Salida Colorado

IN THE VISITOR'S CENTER.

So right now we are checking out all the cool things to do in Colorado. We stopped by the visitor's center because we started feeling symptoms of altitude sickness. We climbed 9,000 feet yesterday, but now we're around 7,000. Today we will cross over Monarch Pass (11,000 feet), so we need to get pumped up.

That won't be a problem though because we just bought a 1980's portable radio, so we tune in and rock out to fuzzy mountain stations.

So we have a lot to catch up on:

KANSAS
IT was FLAT, hot, and mostly enjoyable because we were riding with Joe, Will, Siemen, and Jon. They were cool guys.
We met up with 3 of them in Larned KS, then cycled with them against an epic HEADWIND to Rush Center. Rush Center only had a gas station and a bar. The bar was no good because they wouldn't let us eat our raisens with the coffees we ordered (we ate them anyways). Siemen was there at the bar after having completed the Katy Trail like us (stange we didn't see him).

Then the whole team of boys arrived and we biked to the sky scraper of the Prairie. It was 4 stories tall. REALLY TALL. We pretty much felt like we were in NYC.

Then this big RV with Total cereal decorated all over the sides rolled in. This San Fran lady armed with raisen bran and ciff Shot blocks popped out of the RV. She was super chipper and heaved shot blocks on us like candy on a 4th of July parade.

We headed to Dighton and went immediately to the pool. SHOWERS!
We camped in the city park with the boys.


We found a dead great horned owl on the highway and collected feathers and a wing (getting it off the body took two people tugging....gross)
The boys stood by and watched.
Joe put a wing on his helmet.

We stayed at a little tiny dinky town called Sheradon lake, graduating class:4. It was tiny! They opened their church to us and we made a 3 pound pasta meal and ate it ALL. (thanks, especially to Siemen and Daniela for devouring the last 1 lb.). For breakfast we ate 18 eggs. raw.


We took an off day at Ordway Colorado. We just needed to, there were too may amazing things to do! We stayed with a woman named Gillian, from New Zealand. She greated us, wearing her swim suit, towering above us. She has been opening her house for bikers for years! She lived in a tent on the beach for a year and lived on a boat for 10! And spent a long time working in prisons. She was SOOOO tough. We painted her deck in exchange for sailing lessons. We had to lean so far over the edge of the boat to keep it from capcizing, clinging on by our toes, throwing our arms out of the boat, our hair brushing the water, looking at the beautiful shore speed by upsidedown. Gillian was yelling "get your arms out, throw your arms out!".
Henry, the sweetest man in the world bought the whole gang of bikers (17 in total that night) cake and ice cream. We stayed up late playing a dice game in the 'bungalow'.

We biked along side miles and miles and miles of abandoned train! There was at least 17 miles of it. You kept thinking that the end would come but then it just kept on going. It would have been the perfect place to stealth camp. We climbed on the top of one of the cars with Joe one morning and waved to a biker lady as she sped on.

Here is Daniela on top of the train:

We went to a wonderful church in Boone, Colorado. Lots of singing and just the most friendly people. The sermon felt like it was written just for us. Pastor Tammy was so nice and a great speaker!

The next day we finally got out of flat colorado and into the strange hills approaching the mountains. Everything was so dry, and hills so extreme, it looked like a Dr. Seuss book. We hiked to the top of one and took some tricky timer shots. Daniela and Joe did some crazy climbing that was pretty scary to watch. Jon said to me "it would be a shame to cut the trip short...". Of course they were fine.

We made a bon fire, and were joined by 4 other bikers, 3 girls from st. louis and Daniel, a man from Chicago. It was a great 'party'- we even stayed up till 11!!!

Next day we parted from our boys :(
it was sad.
But not before putting a sweeeet tat on Siemens back:

Leprosy, Eco Village, and Nepal

Progress in Nepal


As we bike across the country, learning from and connecting with people, overcoming the physical challenges of 100-mile days and the mental challenge climbing even when we can hardly breathe, I keep thinking about Nepal, and holding all those people who suffer from leprosy and poverty in my thoughts. I think about their obstacles in Kathmandu. I also think about the challenges Krishna Gurung and his family and team face as they build the new eco-village for people with leprosy and other disadvantages. The Kevin Rohan Memorial Eco-Friendly village is well underway!

