Day 5: Sebree

I took off from Falls of Rough on the early side (although I had just passed the time zone change, so I cheated a little) and set off for Sebree about 75 miles away. The towns have begun to space out a little more in the area, and certainly am going through a lot more farmland now - which means more gentle slopes, and while it's still hilly they aren't the killers from earlier in Kentucky.

After a full day of riding, I made my way into Sebree (pop. 1,200) to stay at the First Baptist Church, which puts up touring cyclists for the night - I had heard from people coming the other way it was a must stop. I pulled into the church parking lot to have the minister come right out, pull me off my bike and then it was a flurry of greetings and food, food, food - it felt like I was being introduced to my new in-laws at a big family dinner, everyone saying hello, asking me where I was from/going/doing, and offering me more and more food. Apparently there had been a funeral earlier in the afternoon, and the church folk had all brough in food after the service. I was hitting the tail-end of this so I was told to grab a couple plates and chow down. And I did. Ended up with 3 plates of food - a good serving of Ham, full chicken breast, green beans, cornbread, cantaloupe, fruit salad, deviled eggs, mashed potatoes, 2 brownies and a piece of french silk pie. Took me a solid hour to gorge myself with that, but it felt good to have a full meal. Did I mention I had eaten a whole pizza for lunch that day? Of course, an hour after I was done eating I was ready for some more, but by that time everything was packed up. Anyway, the church is very accomodating to cyclists - there ended up being 7 others who stayed there last night- all headed East - and we were able to use the showers, laundry, a space to sleep for the night, really all you could ask for. It also happened to be the beginning of their town Summer festival that night, so I wandered over there for a bit - saw a lot of good Southern Cooking, there was live music going on - pretty much what you'd picture a small town festival to be, fun to enjoy for a little bit. I even noticed there was a group of Chileans there who were dishing out Ceviche - a dish I had just recently gotten to know in Peru! Wish I could have tried some, but Ceviche isn't exactly great riding food. Surprising to see it in small town Kentucky though.

Anyway, I'm back on the road now. I'm working my way through a supposed shortcut into Illinios, but there's been a lot of rain and even possible tornadoes in the forecast. My hope had been to do all 100+ miles of the short cut today, but it'll likely be less and in pieces as the weather allows. That's all for now.

Hembre