Southeast Tour 06/2010

Day 2, Friday 6/18/2010

Well, I'd like to say we slept like babies... but we didn't... between the heat and humidity and my daughter tossing and turning it was clear that this camping thing was not going to happen any more on this trip.  At least not if I wanted to get some sleep.  So, one of the first things I did on waking up was to break open the laptop, and use the Microsoft Streets and Trips to find a Hotel/Motel near our nightly destination, and to rearrange the route on my GPS to get us there.  By that time the teenager started stirring and I could get on with taking apart the tent.

Here's one of the culprits that kept us up.  This beetle had gotten on the underside of our fly cover on the tent and was making all sorts of scratching noises in the middle of the night.

So when I got him out from under the fly cover, my daughter proceeded to do this to it...

Yes, apparently it deserved burial under a bunch of rocks...

Breakfast consisted of some granola and cereal bars we picked up at the nearest gas station on the way back from dinner the previous night.  We had actually stopped to see if they had some marshmallows that we could roast on the fire, but they didn't.  Daughter actually tried to put one of the cereal bars on a stick to roast it... it had marshmallows in it... that didn't work out too well. Then she tried to put the pieces on the grill over the fire... Ya...

Well, it turned out to be a nice morning; a little cooler for a change with plenty of sunshine.

This is the "DAD! You taking a picture of me again!?" look...

As I was unloading the stuff from the tent, much to my surprise I found that my anti-fog shield coating had totally bubbled/crinkled up.  That could have been a really revolting development, but luckily I brought an extra shield and tossed this one in trash.

And, we also found out that a bunch of rocks can not keep this bugger down...

Well, we got everything together and hit the road by about 8:30.  I was already getting hot and reached 99 that day.

Just before 10:00, hot and hungry, I thought we could stop for breakfast, but just as we walked in the door of McDonald's they switched to the lunch menu.  Well, a greasy lunch sandwich is just as good as a greasy breakfast sandwich, so we decided to eat anyway.

The first part of the route was actually not much better than Indiana.  Not a lot of tree cover, so we were just sweltering in the early afternoon heat.  We finally got into some nice roads, which was a welcome relief.  And this started the tradition of laying down or sitting in the dirt at every opportunity.  

Slightly after this photo we passed through a town and found a Dairy Queen, which I felt the need to stop at cause daughter was constantly nodding off behind me.  Figured some air conditioning and some cold ice cream would help the situation.  Normally, I wouldn't make as many stops as I did, but I didn't really mind it, and she needed it.  Every time we stopped she'd ask how much further, and I'd tell her and it was an OMG situation... even if it was 40 miles...

We got another nice break at this roadside park/playground.  Actually got a couple smiles out of her spinning her around, and she didn't have to lay in the dirt...

And the day went on...

and on and on and on; judging from this glazed distant look in the eyes...

Our destination for the night was Hazard KY, at the Hazard Hotel.  It was a long day riding and the Hotel was a welcome site when we got there about 6:00 pm; rooms were decent, inexpensive, and the Hotel had a huge pool, one section was indoor, and then there was a wall you could swim under for the shallower outdoor portion.  The restaurant on premises had good food and atmosphere; one of those places where they give you a bucket of peanuts and everyone just throws the shells on the floor.  After dinner, we took some time to let the food settle, and then a swim was in order.

Just a note, the last few hours of roads getting there were fantastic.  Very twisty up and down the mountainsides.  I was not disappointed, and there was enough action to keep the daughter awake.  I'm thinking the Hazard Hotel may be a good destination for a group ride.

What became clear was that these 300+  mile days were not going to work for my daughter, so I needed to shorten up the daily ride length and the number of days we were going to be on the road.  The Hotel had Wi-Fi so I whipped out the laptop and spent some time planning out the days and routes; cutting out about four states and a day trip to the East coast, which was fine because the meat of the trip was still in tact, and judging by the roads in Eastern KY, I'd get more than my share of twisty roads.

We both slept well that night.