CnC: Day 04 OHKY Zig Zag

I had a look at the map of where we went today and it was quite a zigzag through Ohio and Kentucky.

The day started out wet. There had been thunderstorms all night and we were feeling quite relieved that we weren't on a bike this time, worrying about getting wet weather gear ready.

We had noticed a flash looking diner in Athens Ohio when we went for a drive the previous evening and decided to have an early breakfast there.

The atmosphere in the place was pure 1960's. They even had what looked like genuine gold records of Elvis, Peter Paul and Mary and the Everley Brothers.

The food was exactly what we expect a genuine American Diner to be. Everything served with hash browns and those weren't in solid form like Maccas and others do, but freshly cooked.

Once finished, we got under way and at the same time the heavens opened. We could barely see a hundred metres in front. So we made our way to the freeway and away we went - slowly.

Soon we came across a low lying area where water was washing across the road. Traffic was moving through slowly, but three cars in front of us was a small Honda sedan and the driver was reluctant to proceed. So a few of us in SUVs drove through to show it was OK. Turned out to be only a few inches deep.

A few minutes later, the rain had eased a bit and we were travelling at the 65mph speed limit when the small Honda sedan overtook us well and truly above the limit. I guess comfort levels for driving safely are relative.

Today we were to meet up with Jack and Linda, who have ridden their BMW over from Albuquerque to catch up with us and also see the MotoGP. Jack is running a SPOT as well, so we could look at his page on the iPad while driving along to gauge where he was and where we might meet up.

After the first look, the iPad refused to allow us internet access. Upon looking closer, it appeared we had used up our data limit, which turned out to be 30MB. We tried to extend the data usage but to no avail.

We headed into Kentucky, one more of our seven states - four to go. The idea was also to visit a whiskey distillery whilst there, so headed for Lexington, where there were several nearby. However the internet problem needed to be solved. So we called in to a T-Mobile agent, Radio Shack in Paris, Ky. The bloke there was very helpful and tried very hard to solve our problem, but T-Mobile was adamant that we needed to supply a PIN to make any changes. We hadn't set up a PIN. Stalemate.

He directed us to the nearest T-Mobile shop, in Lexington. So off we went and located the shop and spent quite a while there, eventually getting our service sorted so we will have enough data to last us a few weeks more.

By then it was 3pm and a bit late to go visiting distilleries, so we hi-tailed it up the interstate to Cincinnati to meet up with Jack and Linda at the pre-arranged motel. We also now had mobile internet working on the iPad so could see that we were ahead of them and sure enough we arrived half an hour ahead.

It was great to catch up with our good friends again and we spent the rest of the afternoon having a really good chinwag then went out to the Outback Steakhouse for a meal.

This place is a hoot. They have pictures from Australia and even our flag on the walls and the menu tries hard to look Australian. They fail miserably. But quite comically. The waitress couldn't understand why I was practically in stitches and when she listed the available beers and the only Australian one was Fosters I nearly fell off my chair laughing. We ordered Sam Adams beers and I had the BBQ ribs. How Aussie can you get?

Tomorrow we head for Indianapolis and the MotoGP. Click any pic for a larger version.