Right now doctor Singh and doctor Umesh are working in the newly opened clinic. Over 100,000 Rupees- worth of drugs were sent to the clinic, so patients can receive proper treatment.

Two leprosy patients were just given jobs in the garden and the tailor shop.

Krishna Gurung traveled to western Kathmandu to assess the need and provide sick or needy people the opportunity to move to the Kevin Rohan eco-village to receive treatment, shelter, food, and community.

Many of the buildings have been completed thanks to Krishna's team, the numerous volunteers, the surrounding neighbors, and the patients and eco-village community members.


The village is growing and reaching out to the sick and poor of Kathmandu as we make our way mile at a time across the country. I wish I could be there in Nepal building, farming, teaching, and helping with everyone, but this summer my contribution to the eco-village is simply exposing it to America. Jocelyn and I have spoken with countless people about leprosy and the eco-village in Nepal. Although we are just spreading awareness, sometimes a single conversation can inspire someone to make a bigger difference.


I am extremely impressed by the progress in Nepal; community development is not an easy endeavor (far more difficult than any mountain we will climb).

Thank you Krishna and everyone building the KEvin Rohan Memorial eco Friendly village in Kathmandu, Nepal!


Keep up the good work!


Namaste,

Daniela

Heat. In Ness City, KS

Yesterday we learned an important lesson: not to go a stretch of 58 miles, in Kansas, during the hottest part of the day.
We ran out of water so fast, and I just couldnt believe that there were actually NO people for 58 miles. No houses, no nothing. Just enormous flat fields of nothing.

Daniela really kept her cool, which I appreciated while freaking out. We started flagging down every car we saw and asked them for water. We got a can of coca-cola, a bottle of water, and some ice cubes left over from some gas-station drink.

Her brother, luckily, just happened to be driving through Kansas on the exact same day and drove by to save us. We strapped the bikes onto the top of the PACKED car, and sat, out front wheels and panniers on our laps, eating pita chips.

Today, we took a big old break around mid day. Lesson learned!

Jocelyn

Hesston, KS

Kansas open farmland
Flat FLAT FFFFFFFFFLLLAAATTTT! (Tail wind woooo!)
lookin sheepish
Cows bound one day for a feedlot. What a sorry lot. DON'T EAT conventionally farmed beef. It's sick.
Cowboy Daniela chased after and clicked some photos...
entering the state. Stoked
Entering the state. Actually STOKED
Amish festival yummm. Ate an entire sticky bun cake. it was delicious

Kansas skyInteresting house in Kansas


Kansas is the worst state when you are biking against the wind and the best state when you are biking with it.

This morning we woke up, put all our things in a little row boat and paddled across a creek! It was great.

We are trying to not eat a thousand granola bars a day because they are not so good for the digestion. So we bought a tremendous bunch of bananas for 99 cents!

Also: what are we supposed to do if a tornado comes around? Can tornadoes form at night time? what if we are asleep?
From,
Jocelyn

NevAYda MO

After a long day of biking in the HOT sun and strong head wind, we wanted to veggg out. So when we got to Nevada, we found the cinema and asked if we could see a movie for free. They let us! We didn't think it would work if we just asked so simply, but it did. We ended up seeing this TERRIBLE movie called "Killers" or something. It had no plot and was disgustingly cliche. BUT we wanted to veg out and we certainly got to.
After the cinema, we biked around town, scoping it out. The guy at China One gave us free steamed rice. Yumm.
Then we saw a bunch of kids hanging out on the street. We ended up going to this rock/country/indie/something concert with them. The moms were there too and we soo cool! We ended up staying up until 2 in the morning hanging out with the moms in Holle's chiropractics practice. They ordered us the most delicious veggie pizza and had snacks galore because it was "girl's night in the office"!
Holle, Brenda, and Brooks were loads of fun. Brenda and Holle taught us all about energy and healing. We learned that working on some patients can cause the doctor to be sick for hours or even days after touching the patient. The negative energy the patient carries is so potent that it seeps into the practitioner, who then can become violently ill. Holle spoke from personal experience and even though she has experienced this many times in the past, she speaks with a certain awe, as if she still can't believe it happens. But it does, and that's crazy.
We talked about motherhood and maintaining spontaneity even when your youth has slipped away.
Brenda and Holle told us that there's no such thing as a bad day. Everything we experience is in first person, so essentially we affect our day, our mood, or outlook- everything. Being open and positive enough about things attracts positive people and more positive things happen. Then your bad day isn't bad anymore.

