Eastern Kentucky is a Battlefield

So I first apologize for being out of touch for a few days, after we left Virginia we kind of fell off the map, and with the map went any hope of finding internet. Many things have happened since I last posted! First of all, we made it through all of Virginia!

In Breaks Interstate Park, the site of my last post we received a pin that signified our completion of bicycling across the state of Virginia, with a depiction of the state and our route from Yorktown to Breaks.  However apparently this is the last and only pin we receive throughout the trip for completing anything because other states just don't care.

Anyways, also since then we have made it through Eastern Kentucky, and let me tell you it was a battle.  Everything I've ever heard about Eastern Kentucky (with regards to this trip) has been bad. In fact, the only bad things I have ever heard about this trip have been about Eastern Kentucky.  So after summiting some of the hardest mountains of the trip in Virginia, the overwhelming feeling throughout the group was hope that the hard part was over, but first we had the battle through Eastern Kentucky... for 3 long days.
The first day, after crossing the border into the "Unbridled Spirit" state, the most overwhelming characteristic of Kentucky was poverty.  Appalachian communities are known for being extremely poor and very very sheltered, and thusly, very opposed to people who are different from them.  Ninety percent of the houses you see are trailer homes, some better than others, and some whose ability to provide shelter is questionable.  There are overwhelming amounts of trash along the sides of the roads and also in people's yards.  The communities, from what I could tell are very tightly knit, as evidenced by 10 mailboxes in a row all showing the same last name. Also, aside, Eastern Kentucky is very very mountainous... :(
The second day was full of climbing and vigorously threw me over the edge of tolerating any more mountains, it was so bad I was day dreaming about Kansas... Day two was truly a battle in every since of the word. We rode through pouring rain, extreme heat and extreme wind all while climbing nearly 5,000 feet of elevation. One particular incident seems to sum up the day accurately. While climbing a mountain, as usual, we come upon a trailer on the side of the road, as usual, with a four-wheeler on the deck, I don't know how it got there but not surprising, so as we grind away we get closer to the house and look into the window to find a Nazi flag hanging in the window behind a sign that says KEEP OUT, as Caleb and I look at each other in horror it is needless to say we climbed the rest of that mountain much faster.  On the way down from that same mountain we are chased by a very mean and very vicious pit bull, if that dog had been on the other side of that mountain where we were traveling 5 MPH it would have been game over. But day two ended and not soon enough.
Day three was a short 50 mile day that packed a punch.  The usual climbing, the usual running from dogs, ect... but today we FINALLY LEFT THE APPALACHIANS and it could not have come soon enough.  At the bottom of a giant mountain you could look ahead of you and see a flat horizon of blue skies and behind you the mountainous skyline I became accustomed too. This was a wonderful feeling.

It was great to get through what most said was the hardest most unpleasant part of the trip and get through it alive. Hopefully it will all get better from here. It was hard but the hardest tests are the ones that are the most gratifying to Ace. The right of passage should be over, now I can relax and enjoy the ride. Starting with a 100 mile ride tomorrow, on my birthday.