Random notes from Djina

I've never been called Meticulous before. I just wanted to make one correction. Ken called the shortcuts "reroutes", not "redirections".
This morning as we loaded up the bikes again for an early morning start to a long, hilly, and hot day..Yonah said "I miss The Footprint".
But, it is still beautiful in Kentucky, the countries best mowed state, and we only have about 700 miles left. That just seems like nothing. We have one and a half more states and our last mountain range coming up.
It was weird getting on my bike again after not riding for almost two days. Yesterday Ken rode my bike with Matt and Yonah, while Solomon and I stayed back at the log cabin and I organized all the pictures on Ken's computer and Solomon read Harry Potter (he is like a possessed man, reading every chance he gets). Then Solomon and I met up with everyone in the car and we had lunch and then Ken left back to Davis to resume his normally scheduled life. And we are back to our routine of tasteless vegetables (when we are lucky), trans fats, and processed cheese.
We slept in Springfield, KY last night at a hotel that had a pool and didn't smell too bad. There was a microwave in the lobby where they have some breakfast tables so we walked to the grocery store and bought some canned vegetable soup, microwavable precooked wild/brown rice in a pouch (better than it sounds), frozen lima beans, whole wheat tortillas, avocado, tomato, cheese, grapes, already cut up watermelon and pineapple. It was a great dinner. The boys now beg us to make dinner ourselves instead of going out to eat. We all feel sort of sick after eating out, even if we get the healthiest thing on the menu. Ok, that is all the complaining you will hear from me this trip. I'm done.
In the same way that almost everyone in Davis has a bicycle, almost everyone in Kentucky has a ride-on lawn mower. EVERYTHING is mowed. Even the grassy hillsides on either side of the highways are mowed. Surrounding every house, in the areas that aren't wooded, are these vast, sweeping expanses of mowed lawn. The vast majority of the lawnmower drivers are middle-aged, overweight women, but you can also see elderly men and women, young boys, and middle-aged, overweight men.
We are at a library in Danville right now while Matt gets his bike fixed. It could be hours. If it is, we will spend the night here, if is only takes an hour or two we are going to try to make it to Berea...take a day off and then begin the Appalachians (Ha! I looked it up).
Laura, I'm really going to try to write down the name of the towns we pass through so I can post them on the blog for your map. I'll put them in the heading.
We went off route in order to get to this bike shop and found some really beautiful, quiet country roads.
OK, that's it for now.
I'm being kicked off the computer. Gotta go get Solomon who is in the Children's section devouring books while Yonah is at the bike shop with Matt, reading Harry Potter while Matt works on the bike. I noticed what looked like a California style cafe..I'll go check it out and maybe we will have lunch there.
I keep trying to get Yonah and Solomon to blog but haven't had much success.
Ken will be posting lots more pictures on the website in the next day or two. They include from Ridgeway,CO to Lincoln's Birthplace National Park.
Everyone calls you Ma'am and Honey here.
I'm getting used to the humidity. I can't even remember what dry feels like.
Happy Birthday Chicky!
Love,
Djina