DAY 23- ON THE CORRECT ROUTE, I SWEAR

Post office morning routine done, I was off for day 23 on my bike at daybreak and the cows would moo me into a good ride today...I hope. It's a lonely life riding the back country and I would more often than not talk to the animal company on most days. Nothing like shouting out Moo Moo Moo to a herd of cows. And I have to share this with you.

One animal that wished it hand't crossed my path was a young racoon. Going at a good clip in aero on a straight section of road, a racoon decides to cross the road and despite my yells at it, it basically ran straight into me. All I could think, was what damage is this critter going to do to my bike. He somehow got his head under my pedal and my rear tire went over his neck or back, killing him/her instantly. Now, I was a contributor to the roadkill count in Kentucky. The bike was fine with out any fur or animal splatter and I kept going a little bewildered that I had just killed something.

Weather was looking great and there would be plenty of towns for water and supplies. Today, I would cross another important threshold -- the point on the race where you have less than 1000 miles to go. There would be plenty of climbs today, but nothing like those in past days. Things were looking up and the mental math in my head was starting to calculate, as realistically as possible, a potential finish date. Maybe, I would finish by 1 July on Canada's birthday. Wouldn't that be nice.

BOURBON COUNTRY

These parts of Kentucky are known for the many bourbon distilleries located here. I would see plenty of signs that tempted me to go try samples of this happy juice. I would not have a drop that day unfortunately. Later on in the day I would be biking through a vast area of giant buildings dotting the landscape like humongous bricks on their side.

After some careful inspection, I noticed through the windows what seemed to be stacks and stacks of barrels. There were thousands of barrels in each one of these football field sized buildings. This bourbon barrel aging enterprise was for Maker's Mark. I do enjoy the odd Manhattan with Maker's Mark and knowing where the age kind of makes my drink taste better.

DIFFERENT MAPS

I wouldn't see many bikers today as for some reason the digital map course and the analogue paper map diverge and the cows would be my company for most of the day. So the bikers using their fancy-schmantsy GPS were floating up a different route as I. My wife would mention on text that I was showing as off-course and I would say "no, here is an actual picture of 'ME' on route." I would see 76 all day, but I would also see on the Tracker, that I wasn't on the same road as the others.

Track Leader would show several people off-route on this screen shot. I am the dot JS near Springfield. The picture above is actual the turn at Loretto, close to Springfield. Now, I wish I could find some bourbon. This day of being off the digital route really bothered me and I found myself short-tempered. In my gentle state of mind, I was afraid of disqualification or criticism from other riders. I wanted to do this correctly and hated that I was appearing to be doing something wrong.

A great lunch was found along my solitary route. I ate everything and enjoyed the family atmosphere of this small town diner. It was rare to hit a meal jackpot like this.

I got to the only hotel in the town of Springfield which turned to be rather expensive and without any character. Needed to find some food and saw the lights of a Wendy's close to the hotel along the busy trucking route. I got there just as the girl was locking the doors for the night and I placed the last order of the day. Biked back to the hotel and tried to rationalize the discrepancy of race course routes. Looking at my map, it looked as if I was heading north to join the digital route in the morning.

The day wasn't that bad after all. I would accomplish 162.5 miles that day and cross that "<1000 mile" marker. Tomorrow, I hope not to be off the digital tracker route. I wondered how many more course divergents laid ahead of me. . Tonight, I get a good shower, clothes washing and sleep on a soft bed with a belly full of Wendy's. Stay positive.