South Central Kentucky

Thank you alexa, viktor, amy, stefan and chiara for the kentucky information. It comes a little biut late cause I didn't get to a computer today. I'm staying at the hatfield inn in leitchfield kentucky, having ridden out of coal country and the appalachians and into western kentucky. the inn is one of a chain that is owned by the hatfield family that feuded witht hte mccoys. there is a portrait of an old timey hatfield in the office where i am typing this. they signed a peace treaty two years ago, someone like victor please paste a hatfield/mccoy summary for the benefit of those who ain't know for example any ex students of mine.

the day i last posted was very eventful: i crossed a state border, and met some guys going the other way who informed me of a guy about 30 miles ahead of me. i got a flat tire on a coal road and had to fix it in the rain, only when i fixed it i messed up my brakes a bit so i had to loosen my back brakes. i rode and rode until it got dark up and down appalachian mountains and i lost my map coming down a hill too fast cause it was hard to ride the brakes cause they were too loose and i had gone about 100 miles each other previous 3 days. i rode through coal country and past active coal mines and i think even inhaled coal dust and eventually got to a hostel at pippa passes at alice lloyd college where the hostel keeper gacve me vienna sausages which I almost ate but regained my sanity long enough to eat some cheese and crackers.

alice lloyd college is a high school for mountain people that is open and free for all and that somehow feeds into the university of kentucky. it feels like a religious school even though it isn't. there were two people at the hostel one was named dan and he had his section 11 map and was going the same way as me. we've been riding together since then which i think has been 5 days. the other person there was a girl named cadmus who was about to enter the appalachians and told us that we had finished the hardest part already.

the terrain and riding conditions have gotten much easier. the appalachians are the most poverty stricken region of the country and have some of the highest illiteracy rates, etc. on a school day, we rode past some kids who said "where you goin'?" and dan said "california" and the kid said "suck mah dick!" and his friend laughed. the kids probably had ringworm so it's hard to get too mad at them. dan is from richmond, virginia where he's a bike messenger, he rides with a trailer and is on his way to LA to work there.

i've been bitten by mosquitoes (and bedbugs at the berea, kentucky motel), chased by every imaginable kind of dog (including three beagles at once), and seen every type of livestock, even llamas. I've listened to more classic country than ever before in my life. chiara, one time the country radio station said john denver was coming up next and dan and i (he has the same kinf of radio as me, even though signals were weak till we got out of the mountains) got excited cause we thought it would be country roads or at least rocky mountain high which would be applicable but instead it was a song unknown to both of us.

I ate chicken and dumplings again and also white bean soup with cornbread. I also drank a no fear energy drink which made my head spin and a beer callred sterling which tasted like it had mercury in it.

Sarah is right, keith david is the best thing for just about any movie to have. if you don't know he was the rich guy in the ATL, the cop in final analysis, roddy piper's friend in they live who he fights for thirty minutes and he does the voiceovers for the navy recruitment ads. stefan do a search for keith david cause you will realize that he is your favorite actor.

I think margot kidder was found in a treehouse holding a 5 lb bag of mike and ikes and talking to her wooden teeth which she was clutching in her outher hand.

devin if you could meet me in colorado it would be incredible. if not, we'll get another chance don't sweat it.

I'm very glad i brought the bike i brought, cause it's fairly easy to repair, it's a shimano touring bike i got off of ebay from a guy who took it across country last summer. I want to replace the stem so i don't put so much weight on my wrists and maybe get moustache/preacher bars. dan started out 9 days ahead of me but got screwed up cause he was waiting on a bike part.

we took a shortcut today to see the maker's mark distillery but ended up going the wrogn way and are now off the main trail. we're riding on a state highway (#62) but traffic is light, visibility is good and conditions are safe. We're going southwest and may miss illinois entirely which wouldn't be the end of the world. I sort of wanted to take the ferry across the ohio river but it's not a big deal to me. I'd like to go on a riverboat down the
mississipi or fake my own death like huck finn as well.

devin you should watch take the lead starrign antonio b. actually just watch the trailer it will tell you all you need to know. i totally want to see crossover, which is the new urban basketball movie but if you read victor's comments about the demographics here, good luck finding a movie theatre that will play a movie that urban here. maybe in missouri.

henry martinez- good luck in your senior year of high school. avoid hydrogenated oils, internet sports betting and adjustable rate mortgages.

Devin, In 18 days i will probably be in pueblo colorado. I have family in boulder and it's like the world capital of outdoor stores so there is stuff i need from there for the last part of my trip. It's hard to say exactly cause i am not on the route right now and won't be again until I get into missouri probably.

You guys are both wrong, the hit songs of the summer seem to be the faith hill one about partying and the kenny chesney song about driving around in an old ford truck. country songs rely on maybe 8 or 9 stock situations. one is called "there goes my life" where the singer starts out where his girlfriend says she is pregnant and he thinks there goes my life because he can't ever leave his little town etc and even though i didnt know the 2nd verse i knew the 3rd verse would be about him watching his daughter leave home years later and singing the chorus.

'daughter leaving home' resonates powerfully with country music audiences i guess, there are like four new songs out that have that idea in them.

jake, i am looking forward to the new fantastic four movie but if i may make a comic book nerd digression for a minute i feel like there are may be five marvel characters that you shouldn't fuck up and dr. doom is one of them. as dated and silly as he may seem they should have had faith in the source material and the faxct that the movie was aimed at 12 year olds and kept him as the gypsy king/ex roommate and rival of reed richards/scarred face etc. making him a generic corporate villain was really weak. they should have had the villains be the frightful four anyways. i'd say LOL now but my mom is gonna read this.

the problem with the new superman is that lois lane is supposed to have a 5 year old kid and already have won a pulitzer prize and she looks to be about the same age as the students at my old job. parker posey would have made more sense if they wanted someone like margot kidder. i guess it's cause they want to make like four or five sequels.

to the anonymous poster who said "mr. green ur a dickhead come back to ITHS nigga", I hope you don't write like that on your admission essay for Cambridge. I am guessing it is Refath Razzaque. Refath, remember what I told you about spelling, racial slurs, manners etc. Now that I no longer live in your neighborhood I am putting you in control of it so you have to act right.

tomorrow's riding will be dedicated to my fellow members of NYCTF cohort 8. This means ricardo lazo, martha mahoney, audrey harris, raina mast and kim bliss especially. Also max monde, jill becker, lev fruchter, mike maloney, danielle kinzer and anyone else unlucky enough to have worked with me the past two years.

Now with all of that out of the way let's try to upload the pictures. the computers i come into contact with are pretty miserable. they're invariable 5 years old and slow and just turning off the applications that are slowing it down takes about half an hour, plugging in my camera makes the computer freeze up, opening up another window so I can copy the url's of the pictures from flickr takes about an hour, etc. it is very frustrating.