First day - Harrodsburg

So made it through my first full day in tact here traveling from Berea to Harrodsburg, which ended up putting about 55 miles on my bike (though 4 or so of that is because I missed a turn). Haved gone looking for my camping ground yet - hopefully it's nothing too horrible. Thoughts from the first day:

• As mentioned before, I hate dogs. For whatever reason, folks out here don't particularly like to fence in, or chain up their dogs, leaving them free to chase whatever they please. I'd say I was chased maybe 5 times today, and there were another 6 or so that didn't chase much since they were too late. No pepper spray was used, but I'd say my 2 worst encounters were first with a dog (yep, I don't know breeds, deal with it, but it was no small dog) who's house is right on a turn, so he had more time to catch up with me. Was running pretty fast right on my back wheel for a bit, but didn't end up running into me and stopped after he got tired of my yelling at him. I'd say I was most ready for disaster when I was going down this nice, wooded, single-lane road and made the turn onto a County Road, when I saw a brown blur go past me on my left. I looked over and saw a metal fence - momentary relief - but followed it and saw it just ended a few yards and and there waiting for me, in full stride, was some large barking dog, running a full few yards ahead of me and not giving up. I did my usual routine of staring straight ahead and moving into the other lane, but he kept giving chase for a little. I reached in my pocket and grabbed the pepper spray, but then he gave up. The sad part for me was that I felt like I was going at a decent pace - 17-18 mph or so - but the dog could run that like nothing. Note to self: Bikes cannot outrun dogs.
• Dogs were certainly my focal point while riding along today - didn't listen to the iPod, and was keeping an eye on each front yard for potential problems - but aside from that there was a lot of good and some more bad to go with it. I'd say the best things about the day were that after leaving around 8 a.m. this morning, I made it to my destination by 2:30 p.m., giving me another 4-5 hours of biking if necessary for the day. And that included a nice long lunch stop. Also, when I was able to relax a bit more, the scenery out here really was pretty great. Lots of rolling hills and quaint countryside. Didn't want to stop while riding, but would have made some good photography. I also noticed several 'quilt barns' which have a large quilt-like pattern over their entryway.
• My stop for lunch was what I'd call my first real 'Kentucky' experience - a small convenicence store where the owner also made sandwiches for lunch. Sat down right before the lunch rush across from a large, bearded, chain-smoking fella who'd been working the same job for 35 years apparently. Didn't stay in too long though (not used to the smokey smell...made me feel a bit queesy at the time) so went and sat out on the porch for an hour. Had a couple guys who were going in ask me about the trip - as I did stand out a bit in my skin-tight bike shorts and biking shoes which sound like tap shoes - all seemed nice enough and everyone knew each other.
• As for my legs it was a promising, but far from making me confident in the rest of the trip. Some of the hills out here I had a pretty tough time with, and I have a feeling I'll see worse in the days to come. Ended up walking the last portion of a couple of 'em. But I do think they still have good spring and recovery time - so as long as I don't have to sit and do 40 miles non-stop, I think I'll be able to pick up my mileage as needed.

I'll leave it at that for today. My next stop will be Bardstown, which appears to have a library, so hopefully I'll be able to post again, but we'll see what time I get in there.