Started out late today on a short 45 mile run to Harrodsburg, and quite early into it, I heard a metallic clang that I’ve heard before and realized I’ve broken a spoke. on my front wheel. I removed the offending spoke from the nipple (haha), and continued on my way only noticing a slight bit of wobbly front wheel. There were no bike shops within 40 miles of where I was, so it’ll have to wait till I can find one. I think all the rumble strips on the right side of the road are what caused the spoke breakage. I try to stay as far right as possible, but Kentucky has decided to put some deep rumble strips right on the white line, so I’m often hitting them when I try to ride in the tiny shoulder, or as close to the shoulder as possible.
Today was more what I had in mind as far as effort goes on my trip. It’s the first day since I hit the Appalachian mountains that I haven’t felt the need to take a break from pure exhaustion, and the day felt incredibly do-able. The hills were all either short, or not too steep, or blissfully both. I actually averaged over 10 mph on the pedals today, haven’t done that since I hit the mountains. I stopped at Mcdonalds along the way, just to fill up with water, and an old retired AirForce (according to his hat) guy chatted with me for a bit. he wanted to know where I was going and tell me jokes and convince me I was heading the wrong direction; it was a nice chat.
I had a few dog encounters, but one actually made me feel good as I shouted two blue heelers away. Didn’t have to spray any dogs today. Good stuff. I was actually off route today to save a little time a climbing, I went about 7 miles on a busier roadway than I would have liked. I’m still feeling pretty lazy at the end of the day today; I have two tubes that need patching since days ago; I bought an extra tube at Walmart, so I’ve still got a back up. I’m also making a stack of heavy stuff to send back home that I can do without. I’m going to ditch some extra clothes, and my heavy camera and lens, to be replaced later with a lighter camera and lens.