Taz
The past few days have brought us a long way through this very different state of Kentucky. The eastern part of the state was scary looking, but we never ran into any problems with the people. In fact there were some really cool people that went the extra mile to help us out, like David at the B&B in Hindman and the people at various country stores. Now we've moved into a part of the state that looks and feels like the rolling countryside of the Culpepper area, but the people still talk funny. Since the last blog we've stayed in Boonville at a very cool church that had a special set up just for bikers; Berea at a regular campground; and tonight at a town park in Springfield. The locations of the camps have forced our mileage to be a little lower than we hoped but we don't mind too much that the mileage was lower in the mountains. Today was around 75 miles and the temperature was around there too. What a beautiful event filled day. I'll let the guys tell you about the events. We are moving towards some slighter terrain and are looking to up the miles by the weekend. Jim has been feeding us like there's no tomorrow. He's also learning the ins and outs of digital photography as he's been snapping pictures of us. Oh, yes, Dusty about has the shifting down and is now starting to stand to crank up these rollers with Jimmy and me. Most days Jimmy is still our strength setting the pace and leading the way, even if it's up a mountain we climbed by mistake because of bad road signage.

Jimmy
Dogs, birds, road kill, closed roads, puppy, getting lost (in the uphill direction), and LOTS of toothless people . . . just the average day in ole' Kentucky. Let me explain in brief. We have seen many overturned, abandoned cars and we have swerved to miss various road kill. Yesterday "we" missed an unmarked road which led us up a two mile mountain climb . . . but it was a blast coming back down! Came over a hill today to find a truck that had just blown our socks off, overturned in the road. The driver was ok thanks to his seatbelt and the six even crazier volunteer drivers who rushed to his rescue in their tripped out pickup trucks. Dusty had a hard time parting with a stray puppy, seems Kentuckians have developed immunity to sympathy for abandoned dogs. As the mountains slowly turn to hills the scenery has changed. Saw our first Mercedes Benz in days, houses suddenly have front doors again, some dogs appear to be kept indoors and free of rabies, and the vine covered forests are gradually turning into tobacco fields. In all honesty the people have been great (despite missing something vitally important to their oral anatomy); the views and weather are amazing and the wildlife abundant. However, Kentuckians grow some wild dogs--that will never change. Eyes bulging and teeth showing, these biker hungry beasts chase us in packs in 2 to 3 on a regular basis. Scaring the heebie-jeebies out of us at first, our snarling assailants are sent home whimpering with a quick blast to the face with a well aimed water bottle; a skill we quickly acquired in this peculiar state. So long as no blood is drawn we usually coast a mile or 2 after an attack laughing our heads off, retelling our close encounter with our Kentucky enemy.

Dusty
Today was quite the day although I was asleep till I found the puppy! Yeah ... while riding down the road I see a little ball of orange and white and think aww another dead animal to add to the list of kills in Kentucky . . . then it got up. I turned around and by that time the little guy had run over to Jimmy and started to pee on the ground. Jimmy picked him up and then handed him to me. Holding the puppy reminded me of when we got little Sage and Mocho. I wanted to take it with me but he probably wouldn't fit on my gear rack. But still would have been worth it to me! So, I thought well maybe we could find its home. Sike, being that we are in KENTUCKY people are used to stray dogs and say, "oh well someone must have dumped him off." Since I did not have my handle bar bag or other bags I couldn't just shove him in there and wing it back to town. So, Taz and Jimmy tell me to just put it over the fence and get ready to ride ... (DON'T KILL ME MOM) I DID IT :(. Leaving the dog behind and as he jumped and yelped as I let him over the fence . . . I got on my bike and left. Now I feel really bad about it and would love to go back and get it, but I do understand that there is nothing we could do, but the dog would be a very fun companion along the way. Oh well life goes on, I just hope he found a home. Otherwise today was crazy. . . from reading Jimmy's log you can probably tell. At a park, weather is great, see ya when I get home.