Brenda and Holle, you are awesome and have inspired us to have more fun even when we're back at school with our schedules and responsibilities. We decided to copy you and do a once a week girls night (boys can come too), except we don't have a sweet chiropractics practice to hang out in, so we'll have to use the film building or something.


Anyways, we ended up sleeping in the office and eating left-over delicious pizza for breakfast.
We biked to Iola Kansas today, and are now waiting for it to cool down so that we can make it to Katie, the yodeler.

GATEWAY TO THE WEST

El Derado MO

now we are in El Derado Missouri. We don't like it here, but need to wait for the sun to go down a bit.

We made these great signs for our bikes (they say "Biking for Leprosy Virginia to San Fransisco). With these signs we attract even more attention. Too much. We get stuck in small towns and gas stations everywhere because everyone wants to hear our story.


We will share more stories and hopefully get caught up with the blog when we get to Kansas! Which is tomorrow!

Stay cool

Daniela

The Katy Trail A.K.A. The Flat and Boring Trail

We just finished the Katy trail that links St.Charles, MO to Clinton, MO. It used to be a railroad track but now it's a bike route. The railroad track closed down years ago because it used to flood all the time. It runs right next to the Missouri River, which is, at the moment, incredibly full. The trees are all half underwater, and the bridges you cross just sit on top of the swollen river. There is no air in between! All of that flooding makes the mosquitos go CRAZY! I have never experienced mosquitos like I did camping out along the Katy. You would slow your bike a little and at least 70 bugs would swarm you. It was creepy. I really didnt like it. At night, inside of the tent, we would stop talking and could hear the buzz of the millions of mosquitos trying to get in. It was terribly gross. The morning did not offer any solace. The bugs were still there. So we packed up our tent as quick as possible and jetted out.
The Katy trail is nice but it has some significant flaws. 1. it floods 2. there are too many mosquitos that prevent you from stopping your bike to enjoy the scenery. 3. it is soooo flat (boring) 4. the gravel just sucks your energy. 5. there are few erie places where you dont run into anyone for 30 mile stretches.
So I guess I dont like the Katy trail too much. It would be great to go jogging on.

We met a great couple outside some town on the Katy. There were riding tricycle recumbents, lugging a trailer carrying a cooler full of goodies. The moment we said hello they started offering us diet coke, cold water, chocolate, bug spray, advice. It was great. They were incredibly sweet and seemed to really be enjoying their bike-riding retirement.

When we got to Sedalia, it was getting late and we were tired. So we decided to ask the fire station for a place to stay. At first, they seemed a little hesitant- not sure how to respond to our request, but after a little, I think they started to enjoy our company. They thought our naivity about Western MO/Kansas was funny. And they taught us about tornado safety. We got a tour of the fire truck, made a great dinner of spinach, beans and rice and sat around in comfy chairs, watching TV and eating a HUGE bowl of ice cream. They let us dry our clothes and hang up our tent to dry. We slept right next to the huge trucks!! The first call came in at 2:30 a.m. and the alarm went off. It was really shocking to wake up to. The guys ran in, the lights turned on and out they went. The next alarm went off at 4:00- same thing. It was pretty exciting/confusing. Other than that we slept great and the squad was really polite to us and very helpful. They also gave us two boxes of Fiber One bars which we have almost completely devoured.

The next day, we arrived at Clinton and I was exhausted. The sun just wore me out. Daniela still had a lot of energy but I convinced her to stop for the day. She was nice enough to comply. We met a Allison at the coffee shop on the square. We just came in to cool off but ended up talking for a long time. We chatted about the Katy trail and heard all about her life, and then she gave us two cookies!
She ended up letting us stay over at her house and we got to relax with four dogs that had the most distinct personalities. The next morning, we got a nice and early start to avoid the sun. We ate cereal and watched the sun rise, then headed out, into the heat.

from now on, we are waking up REALLY early. The heat is terrible

we got a five dollar foot long from subway for lunch!

