It’s been a little while since I last posted – every day is so busy and by the time you get to your destination you’re so tired and hungry that there’s not too much time to blog (in my case, at least :p)
The ride has been amazing so far; there’s times where you’re tired and all you’re doing is pedaling..but by the end of the day you’re so glad for all the experiences that it doesn’t really matter.
The days have kind of been blurring together, so I’ll mention the highlights so far.
The first day was awesome – we dipped our back tires in the Atlantic coast in Yorktown, VA. We will be repeating this on our front tires when we get to San Francisco, CA.
One of the route leaders has started a project to see how our bodies will change during the trip. He’s taking pictures of our tan lines and legs and will do a time lapse progression at the end. It’s going to be interesting to see how much your legs bulk up with this kind of exercise.
On our way to Charlottesville we stopped in the James Q. Miller MS Clinic, where they talked to us about the clinic’s history and gave us a small tour of the facility. This is the only MS specific clinic in the area, and is the one we will be donating money to fund a nurse practitioner’s position.
Later this day we stayed at the King’s house, where we were greeted with a banquet of delicious and much appreciated food.
On the next day, we climbed up Afton mountain and descended Vesuvius. The climb into Afton was pretty intense, but it was there that we stumbled into June Curry, otherwise known as the “Cookie Lady.” This lady has had a bike stop since the beginning of time, and has pictures and a whole house next to her own full of biker paraphernalia and postcards from all kinds of people that have gone through her house and talked to her. As soon as you go into her house, she shows you all sorts of pictures from the bike stop in the old days and also her collection of dolls – some of which sing and dance. She was particularly excited about this 4ft tall Santa doll, which sang 6 songs. It was a great treat to be able to visit this sweet lady at the end of a particularly nasty climb.
After her house, we ascended Mount Vesuvius – up to 3200ft high! The descent was awesome..I think it took like 6 minutes to go down the whole thing.
Here’s a video from one of last year’s riders, Bret Taylor, so you can get an idea of what it was like.
On our way to Troutville on the next day, a few of us went down to the James river while we were in Buchanan, VA. I didn’t end up getting in since I was worried I would have a hard time with my wet chamois..but as I found out today, that’s not a big deal. Next time there’s a river on a hot day, I’m definitely jumping in! At the end of the day we bumped into this station that had massive cups of ice cream for only $1.60. I had a delicious strawberry cheesecake and orange sherbert mixture..it was heavenly. But the last few miles to our destination was hard! A tired belly full of ice cream makes riding a little difficult.
On the next day we rode into Blacksburg. We were met up with a few more riders as part of Bike the Burg, where other people would ride to town with us from either Troutville or Catawba. Here’s a pic of the group at the Catawba general store. A few riders from last years bike trip joined us as well!
Where a party was waiting for us in the Farmer’s Market and Champs. This was a pretty short day, so I got to enjoy some time back home.
The following day was a rest day, which I mostly spend running about doing errands and getting random bike things that I needed.
The next day to Rural Retreat was a pretty brutal one. We ended up riding all day – and I got a good taste of what it’s like to have a tired day and have to keep trucking to get to your destination.
And now we’re up to today..which was an awesome and eventful day. Several of us were pretty scared of Hayter’s Gap..a 1,500ft ascent over only 4 miles. Early in the day we stopped at a little food place and loaded up on some delicious breakfast…today was gonna be ridiculous, so we might as well fuel up!
We rode over to the bottom of the mountain and resigned ourselves to a very intense ascent..which would be as tiring as it would be gratifying. After getting into a nice grinding pace, and after a few stops on the way up we made it to the top! All 1,500 feet of it. As I was reaching the top I could hear everyone cheering on the people that were getting to the top. After some more pushing up, I was greeted by the group that had already made it up. Everyone was cheering and yelling, which made getting there all the more fun. My legs were tired and I was pretty beat..but it was all worth it.
A quick descent later and we got to our destination for the day. So now it’s a little late and I’m tired! Time to pack up for the night and get some rest for tomorrow. :)
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