Hindman

When we got to Hindman we couldn't find a place to stay. There was a place downtown called The Quiltmaker Inn that I had read about in my Bike Across the US book, but it wasn't open so we went to the Forget Me Not Floral shop next door and met Pat.  She told us the only other motel in town was closed too, and she worked really hard to find us a place to rest our weary bones.  It wasn't easy!

Me and Pat.  You can't see them in this picture but she has wings and a halo.

Wanda and Rebecca who run the Dorm at the Settlement School in Hindman.  There is a lot of very interesting history about this school.  To read about it, click here:  Settlement School  We stayed there for a $25 donation, so if anyone plans on passing through there on their way down the TAT, we recommend it.  This is the Dorm:

We had the entire place to ourselves and got a great night's sleep.  We were getting a little stressed out since we weren't at all sure where we'd end up for the night.  What a great place to end up!

The first couple of hours after we left there were very pleasant riding.  Rural roads, minimal traffic, and the terrain was rolling and fairly easy to ride on.  Once we hit Hwy 80 though, it went downhill fast.  Well, we went uphill, but the experience went downhill.  It was terrible.  4 lanes of coal truck traffic, rumble bumps, debris and trash on the shoulders and long, long hills.  I don't know why this portion of the TransAm Trail hasn't been changed.  A local told us there was an easier, safer, and much shorter way, but we followed the maps and had a miserable experience.  The drivers were not as nice as we'd been seeing up to this point either.  

Coal lying on the edge of the road.  

Finally we got off of route 80 and 15 and onto 28 and that road was better.  We still had about 20 more HILLY miles to do after riding in all the heavy traffic and we were stressed.  Then a bus load of kids went by and we got mooned.  Nice.

On a lighter note - I found some more little buddies to ride with me!  

And it looks like our speed has really increased:

(?)  WHAT?  (?)