Falls Of Rough, KY to Utica, KY

We packed up easily in the morning and went back to Little Dave’s for breakfast.  We then drove to the Whitesville Post Office to pick up Phil’s shoes.  We got there about a half hour before the post office opened.  We found a grocery store a block away so we stocked up on some groceries.  Fresh fruit is sometimes hard to come by so Linda ended up eating a whole pint of blueberries within that half hour.

After picking up the shoes, we drove the rest of the way to Owensboro to the rental car facility.  There we loaded the bikes and got changed back into our riding gear.  The bike shop was only about a mile and a half away.  We arrived at Breck’s Bicycle shop and met Adam, one of their awesome bike techs.  Adam fixed Phil’s shoes which was tricky and tuned up his bicycle all for a great price.

1728 Sweeney St.  Owensboro, KY 42303

As a bonus, right next door to Breck’s is Gene’s Health Food store.  They had plenty of gluten free options for Linda and they also had a small cafe.  Phil and Linda enjoyed the amazing soup they had as well as a delicious smoothie!

We then biked about ten miles south to Utica, KY.  There was a nice bike trail going out of town we met up with and then a wide shoulder on the road after that.  However, as we headed farther out of town the shoulder disappeared.  We found the road to be too busy and dangerous to stay on so we detoured onto a small country road.  This new route added a few more miles to our trip but added peace of mind.  We rode past many crop fields and could count on one hand the number of cars that passed us.

We arrived at the Utica Fire Station where we stayed for the night.  We stocked up on groceries at the Food Mart and Dollar General near the fire station.

The fire station was very nice and had a large community room with a  full kitchen, a shower, and even washer and dryer to do our laundry!

After a few hours of relaxing we were convinced we would be by ourselves.  However, just as the sun started to go down we saw two cyclists and a motorcycle pull into the fire station.  One cyclist had touring bags but the other did not.  The cyclist without any gear had seen the touring cyclist and had helped him find his way to the Fire Station.  The motorcyclist was a volunteer fire fighter and wanted to make sure we all got in and settled okay.

We introduced ourselves to our new friend Alex who had started at Breaks Interstate Park and was on his way to San Francisco.  We were the first touring cyclists that Alex met since he started his journey!

We all hung out for a bit and then went to bed.