Virginia Means Business

Another 90 mile day in the bank. This one was harder than yesterday, but it's important to rack up miles when I can just in case I encounter a miserable weather day or get held up somewhere. So far, the weather has been exactly the same each day- record breaking heat, no clouds, and humidity like it's going out of style. At some point, I would not mind a little drizzle, or even a cloud!

Anyway, nothing to significant happened today. I had my first fall (pathetic story) and I met another TransAm cyclist.

Karen is also a teacher, in her 50's and started off the trip with her sister. The sister gave up after two days of these Virginia hills, and didn't even get a chance to see the Blue Ridge Parkway! Either way, Karen decided to push ahead solo. She is the first female I have encountered along the way, and from what I've been told, probably the only female that will be travelling alone. They like to run in packs, or herds, depending on your view of women (just kidding friends and family!) for safety reasons. Karen decided she would regret giving up before she was defeated, so she plugs forward at a slow and steady pace. Not as slow as I thought though, because after meeting her, she actually caught up with me... And that brings me to the fall.

Every so often, there will be a steep hill at the top of a normal hill, just to make it as hard as possible. You can climb for a mile straight, and then right before it lets up, it hits you will a nice 16% grade. It was at one of these moments where I made the fatal error of stopping to get a drink. I guess my thought process was, "I'll get a good drink and then kill this thing!" As I tried to start back up, the hill was so steep that my bike just vested off to the side, did a u-turn and dumped me off. Luckily it was slow and I didn't go flying or anything, but it did crack the base of my mirror.

From that point, I collected myself, picked up the bike, looked it over, straightened a few things out and decided that my best option was to walk it the last 100 feet. It was probably the same speed as I could have pedalled it anyway. I got to the top and took another second to regain focus before getting back on. This was the point at which Karen caught up and left me in the dust! She really put me to shame on that one, but it was my own fault for stopping on such a treacherous hill.

I also noticed a lack of confidence for the next couple of hours whenever I had to start from a dead stop. Hopefully I'll figure that out.

I made it to Wytheville, achieved my 90 mile goal for the day, and popped into Subway to replenish some of the calories I burnt off. I had them make me an Italian sub with two chicken breasts, roast beef, tomatoes, lettuce, onions, oil & vinegar, and all the cold cuts. It was sweet. People looked at me funny, but some of those people were taking family photos at the Subway and having a bug family event. So who is really the weirdo? Still me, I guess.

I'm in a Motel now. Three days without a shower or a restful nights sleep merits one night in a cheap motel in rural Va. I can clean up, get a shave, and maybe even sleep a full 8-9 hours! I had a chance last night, but the spot that I was camping in suddenly became overrun by AT hikers. These guys are everywhere and they are nuts...

If you think I'm crazy, my whole trip is supposed to be about 55 days; these guys had already been out for 55 and had another 100 to go! Now THAT is commitment. They were pretty cool and we had a lot of stories and jokes to share about our trips, but they stayed up until about 10:30, and I usually try to get to bed around 8:30. It was cool to talk with some nut-cases for a while though. It really puts my thing in perspective. These guys all quit their jobs and walked off into the woods. They go for up to five days without seeing a store or a road. I was complaining about not finding water in over 20 miles and these guys are really out there in the woods drinking from leaves and streams.

Anyway, I am going to devote the next two hours to becoming human again (i.e. shower, shave, clean hair, brush teeth, and trim/clean nails). Those, by the way, are things that AT hikers abandon around the second week of their 22 week journey.






Glove/sock tan.

Location:Wytheville, Va