Did I mention it was hot today?

Holy mackerel was it hot today!! Everyone we talked said it was going to be a record and I assume it was. Fortunately, it was pretty bearable on the bikes. We rode for an hour or so and found Betty's Diner in Parkersburg, WV. Classic dumpy roadside place with where the old guys go for coffee in the morning. The waitress (didn't ask if her name was Betty) commented on "the BMWs" but said she wanted a Harley or as she put it "something that makes my guts rumble". I think the most we could get out of a BMW would be a tingle. Speaking of Harleys, about 80% of the bikes we see down here are Harleys. Yes loud ones.

So after Betty's we decide to go to Athens OH to the only BMW shop around so I could get a spare key. We found the shop (Holts BMW) just east of Athens. Small but nice shop that has been in business since 1991. I now have a spare key. After Holts, we went southwest to Ironton OH and hopped the Ohio River (again). From the Ohio side we can see coal plants and chemical plants along the River where it is easy to load and unload coal and whatever stuff those other plants use or produce. There are also railroad tracks in real good shape for hauling coal to the plants.

After crossing back into Kentucky at Ironton, we let Dave's GPS figure out where to go to get us as close to Corbin KY as we could get. After a day "trusting" the GPS as it took us up unbelievably unbelievable roads, we decided that it can be trusted, no matter how tiny the road is. The only road we said no to was a narrow gravel road with a big sign reading "Used GPS systems for sale. Hundreds to choose from". That road did not look like something I wanted the RT to adventure down. So the fun part tonight was using the "bread crumbs" feature to figure out where we went. What is really cool is that a lot of these little grey roads in Kentucky are a little more than 1 lane wide but paved. Actually all the roads are in really nice shape here. So we can highly recommend this "minimum distance" mode here. We saw some fantastic country today and no traffic.

The only issue we had with the GPS was it kept telling us things were in the wrong place. We used Google Maps to find things (which it got wrong a couple times as well), but between them we found everything we needed. The other thing to mention is that where we were today had very poor cell service. Sometimes none, sometimes voice only, usually "Enhanced" which allows maps to load slowly and occasionally 3G which is really fast. Between the headsets and the GPS, this trip is completely different than last trip. We are seeing a lot more of the really remote parts of these states so far. The towns we shoe up in do not normally see outsiders so we stick out (especially with the BMWs).

We passed a couple of correctional facilities which are brand new looking high tech places. I think some of our Vermont folks may be down here?

There are a lot of towns that look like they at one time had some kind of mill or plant that had left and so the economic situation looks pretty sparse. But everybody is getting by. There are a lot of really big elementary schools so I am guessing a lot of buses collect a lot of kids from all the small little towns. Not too many small town schools.

We landed in Manchester KY around 7pm and after looking at the run down motel on one end of town, opted for the slightly nicer one. Found the only none chain restaurant in town to re-hydrate. Hope it cools off tomorrow!!