monday, 11 June 2012):
Dogs, sun and hills. Up at just gone 5am because we had a long day ahead, 80 odd miles, which normally isn't that bad, but the temperature was meant to rise high into the 30s. Just checked the weather gauge outside and it said 47 in the sun! Bloomin’ hot indeed, crazy to cycle in this, still, beats the rain, I think. Beautiful morning, lovely light with the haze and morning dew coming up off the lawns and fields. The only thing to spoil the day were the dogs, dam there were a lot today. I don’t mean the ones tied up, some are kinda cute and just sit there, or those behind garden fences or stuck in tiny pens, these are the loose ones which bark and chase you down! The same types who got under Ublads wheels and caused him to crash. There were lots of them. Maybe they are just so starved of attention that they think they are playing, but when your going 20mph plus and a dog runs out into your path, there isn't much you can do. Shout and get ones water bottle out and squirt in the dogs direction. Sometimes this works and you can pedal away at the same time. Some of the ones today didn’t care about that and you just had to swerve, pray they don’t catch you or get under your wheels, and peddle fast. After a close shave we stopped and started talking to one of the locals who lives down from them. He said they were a nunsense and would be happy to shoot them! Not quite knowing what to say, I said something like “it’s an option I guess”.

The hills were many and some were pretty steep, like parts of Ditchling beacon. Not much fun. The scenery again was pretty amazing with lots of old buildings and barns plus old towns with tanks! There are lots of beautiful birds, blue ones which are the same colour as our kingfisher, but all over, and red birds too which are the same, but of course, red. I had a turkey fly out in front of me and I hope I got it on camera. The other big news is that we crossed a time zone and we are now a hour behind. Ooooo we are staying in a fire station at the moment and something is happening across the street, looks like a medical emergency, so the fire engine has pulled out about 10meters across the road to help the person! After dinner we did a photo shoot in the fire station which was great fun, not naked though, or even topless, but still, the results were funny and we all had a good laugh.

Cycling today we saw a lot of things, more anti abortion signs of course, oh and there was a family of dead skunks in the road which I cycled through and ended up with the smell in my nose for miles. Poor little baby ones dead with their mum. Wee also came across our first Amish people, some women working their gardens dressed up while the rest of the family were in “normal” clothes, one girl on her bike and a man ploughing the fields with four horses. Very hard to take photos though. In one small town there were a group of local old men huddled around, I also wanted to try and get a photo of them, but I couldn’t without being lunch with a confederate flag being wrapped around my neck. Saw our first oil well pumps in the fields while on our way to dinner. Not large ones, just, well, toy looking ones really. In one of the last towns we stopped off in for water, as it was so effing hot, there was some local kid, not old enough to drive, but he had what looked like a motorised lawnmower without the blades, which he was happily driving around the town fast. Apparently the town judge was in the shop too and he wished me luck with my ride and also wished me a good safe life which was nice. Something strange which we have seen a lot of the last two days, virgin mary’s, everywhere! They seem to be the must have garden item at the moment. Everyone seems to have one, some with what looks like bath tubs as shelters! Very odd. Also loads more yard-sales, I guess it’s the weekend so there would be. Huge ones though and flea markets. I would have stopped, but it was too dam hot!!! I think that is about it, although we see so much that it is hard to remember it all.