May 26, 2003 After having given the bike such high marks yesterday, I have to eat a little crow. This morning we found two broken spokes on the drive side of the rear wheel. We had both been concerned with the hits we had taken on the road from Highway 52 to our motel, and should have checked the bike when we arrived. This morning while pumping the tires, the broken spokes were found. We quickly replaced them, and got on the road only about half an hour later than we planned. This is the only stretch of road, up until today, that we could say was worse than Sonoma County roads. We are both pretty tired this evening. This was our biggest day so far at 124 miles. It was a good ride, but we worked hard as well. We are both fighting off saddle sores, but seem to be succeeding. Otherwise we are fine, and are in good spirits. Today’s ride took us from Portsmouth, OH to Covington, KY. We left Portsmouth in cool, foggy weather following route 52 – a road that is freeway part of the time and two-land road with a nice shoulder the rest of the time. The road follows the Ohio River pretty closely. The traffic was light until about 11:00, when people apparently started home from their long weekends. However, the traffic was never really bad. We were able to move right along. When we reached a point about 45 miles from Cincinnati (across the river from Covington), we learned at a small store that there is a ferry that goes from route 52 to Augusta (A sweet little town with wonderful, beautifully restored old home – what a delight to see) in Kentucky. We took the ferry (which was a blast, and I guess technically qualifies as a SAG!), and did the rest of the trip on KY Highway 8 – not as good a road as 52, but had more scenery and less traffic. There was also a lot more climbing. We rode highway 8 for a few hours, and came upon a sign that said the road was closed ahead. We, of course, didn’t want to ride several miles and then have to come back for some reason. We stopped a couple of motorists, and they were little help. Even though they lived right in the area, they knew nothing of the road being closed. Shortly, another cyclist came along (Bob from Erlanger, KY), and he told us he was able to ride through without difficulty. So, we took off and did our thing. Some time after we left Bob, we were climbing a short pitch when four dogs decided that they would rather chase us than sleep. They were quite a pack (probably out of the same litter, or inbred in some way), and really gave us a chase. Both LaValle and I were yelling like crazy while we stated to sprint. We were able to separate ourselves enough from those guys that they gave up. They probably weren’t interested in chewing on a couple of crazy people. This was a close call, and we are going to buy something like “HALT” to give us some protection. These incidents with dogs are just happening too frequently, and sooner or later one of them will get a piece of one or both of us. We had gone a long time without seeing any commercial facilities or people, so when this little bar in Ross, KY came out of nowhere, we decided to stop, get something to drink and see if we could understand our maps better. At this point we were at 108 miles, so when one of the guys in the bar said that it was 35 to 40 miles to our motel, we sort of did a double take. He gave the thing some more thought, and decided that it was really 30 miles. In the meantime, LaValle was doing her thing with her maps, and whispered in my ear that it was really only 18 miles. So, we finished our Mountain Dews, thanked the gentlemen, and were on our way. 18 miles later, we were at our hotel. We did find out why the “road closed” sign was up. Tomorrow they are tearing down a bridge we crossed to replace it. As they say, we would have been SOL if we had gone through the area a day later. The weather today was mixed. As I mentioned, it was cool and foggy when we started, and we didn’t start taking clothes off until about noon. Then we had sunshine mixed with clouds, a threat of rain that didn’t materialize and then sun for the finish of a good and challenging ride. Tomorrow is a rest day, and we are very, very happy for that. Ron ....the ferry ride was free for us. The motorcycles paid two dollars and cars were charged five dollars. It was definitely better than going across one of the Cincinnati bridges. An added plus was being able to take pictures standing still... LaValle LaValle gets her picture taken!!! Ron on ferry from Ohio to Augusta, KY