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!