Saturday 16/04/05

Oh what an awful day we spent the morning retracing or steps slowly but nothing came of it so we decided to try and find either a way of getting us to where the next map started in Illinois by bus or car, but as it was a Saturday nothing was open and we really did not want to cheat so we went first to the tourist information office where the very kind ladies gave us three Kentucky maps which included the bike route but with no campsites or information on ammenities along the way. We then headed to the college library to see what we could find in the way of campsites etc along the route but again were at a dead end. It was all getting very depressing and we resigned ourselves to the fact that we were stuck for a weekend in Berea which we thought wasn't going to be so bad at all until we were informed by a very helpful student that Berea was a dry town and we couldn't even buy a few beers to while away the days with. So what did we do? We pedalled 15 miles to the next town, Richmond which wasn't dry heading for a campsite which we were informed later did not exist. However we were saved while trying to choose a place to eat outside a curry house by a guy called Doug. It turns out Doug had been desparate to do the ride we were doing since he was 15 or so but circumstances had knieved against him, for one the guy he wanted to ride with, John brok his leg horribly in a motorcycle accident as they were planning it. So anyway he invited us back to his house to stay the night which was awesome. He lived with his housemate Greg who was substansially more than twice his age (Doug being our age) although I guessed him to be not much more then thirty. Now these two were some of the brightest people I have ever met. They both studied mathematics at the university of Kentucky and were also both teaching whole classes. Greg had done his masters but from what I was told he apparently could have had undergraduate degrees in about five different subjects had he have chosen tho complete the courses and he was one of the most knowledgable people I have ever met, he knew more about English and European history than we did, not to mention botany and Spanish but to name a few. Doug was at 22 beginning a maths PhD, ouch! Anyway these guys were so cool to us. That night we sat by a campfire in their yard with all their friend and chatted and laughed to the early hours of the morning drinking beer and eating tiny chickens and mixed veg cooked over the embers of the fire, a meal fit for kings with awesome company. Then we went to bed upstairs while those guys slept downstairs in the living room which they said they usually did anyway because they said it was hot upstairs anyway. They saved what was the worst day of the trip and turned it into one of the best. For that guys we thankyou from the bottoms of our hearts.