Tonight we are hoping to stay in Neveda, MO. Be carefully not to pronounce it like the state Nevada. It is more of a na-vA-duh. We've already been scolded twice

Hope everyone is having a great summer!!!
love,
Jocelyn

The Kentucky story we promised

Ok: now for the long awaited Kentucky country boy story. So we biked up that huge hill everyone was warning us about (they didn't know we had just come out of the Apps!). When we pulled into the driveway, Thomas and Glen were prepared to cook a delicious meal for us. Thomas goes to a culinary arts institute, so he knows a whole lot about food preparation (of course). Anyways, he made us boiled carrots, wild rice, and venison (he had killed the deer earlier in the year). I, staunch vegetarian, even tried the meat to experience true Kentucky. It was chewy but good.
Thomas and Glen took us in their pimped mustang to the Catholic church annual picnic, where Thomas's family had been all afternoon. On the way, as they were speeding down the mountain, we started talking about bike accidents. Then we rounded a turn and there was a biker (motor) dragging his bike off the road desperately. He wasn't badly injured (although there was flesh coming out of his arm), but needed help with the bike. Immediately Thomas stopped the car to help the man and Glen ran up the road to stop traffic. Cars waited on both sides of the road, but few people offered to help. The man who had had the bike accident was black and we were in Kentucky country. One guy who had a pickup truck was asked to help out and put the truck in the car, but he refused because he would not help a black man.

This experience opened our eyes to the racism that still exists everywhere in this country, not just in the Kentucky boonies.


We arrived at the Catholic picnic where throngs of kids were playing games like the horse shoe toss, dart throwing to win stuffed animals, or trying their luck at the cake wheel. We tried to win a cake with 50 dimes (a significant part of our daily budget), but none of our lucky numbers were actually lucky. Thomas won us a cake though- a delicious, Kentucky home-baked carrot cake. (we consumed half the cake in two days!).


Then we went to Thomas's house to meet the WHOLE family. There are 11 children, 2 sugar gliders, many goats, doves and chicks, ducks, miniature ponies, a red tailed hawk, cats, dogs, a ferret (or something that resembled a ferret). Joseph, the second oldest son was the animal keeper of the family. He gave each of us a squirrel pelt for our bikes and a soft white rabbit pelt (from his extensive collection). The boys explained how the family ate about 150 squirrels, several deer, dozens of rabbits, and mostly vegetables from their garden each year. They taught us how you cook a squirrel in a crock pot over night and stew it the next day. I really respect their sustainable lifestyle and can't help but recognize how much in line this way of living is with the sustainable methods in the Nepali eco-villages. Living off the land respectfully and knowing where your food comes from is something largely forgotten in America and the world. How fortunate were we to discover that this way of living is still being practiced, despite the millions of super Wal-Marts that sweep America away from sustainable living (we see them at the edge of most towns we pass through: parking lots full of cars... not a good sign).

Anyways, staying with Thomas and Glen was really great- a window into family living in the country and not to mention a nice place to sleep, shower, eat, and hang out with people and hear their stories.

We were sad to leave the country house the next morning (we had thought about sticking around and learning how to fish).

so there's one of our favorite Kentucky stories, however, there are a couple more from Kentucky we should fill in.



Ok: I'm filling it into this post, so hopefully it will be seen/noticed.

After we left the country and Thomas + Glen, we cycled into Rough River. Beth, a cyclist hostess contact we got from a couple of older guys biking the other way, picked us up there to bring us to her beautiful home for the night. We were treated like queens! We had our own cabin. Gary, Beth's husband, cooked us the most delicious meal ever! his corn bread is amazing (I need the recipe). Thank you to Beth and Gary- you are awesome and what you do for cyclists is so amazing.


The next day we pedaled hard into Sebree KY. We stayed at the First Baptist Church with a cyclist hostel. Bob and Violet, the pastors, were so wonderful!
I helped Bob edit his book about Jacob and Joseph and Egyptian slave traders. Violet was soft spoken and exceedingly warm. She gave us the most beautiful parting prayer I have heard in my whole life. In this prayer (for us and 2 cyclist dudes) Violet spoke about anything we could possibly be worried about. She was so sincere and heartfelt, it almost made us teary.

