Ride C2C #4 - Day 7: Hazard/Combs to Hindman

Date: 6/29/23 Thursday
Day: 7
Route: Hazard/Combs to Hindman
Miles: 18.4 “rest day” 986 feet elevation gain
Total Miles: 272.5
MyZone MEPs: 245

“There is always something to be thankful for” a saying on a fence as we zoomed by on our bikes.

Today is our “mostly rest day” - we had to make a short amount of miles to break up the following VERY long day.  So we slept in until 7:15am in our room at the “American Elite Inn” (this is a grand overstatement or wishful thinking on the motel’s part - is is more of a fleabag motel with a “non-smoking” room who’s smells have been covered up with some sort of fragrant cleanser and whose carpet was…damp. 

Still, a good sleep with a firm mattress).  Besides, we made it look like the Clampets with our hanging laundry (Beverley Hillbillies) were living there so we fit right in. 

We walked down to the Huddle House “any meal any time” and had a less than impressive (my) hash browns with veggies & eggs// and Doug’s turkey sausage, scrambled, and pancakes.  The pancakes were the best part.  Our very Kentucky waitress was doing a New York accent for the other table and that was the best part of our meal.  Walked to the grocery store for basic supplies of granola, canned apricots, & our staple food: peanut butter.

Got rolling at 10:15 am an the sun was already hot.  We are in this hard-to -understand-the-roads area with major highways and dead end roads with services for travelers (gas, motels, lots of fast food).  To get to where we need to go, we are on a major highway for a few miles, then spin off to the town of Hazard and now on surface streets on our way to … 

Mother Goose House! It was started in 1935 and finished in 1940.  Why? The creator/builder George Stacy liked geese.

We have one long hill today with 6-7 % grade and it comes soon.  We are taking it easy as it is our rest day and had only 2 times that dogs chased us today with the air horn working to turn them around.  

Things I noticed:

— It seemed like 1 of every 10 house/trailer home were abandoned or wrecked

— It felt like being in the jungle with the humidity and vines (kudzu) growing over everything.  Kudzu is a fast growing Asian vine brought in by the railroads to keep other plants away from the rail lines.  Now it is invasive and destructive and will kill the plants it covers.

— signs of flooding (about a year ago) with debris in the creeks we followed

— Smoke in the air from Canadian fires

We pulled into Hindman (the county seat with only about 600 people in the county also one of the poorest in Kentucky), parked our bikes

and took a walk upppp to the First Baptist Church where we thought they’d welcome cyclists. 

We met Cory who invited us to stay at the Student Ministries in the old church on the main road and to help ourselves to the food there. Perfect! 

This is great!  Big open room, bathroom with shower, air conditioned and open for cyclists.  We showered, rinsed clothes, ate a quick lunch of peanut butter sandwiches (Doug added in some chocolate-hazelnut spread - yum).

I went for a walk to see about the Appalachian Arts Studio that I read about and found it was open.  No one seemed to be there and the main floor was empty, but set up for artisans to make their crafts.

So I wandered up to the 2nd floor to find all sorts of art for sale- paintings, drawings, jewelry, photographs, books, etc.  No one seemed to be there and the lights turned on as I walked through.

And then I found Mr. Randy Campbell, the retired lawyer now Executive Director of the Appalachian Artisan Center of Kentucky. 

We got chatting and he told me he’d dated a woman in Everett, loved eating Salmon, and had been to GasTown in Vancouver.  When I asked him why he loved living here, he said “solitude and the friendly people”. 

He retired from law after the flood last year ruined his office building and has always been a supporter of the arts. 

This drawing is of his grandpa leaning against the barn when they were having a pig killing & pig roast.  Mr. Campbell is one of the boys by the steaming pot.

I find Doug asleep on one of the churches in the church (it is a rest day after all) and we make some coffee for the afternoon.  Cory, the church secretary and fellow who directed us to come here, stopped by to make sure we had everything. 

We shared some coffee together and stories.  His family goes back generations in the area and had travelled with Daniel Boone through the Cumberland Gap in the late 1700s.  Cory and his wife had travelled widely and returned here to raise their 8 kids.

We ordered pizza (shocking that they had cauliflower crust for me!) at the only restaurant in town and talked with another cyclist who is in the trans-America race- he still had 60 miles to go, tonight! (6:45pm) yikes, that's tough.  

The trans-America bike race is Astoria, Oregon to Yorktown, Virginia. He's currently 14th in the race and he rides 100-160 miles per day.   The winners have already finished.  

I'm glad that Doug and I got to return to the church, eat our pizza, and will have a comfy evening on our air mattress on the floor and "only" have 65-70 miles to ride tomorrow.

and yes, Doug did bring his mini-French horn.  Who wouldn't?