We breakfasted with the biker group the next morning but left on our own. The hills weren’t so bad this time, only one difficult climb. We met another biker, traveling alone, named Gordon. He was traveling to Missoula, Montana and so far had averaged $7.07 per day in expenses. I had been keeping track, and we were averaging $3.72 per person. This was an important consideration. Not only did we have to make the trip in the allotted time, we had to do it with the money we had. There was no more, we couldn’t expect family members to bail us out. So each expenditure was recorded. Our goal was $5.00 per day per person, and we knew we could make it if our average was below that.
We made it to Buckhorn State Park, Kentucky, early in the afternoon. Rain was impending, and we wondered if we should camp. We coasted into the camp, down a steep hill, just as it began to rain, and we took shelter in restrooms. Eventually, the rain slowed, and we ventured out. We met another biker there, Mike, who explained that he had hurt his knee and, favoring the bad knee, had overtaxed the other knee. The two guys he was riding with had had to leave him behind, and he was waiting at this campground for his knees to recover. We still didn’t know if we would be staying there tonight, but it continued to rain. We finally stretched out the plastic tarp, which we usually put under the tent, putting it over us so we could cook and eat dinner. We decided to accept Mike’s offer to share his campsite, for which we paid him $1.44. I don’t remember how we arrived at that amount.
We waited for the rain to stop, but it never did. We finally put up the tent in the rain, getting ourselves and most of our gear wet in the process. When we were done we took a breath and looked around. There was a little old man, looking forlorn. He had parked his car and was looking for directions. He wanted to find Boonesboro, KY, and had a map in his hand, but he couldn’t read it. So we helped him and he went on his way.
It rained all that night, and eventually the water seeped through the tent, getting everything even wetter. But we slept well.