Day 12, Buckhorn to Berea, 67 miles

As we turned out of our campsite in Buckhorn, we faced our first hill. The first hour or so of cycling each day is never easy, as the old legs grumble a bit! So we crawled on up the hill, grateful for the shade cast by the lovely trees, and the lack of traffic. We were pleased to meet another turtle crossing our path (compared to the 4x4's that pass us, we are much closer to the turtle in terms of speed)-so Matt performed some Tortoise-roadside rescue. At first Matt put him to the side of the road, but I insisted Matt airlift the tortoise up and over the bank; the equivalent of tortoise Everest. Oh, we also passed the road to London!

We reached the town of Booneville by about 11am, where we stopped to use the internet (yesterdays' blog sponsored by Booneville library). We also enjoyed a salti-licious omlette at a classic local diner. The place was very retro; wood panelling and white-boards with a simple lunch menu of 'cat fish; potatoes; pork chop with everything'-and booths like in Happy Days. The diner was clearly a spot for locals to linger and chat (what with this still being a dry county; the diner has to serve the societal function of the pub.) Fuelled and blog updated, we hit another hilly road, on our way to Berea.

Thankfully, the landscape is quite different from yesterday; more farmland, smaller roads and a blessed cool breeze on the hilltops. We had a long, shall we say 'attention consuming' descent (read; a bit sketchy)- into the lower lands. Thankfully, the shoulder was very wide, but it was a bit of a slalom for roadside debris. Lunch was some crisps, soda and sugary stuff out front of a gas station, on a bench reserved for 'Liars and Traders'.

Finally, we rolled down into Berea; puzzlingly, a college town in a dry county. The mind boggles. Anyway, we easily found our campsite/RV park destination for the evening, where we were met by some real Kentucky characters. First, we met Jim; a 62 year old ultra marathon trail runner. He looked bronzed and fit as a fiddle - Matt could have continued to chat to him about running, but Jim was more interested in telling us about his trips to London... His honky-tonk wife was (wait for it)-a Rolling Stones groupie! As such, he had been dragged along to a few Stones' tours. He then revealed his tawny upper arm to show us the classic 'Stones Jagger mouth logo tattoo... This made sense of the same logo spray-painted in the forecourt of the park. Jim directed us to the swimming pool and $8 Buffet up the road.... Wild Horses couldn't drag me away from this place!

The swim, as ever after a day of hot, dusty cycling, was blissful. On our way to the buffet, Matt momentarily wavered on our mode of transport... A sweet Dodge for $3000. No doubt we'll both wistfully think of that car on future hot stretches of road. Back at the buffet, four plates of pizza/Mexican/salad went down a treat. The only slight downer was how h-o-t it was that night. After failing to sleep in the tent, Matt removed the outer shell and we finally drifted of in our mesh sauna/cocoon.