Q: What's the wettest you can be?

A: Completely, and then you just can't get any wetter. Which is what
I was for the last hour or so of today's 50-miler from Booneville to
Berea KY. (The ride TO Booneville, yesterday, was a lovely, gently
rolling, minimal-traffic meander alongside Troublesome Creek for the
first 15 miles or so, and then 48 (but who's counting?) miles of major
ugly -- busy highways, lots of big coal trucks, constant rumble-strips
making the shoulder unrideable &c.) Berea, a lovely little college
and artsy-craftsy town, is a layover stop -- no riding tomorrow--and I
(and just about the whole group) had already made a weather-forecast-
related decision to bail out of camping (in a campground/RV park right
by the interstate -- I-75 maybe?) and check into a hotel. So I kind of
got into the ridiculous wetness of the ride, knowing I had shower/bed/
indoor plumbing in my immediate future. Didn't even bother me when I
missed a late turn (which only added 3-4 miles to the trip). So I'm
in the Boone's Tavern (lies! we're in a dry section of the county)
Hotel. I arrived in drowned rat mode, of course, apologizing to
Kristen, the front desk lady, for my appearance. When I showed up in
the lobby later, post shower and shave, she said, "Well now you clean
up real good, don't you."

(Sent from my iPhone)