November 14, 2025
Day Five: Marion to Eddyville to Princeton to Madisonville (Crittenden, Lyon, Caldwell, and Hopkins Counties)
Last night was the worst night of sleep I've had on a bike tour in a while. Dogs next door barked through the night, waking me up several times. I finally got up at 4:00, dressed, and walked to the 24-hour convenience store a five minute walk away, where I purchased two ice cold Diet Pepsis and banana bread.
I've stayed in Marion on bike tours several times, and I'm always surprised at how busy this "FiveStar" store is in the middle of the night and the early morning. There is always a lot of traffic on US-60 through Marion for some reason.
Back at the Airbnb, I worked on yesterday's journal entry, answered a few work emails, and ate the rest of the large pizza from yesterday.
It was supposed to be noticeably warmer today, but it was still pretty chilly this morning, so I put on all the bike clothes from yesterday with the exception of my "PolarJock."
I rode out and attempted to take a decent picture of my bike in front of the construction site for the new courthouse.
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I've been in Marion so many times, and I was anxious to get going, so I only took a few more photos in town, of two impressive murals.
I wound my way out of town on quiet streets and roads. Away from super-busy US-60, there was hardly any traffic in the Marion area.
I rode through the small communities of Crayne and Mexico. I've been through these villages several times over the years on bike rides.
I was on my way to Eddyville (pop. 2,375), the county seat of Lyon county.
What do all Kentuckians immediately think of when they hear "Eddyville"? The Kentucky State Penitentiary (aka, "The State Pen"), of course, which is located nearby. Growing up, I heard about Eddyville a lot. As in, "That guy better watch out, or he'll end up in Eddyville." Or, "Is cousin Rick staying out of trouble these days? He is now! He's down in Eddyville!"
While I was on this ride, we had a guest at home: A friend of Joy's from grad school was visiting. Our friend had lived in Indiana and Michigan for years, but was from Kentucky originally. In my conversation with Joy last night, I'd asked her to ask our friend what came to mind when she heard "Eddyville." The answer was swift, according to Joy: "The penitentiary!"
The roads this morning were great. When I entered Lyon county, the road became even smoother, with a fresh white paint job on the miniscule "shoulder." Maybe, as the home of the State Pen, there are additional tax revenues to devote to smoothly paving all these country roads in the county?
I entered Eddyville and made my way to the courthouse. Downtown Eddyville was smaller than I expected.
After taking the courthouse photo, I rode out of town on a slightly busy highway on my way to Princeton, county seat of Caldwell county.
To my left the sun was out. To my right, there were a few dark clouds, and I felt a few drops of rain. That was the extent of the rain, though, and soon the sun came out for the rest of the day.
Princeton had an impressive courthouse. The courthouse square was busy with traffic.
I rode out of town, and a short distance later stopped at "Kay's Kitchen" for lunch.
I felt better after the two egg-cheese-biscuits, fries, and Diet Coke. All of the other patrons were women in their 70s, 80s and perhaps 90s. An NBC true crime show was blaring on the TV, presumably for the benefit of these ladies, but the young waitress turned it down a bit at my request.
As I paid for lunch, the cashier asked where I was riding, and expressed the usual surprise to the other workers: "This man rode his bike from Henderson!!"
Revived by lunch, I got back on the road.
After a couple of miles, I turned onto a long, long series of absolutely empty country roads. This was one of the longest stretches of quiet roads this year. There were almost no houses in miles of riding. Maybe some of this was a giant reclaimed mining area? It was mostly woods. No farm fields.
After a while the woods ended and there were a few farms.
I exited onto KY-502, and rode through a marshy area. I remembered this from some long day rides I'd done in the past.
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I entered Hopkins county on a fairly empty road that passed the jail, then endured a trafficky mile or two getting into downtown Madisonville (pop. 19,591).
I checked into my room at a B&B right on the busy main drag, cleaned up, then walked around looking for food before finally settling for the "Dunkins" a few blocks away.
Today's ride: 76 miles (122 km)
Total: 348 miles (560 km)
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