We left Sebree after indulging by playing piano for a few hours. About 20 miles into our ride, we met Bryan (A.K.A Peanut). He is awesome and we still keep in touch (even though he's hundreds of miles ahead). He did say he'll wait for us in Nevada, but who knows- that's a long way away.

Jefferson city Missouri

We stopped in Jeff City for a break from the rain and some cultural inspiration (capitol building). Ended up eating a delicious lunch at Joan's Cafe (courtesy of Joan, so THANK YOU, you are so generous and helpful, Joan!).

We need to get going now if we want to make it to Columbia MO, which is a college town, so will beat a mosquito night by the river (i.e last night). Actually we're still scratching from a serious mosquito attack last night (even when he found refuge in our tent we could hear the billions of them humming evilly between the fly and the tent...felt like a some kind of thriller).

Anyways, we are setting out again momentarily. We will bike along the Katy trail (flat, beautiful, boring) to Columbia.


Write again soon!

Catching up on Kentucky

So as I was saying earlier before grumpy librarian dude booted me off the computer, we got A WHOLE LOTTA' PASTRIES in Berea. We ate those nasty things all day and some how didn't feel sick. We ended up staying in this Catholic Cathedral that Amy, our adopted mom from the Breaks, KY got us in touch with. Fortunately we arrived when huge thunderstorms were about to hit, so, seeing us biking along the highway, Mary Jane took pity upon us and let us stay inside the church when we arrived. (the original plan was to camp out back).

The Cathedral was HUGE and impressive. It was also scary to sleep in because of the strange noises we heard during the night. After Mary Jane treated us to taco bell (thank you Mary Jane!), we pretty much went to bed. Felix, the church cat (see pix), got up in the middle of the night to rendezvous with his girlfriend, a sleek black cat. The lady cat waited for him on the other side of the glass doors, but made such a terrible sound, we bolted out of bed. Felix was also cooing and making strange cat sounds as we crept out from under the altar where we were sleeping and went to the door to see what was going on (armed with mace of course).

We survived the night in the Cathedral and set out again the next morning, wet laundry dangling dangerously off our bikes.

We rode into Bardstown.


Bardstown was AWESOME.

So we go into this restaurant, Mammy's Kitchen, because we wanted to freshen up a bit in the bathroom. Jocelyn was just sitting around at the bar, when Stevie, one of the owners, started talking to her. Stevie and the waitress Marley were so friendly and pretty soon they were feeding us soup and cheese dip on the house. We talked about biking and horses (Stevie is a chariot racer) and the good ol' state of Kentucky. Mammy's Kitchen told us to come back around 9 for some free food. While we were waiting for 9, we found Becky Curtsinger, who worked at the Baptist church outreach center. She let us camp in her back yard. We also met Mike, the hitchhiker who is traveling to a rainbow gathering even though he doesn't know its location. He holds up this big sign that says "EAST" simply. He has been coming east because the rainbow children (all 10,000 of them) will be meeting in one of the national forests on the east coast.

When 9 o'clock rolled around we showed up at Mammy's. We had the most amazing conversations with Marley, Stevie, and Dylan (Stevie's cousin), over Heinekens. We also ate some yummy fried Kentucky goodies. We ended up chillin' at Mammy's until 1 or 2 in the morning. We learned all about Kentucky and horse racing and life and everything.


THE NEXT DAY: woke up. Felt gross (bug bites, sweaty, etc). Went to Mammy's for some French toast treats! We had breakfast with Chris and Joe who were on a Bourbon tour. They talked about teaching a lot. How to be a good teacher: ENGAGE YOUR STUDENTS!
They also said that the person you marry does not have to be the ONE, but must be someone you work well together with. There are lots of ONES, so it's more about finding someone who is a good teammate.


BIKED OUT OF BARDSTOWN, but did not get far (Bourbon museum). Again biked and did not get far.


This time we stopped at a little gas station in Howardstown (which consists exactly of 2 liquor stores and one gas station). Mrs. Cecil gave us loads of candy pretty much when we stepped in the door. She is a school teacher but also works in the gas station. She explained we would need the sugar energy to make it up the terrible hill on the other side of Howardstown.

