Day 54 - An Angel From The South (July 25th, 2024)

City To City: Berea - Hazard

Miles: 100

Miles Total: 3,657

Flats: 12

Video: https://youtu.be/wP-Rdg7mnN0?si=3O5CAxBOH2dRNs6c

Eating Blueberry Lemon Bread

Lunch

Popsicles From Jamie

Riding By An Active Coal Mine

    The hotel's breakfast was delicious and filling! We fueled up before heading out and saying goodbye to our family. Then Henry got another flat tire, so my family saw how we changed our tires firsthand.

When we got back on the road, we were supposed to swing by the fire department, where Matt and Mark stayed for the night. We thought there was no way they'd be there and would probably be a few miles ahead of us. Well, we were right in a way. They weren't at the fire department but hadn't gone far. We found them asking a woman for directions and a store for groceries.

    The woman, Liz, was on summer break but attended college in Berea. She owned a motorcycle. Once she heard about what we were doing, she said she wanted to do what we were doing someday.

We got on the road, and when we had our first break of the day, we ate my mom's delicious blueberry lemon bread that she had sent along with my grandparents to give to us.

We met a man sitting at another table when we stopped for lunch. Mark, the social butterfly, started a conversation, and soon, the man was interested in our journey and asked about how we were traveling and what we did for eating and lodging. The man eventually had to be somewhere, and we finished our lunch.

Then, we had five more small mountains in Appalachia. Mark and Henry were ahead when we got past the second one, and my dad and I were a little behind. We saw a woman burning something in the barrel.

    My dad asks what she's cooking, and she replies in her beautifully accented southern drawl, "Just trash."

Then she asks if we want popsicles. So, we call Mark and Henry back, and Matt catches up with us. When we tell Matt what she will give us, Matt doesn't believe us until she returns with ice-cold water and an armful of popsicles.

    The woman, Jamie, was born and raised in Indiana, but when her family moved back to Kentucky, she did too. When her parents moved elsewhere, she stayed and helped care for her grandfather.  Everyone in the area knew Jamie as a social butterfly, the snack lady for the kids, and a caring person among the neighbors.  Billy, Jamie's husband, came back from work and was quieter but nonetheless welcoming.  Mark got his wish of meeting someone growing up in the Appalachia.  Billy didn't have much to say about his childhood.  Like everyone else who grew up in Appalachia, he had a lot of siblings. His parents didn't have a lot of finances, but life was simple and happy.  He did what all the boys did in the Appalachia; hunting, fishing, etc.

    Jamie went into her house again and came out with another round of popsicles and Snickers bars.      When we tried to clean up our plastic mess, she told us to leave it.  Matt continued piling up the trash when, in a firm voice, she told Matt to leave it and that she would get it and burn it.  When Matt didn't comply quickly, my dad warned Matt that he should probably listen to her.  Jamie then commanded Matt to leave it, and Matt held up his and reluctantly surrendered.  The rest of us laughed at the scenario and that Matt had been beaten.  Jamie is the kind of woman who, out of the goodness of her heart, gives and expects nothing back; she loves and feeds people and insists that she be the one to serve others.

    Once we get to an intersection, Mark and Henry went to Save A Lot to get dinner while the rest of us went to the park for the night.  We made a wrong turn, and my dad stopped to check which way to go.  I stopped suddenly and couldn't clip out in time, so I fell over.  Very close to me were some cement posts, and my face was in line to smash into the posts but luckily, I was able to twist and push myself away but scraped my knee, injured my previously sprained ankle, and pulled a ligament.  But other than that, I was fine, except for my injured pride.

    We showered at the pool and ate dinner. Mark went to fill his water bottle at the pool before it closed. A party happened to be going on there, so Mark slowly walked by all the food, looking wistfully at it all. The volleyball coach noticed him looking at the food and asked if he wanted some. Mark replied, "Anything you don't want, my friends and I will gladly take it!"

Some girls came over and gave us pizza, chips, dessert, and bottled water, so that night, we had plenty of food to eat.

    Later, we all laid out our sleeping pads and mats under a pavilion next to the road. Two teenage guys saw all our things and wanted to play a mischievous prank on us. I woke up to them standing over me, shining their flashlights in my eyes. Then I heard my dad say, "Move along, boys."

They started and hightailed out of there. But later, they came back in a car,, and did donuts in the parking lot right next to us, shouting at us and telling us to wake up.  But I guess Henry and I were so tired, that we didn't hear the car, but I did wake up when I heard them yelling us to wake up for the last time before, they got tired of us ignoring them and left.  But my dad was up most of the night guarding our things and keeping the boys away.