Charles Kuralt called Madison, Indiana "The most beautiful rivertown in America." Ladies Home Journal selected it as "The prettiest small town in the Midwest." It has the largest historic district in Indiana with 133 blocks on The National Register of Historic Places. We left the hotel this morning under a cloudy sky with the wind blowing and a forecast of scattered showers. We had a long downhill ride to the Ohio River and the town of Madison. What a delightful way to start our day. Madison, and the other beautiful little towns we've biked through have been one of my favorite parts of this tour. We crossed the Ohio on another big blue bridge back into Kentucky, and rode along the river for about 15 miles. Although the sky stayed overcast, it never rained and the wind was not a problem. Marilyn, Marilee and I biked along together with Lois joining us now and again. The country side was again farm and pasture land. I saw tobacco growing, but no wheat and not much corn. We climbed about 250 feet (according to the map) and rode along a ridge for several miles into the town of Dry Ridge, where we are spending the night. We had views off to the right and left as we cycled past some beautiful horse farms. We only had one long hill that I had to stand and crank up--the others I could make it over in my small ring and the 27 on the back. I am SO GLAD that Ricky suggested changing my back cassette and adding the 27. I remember asking DB when he put it on my bike "what would it do to my speed" and he told me that unless I ride like Tim Perry, I would not have anything to worry about. Turns out that he was right. Speed is NOT an issue on this tour, but getting up and over hills has been a very big deal. I should just stop looking at the maps we follow, because KNOWING that we have more hills ahead of us is worse than just being surprised as we ride along.
Tomorrow we have a 75 mile day to Maysfield, Kentucky. June 1st!! Why don't I just register for the River Cities Tri and stay home and do fun stuff for a while!! I am definitely getting LONG RIDES out of my system on this tour.
Today - 57 miles