We at our snickers and complained about the big hill to come. Then these two boys came in, one big, one small. They were really friendly and talkative. They also said it's a REALLY BIG HILL and we would need a break when we got to the top. Thomas, the taller guy, offered to get his dad's pickup truck and drive us to the top. We talked some more, realized these guys were really genuine country boys, and took them up on the offer to have some good food at the top of the hill and spend the night if we needed a place to stay.

OK, so this is a long adventure story, but I have to go eat dinner right now (we're in St Louis), so i will tell it later!

Bardstown, KY-to-St.Louis, MO

As we were biking from Bardstown, we ran into a guy name Bryan on the road, all decked out in reflective gear, mirrors, front and back panniers, a handlebar bag, shoe covers- the whole sha-bang. He was intense. He was also wearing those scary sunglasses that bikers wear. Well a little bit of talking and we discovered that HE WORKED AT BARD FOR SIX YEARS!! The coincidence was too much to handle. So we biked with him for a few days. That day, we crossed over the Kentucky boarder, into Illinois. The whole time, Daniela couldn't get her mind off of this Amish store that was going to close at 4:30. So we raced there, faster than you could imagine. I've never seen Daniela so determined. I was more interested in it's neighboring store, the really cheap, damaged food store. So we went on a massive shopping spree. We got great deals on Cliff Bars and bought sooo many of them. We also got organic honey almond butter for 69 cents. It was incredible! Daniela zoomed ahead to get some cheese from the Amish man with a nice big beard. Then, as we remounted our bikes and started towards the Ohio river, it began to thunder and lightning. We were in a huge plain, next to the river, maybe 1.5 miles long and we could see the tremendous bolts of lightening crossing the sky. Then it started to drizzle and pour and we started to bike faster and faster towards the great river. When we finally got onto the ferry, it was really raining, and I've never felt happier. It felt incredible to make it out of Kentucky. Crossing a river on a ferry was such a good feeling.
We camped at a place called Cave-In-Rock, underneath a pavilion full of picnic tables. Went swimming in the Ohio. Bryan was really fun and we just joked and laughed. Bryan, by the way, eats so much food. Everytime we stopped he'd pull out his peanut butter and jelly and make three sandwiches!!!
That night, at 11:30, we started to hear some roudy teenagers a little ways off making a ruckus, talking really loud, probably drunken. And then, they drove their big truck right by our tent and just blared the horn as long and loud as they could. Following that, they screamed some obscenities. Then they drove away. This scared the sleeping Daniela so much that she jumped out of her sleeping bag and almost toppled the tent over.
They didnt bother us again, but it was a little scary to go to sleep.

They next few days, we rode with Bryan and he really made riding so much more fun. His intensity pushed us a lot and we did a 90 mile day!!! To make it up the big hills, we played "what if god was one of us" and sang along. Sometimes, he would make us laugh so hard that we couldn't bike! But then we had to part from him in Chester, IL where we went North to Belleville and he kept on West through the Ozarks.

We are currently in St. Louis, Missouri, my home land! It is so nice to be back in this city! We spent the last two nights in Belleville with my grandparents and had a great time eating strawberry shortcake and just chatting. My grandparents are two of the strongest people I know. We might be biking across the country, but they can still spend hours weeding the strawberry patch in the hot hot humid Illinois summer. It was great to relax with them for a day.
In St. Louis, we biked through a bike fair called "close the streets" or something like that. They shut off 6 miles of roads for people to bike on! It was so nice! You could ride all over the road and talk to some really neat people. We met a great couple who told us some information about the Katy trail. We ran into them later at Bar Italia!!!
Well, I am going to go take a much needed shower! Thank you very much Lowells!
And happy birthday dad, if you are reading this!!
Until next time,
Jocelyn

Belleville IL ie the Edwards Strawberry farm

As we were zooming out of Berea (last week where we last updated the blog) we saw a table full of pastries right outside the college hall. After a bit of chatting we ended up with a pannier full of blueberry muffins, raspberry danishes and sticky buns.

