What US 27 shoulders looked like for most of today

I rode from Jamestown to Lawrenceburg today. I rode 85 miles which took me about 11 hours on the road. US 127 was pretty fast riding for most of the day, but I had half an hour or more riding in moderate rain then some time recovering from that part of the ride ;-}, I spent most of day riding into a 5+mph mph headwind, and I took an hour long beak in Danville to recovery enough to ride the remaining 32 miles to Lawrenceburg ;-{. I also had some computer issues which forced me to switch from using Ubuntu to using Vista, so I had to set up Vista for this use. I did most of that setup during my break in Danville. McD's free wifi was slow, but very useful

There were also some long stretches of 127 looking like this
Much of that part did not have rumble strips on the shoulder

I left Jamestown in rush hour on US 127. The riding, till after Russell Springs and I-64 was multi-lane urban. It was also reasonably flat. Then, after things quieted down, then road headed steeply downward into a pretty valley. It wasn't a pretty day - I could sometimes tell where the sun was though the low clouds and the wind was, as usual ;-{, in my face out of the north - but it was very nice riding once away from the congestion. There was a great shoulder till Dunnville and an OK shoulder, with light traffic, till the first big hill. That hill, and the next one, were the only times today that I needed my granny ring.

A road marked for bicycling in central Kentucky
This road, went off from 127 just before the first big climb

At the top of that climb, it started to rain. I stopped, put the rain covers on my rear panniers and my handlebar bag, got on my rain gear, and headed down the other side in pouring rain. The biggest problem on that descent was controlling my speed, even with Koolstop brake pads.

At the bottom of that hill, I stopped, barely ;-{, to put some Subway bags over my socks and to mount my front light for use as a flasher. Then I rode on in the rain. Pretty soon I came to a second, bigger, hill and climbed it in the rain. There was a very small town - several buildings, at the top of that hill, and one of the building had a porch, so I sought cover there to snack and re-arrange some of my gear. As I snacked, I could hear a large group of farmers, who were also taking shelter from the rain, talking inside the building.

After the rain had mostly ended I rode down the other side of that hill and stopped, for lunch and internet ;-}, in Liberty. From Liberty to Danville, was a long stretch of nice riding in reasonable weather. Near Danville, I saw a sign for Dairy Queen, and I decided I needed a large pineapple shake. I didn't see anyplace to get one, so I settled on an icecream sandwich at a Dollar General and, later, a large iced coffee at McDs while I took a long break. Finally, after riding through Danville heading north, I found a Dairy Queen. I stopped for the large shake and a Chilli Cheese dog with onions. That powered me very well for the remaining 30 miles to Lawrencebirg ;-}!

I had about a dozen horn toots of support today, split about evenly between car horns and motorcycle horns, and one driver offered me help that, fortunately, I didn't need. I haven't seen any other bicyclists on this tour, other than my friend Vance, but at least I saw evidence of support for bicycling - a 'Bikes share the Road' sign - and for bicycle touring. Oh, and there was sign for a local bike shop on the same road as the bikes share sign.

It was a dreary day today, but there were still some beautiful sights
Here is a vine covered silo in a deep, lush valley after Russell Springs and before Dunnville

I'm continuing on 127 tomorrow, but only for a few miles. Then I'll head for Shelbyville, and then north to Carrollton, before riding west along the Ohio to Milton and crossing the river to Madison. I'll take a, much needed, rest day in Madison, or nearby since Madison will be an expensive place to stay.