Wednesday, May 26th, Day 20
Hodgenville to Rough River Dam State Resort Park, Kentucky (57 miles)

Today was a rough day for the bikers. At 9am, it was 83 degrees and the lazy sun was climbing into the sky. The humidity has been high the past several days and this day was no exception. We actually started late because we all were anxious to visit Lincoln’s birthplace. It was on the way out of town toward our next destination but we had to wait for the park to be opened. The official name is
Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historical Park 2995 Lincoln Farm Road Hodgenville, Kentucky 42748
“My earliest recollection is of the Knob Creek place.” So wrote Abraham Lincoln on June 4, 1860 to Samuel Haycraft, of Elizabethtown, Kentucky. Haycraft had invited the future President to visit his childhood home in Kentucky. The Lincoln family lived on 30 acres of the 228 acre Knob Creek Farm from the time Abraham was two and a half until he was almost eight years old. Here he learned to talk and soon grew big enough to run errands such as carrying water, and gathering wood for the fires. Abraham recalled in later years numerous memories of his childhood here; a stone house he had passed while taking corn to Hodgen’s Mill; a certain big tree that had attracted his boyish fancy; the old homestead; the clear stream where he fished, and the surrounding hills where he picked berries were all impressed on his mind.
The fact that this is our 20th day since the start of the ride, and we’ve covered almost a thousand mile, we’ve not missed a turn. We broke the record today and missed our first turn that cost us major lost time. The error cost us an hour and added eight miles to our 57 mile ride.
As the day progressed, the temperature rose and the humidity peaked and we were stopping every six miles or so for water and food breaks. I bet we consumed over 4 gallons of water between the four of us.
We had some overcast and small sprinkles of rain. We did one river crossing at Rough River about 15 miles from Rough River Dam. It was great going down but the return upwards was not to be believed. Three tier rise of 2 hills, the first about 15 degrees and the last almost 20 degrees…it was a killer. Talk about panting like a dog in heat. Our goal now was just to make it to camp. We were successful but had several additional hills to navigate. Needless to say, we had four very tired and weary bikers in need of rest. Good Night!!! By the by…we are in the central time zone now.