Aggg the library man is kicking me off the computer right now. I guess i'll have to write our stories later. we only get half an hour because we're not members of the Belleville IL community library. so gotta Goooooo!


besos

Daniela

Berea, Kentucky

whew!
made it all the way across our first map (over 400 miles in one week!). We are almost out of the mountains. Right now we are staying with Hope, this really cool couch surfer girl in Berea, Kentucky. Today I (Daniela) felt really slow because i kept on thinking about my flat back tire (which wasn't actually that low, but it's a psychological issue that can really slow you down. Jocelyn was really speedy though, so we made it from Boonesville to Berea in several hours. Along the way, we stopped at the Big Hill battlefield site. There was this little historic cabin that we explored. We found out about the civil war flags (there was an official confederate flag, and the flag that everyone thinks was the confederate flag, was actually a battle flag used somewhat generically on the battlefield).

SO Kentucky is a really cool place that everyone should experience. We've biked through trailer park shanty towns, thick mountain forests, expansive farmland, rolling hills, manicured neighborhoods, tiny towns from last century or the one before. This state has a lot to offer. People here are really friendly and engaging. Almost everyone who sees us asks where we are going and where we came from. we've had some pretty interesting conversations with people.


We ate our first meal in a restaurant today. We had a veggie burger and a goat cheese salad (yum). We also ate gourmet ice cream, but Paul, the guy who sold it to us was not the most friendly of chaps. perhaps we thought that only because we are accustomed to the mountain people who are super friendly and outgoing, and now that we are in a sizable city, where people are indifferent, we don't get the same attention.


Anyways, not sure what we are doing tomorrow. Possibly a hike. Maybe we'll just hit the road. Maybe we'll hang around in Berea (but it's kind of touristy).


CHEERS!

Daniela

Boonesville, Kentucky

We have crossed many Appalachian mountains covered with butterflies and turtles and old men mowing lawns. Now we are in the tiny town of Boonesville, almost halfway through the state!

We've met so many amazing people. Right before entering Kentucky, we camped at the Breaks (a campground on the top of a really hard mountain to climb). There we went to a gospel concert in the Amphitheater. We also met a wonderful family who made us chocolate cherry things. We told them about our cause and about leprosy and they were really excited to hear about it. Amy (the mom) taught us about leprosy in Hawaii (I didn't know it had been so prevalent in that part of the world). This family connected us with a wonderful non-profit organization called Crossroads. So the next day we biked off-route to Maytown where the Crossroads center is located (well we would have biked the whole way, but CJ from Crossroads was too nice and rescued us in her big truck on the highway). Getting a lift was amazing!

Crossroads consists of young interns and permanent staff who support at-risk teens on a local scale and help the community by rebuilding houses and such. Their mission is rather in line with ours: essentially we are supporting community-based development (whether it's helping kids in the neighborhood, or people suffering from leprosy in Nepal). The Crossroads team was eager to hear about our project and tell us about theirs. It was so wonderful staying with these people and connecting with them.

Besides getting to know really awesome people, the Maytown stop was great because we had REAL showers with REAL soap! We slept on REAL beds, ate ice cream and good meals.

GOOD Luck to Crossroads this summer!
We will think about you and your work as we continue our journey.


We are also getting physically stronger. Everyday we bike up a couple of killer mountains. But the physical pain really isn't bad because after every uphill there comes an AWESOME downhill that we cruise down at super speed. We want to go caving at some point as we travel through cave country. I've spotted several caves on the side of the road as we inch up mountains, but we never want to stop climbing once we've started.

However, we recently started a butterfly wing collection, so we have been stopping to gather the blue and orange wings on the roads. We also stop for turtles. Whenever we see them in the road, we scoop them up and put them on the side of the road they are trying to get to.

Kentucky is a truly beautiful state. The mountains are often covered in mist from the big rivers that flow throughout the state. The land is more exposed here than in Virginia: cliffs and boulders jut out of the trees. Many of the mountains have been sliced in half so that roads can go through them. the striation in these cross sections is really interesting to look at.


Tomorrow we are biking to Berea, Kentucky, where we will take it easy. We haven't yet had a break day but are excited to take one.


That's the news from Kentucky. We'll keep you posted as we get out of mountain culture and enter horse country.



PEACE!