Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Columbia, MD

First, sorry for taking so long to post this. I've had a great time relaxing here in Columbia, visiting Dad and Connie and everyone else. Tomorrow I pack up and fly back to Berkeley. I'll also be getting lunch with John and Esther.

Major things that have happened over the past week:

Orioles game - rained out
subsequent bowling - dad kicked my butt
racquetball with dad
bike ride saturday
lots of sleep

I compiled some stats about my trip... here it goes.

STATS
Total miles: ~4360
total days: 56
total days spent riding: 51
average miles/day: 85
number of days at least 100 miles: 18
number of days at least 90 miles: 28

total hours estimated on the bike: ~350


SUPERLATIVES
Best lunch: Cambridge, Idaho - because of a sweet milkshake and a good burger
State with worst road quality: Wyoming
State with best road quality: Kansas
Toughest day on the bike: Hindman, KY to Rosedale, VA - monster hills, endless rain
strangest roadkill: armdillos, everywhere on the road in Missouri

favorite picture (so far):


I guess once I get a USB cable, I'll upload more photos. In the meantime... I'll get back to Berkeley tomorrow night, seeing Alia for the first time in TWO MONTHS. Hurray. School starts Monday, so I'll be pretty busy with biking team stuff, classes, and regular life in general. I can't wait.

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Ocean City, MD

Hello from OCEAN CITY!

I got into town at about noon yesterday, and have been relaxing since. I spent some time on the beach both today and yesterday. Dad got here a little bit ago, and I'm using his laptop to update.

Well, I'm done. I just rode my bicycle across the UNITES STATES OF AMERICA. I'll put up some cool stats and superlatives once I get back to Dad's house in Columbia.

Monday, August 13, 2007

Crisfield, MD

Hello from Maryland!

Today I took two ferries to get across the Chesapeake, stopping for a layover in Tangier, VA. Tangier is a little island made of mostly crab fisherman and their families. I had my first soft-shell crabs ever, and they were pretty good.

I'm going to ride to Ocean City tomorrow. MY LAST DAY OF RIDING. It's going to be about 60 miles, so I'm pretty excited, as thats not a long day either.

Summary of the past few days:

August 11th - Mineral, VA to Tappahannock, VA - 80 miles
August 12th - Tappahannock, VA to Reedville, VA - 40 miles.
August 13th - Reedville, VA to Crisfield, MD - 3 hours of riding on a boat.


Both days on the bike were tiring. Nothing exciting happened once I left Ashland. Today was good, nice and relaxing, but I'm still tired.

Not-so-fun-fact-of-yesterday: I spent about $40 on food because once I got to Reedville, I found that there were no grocery stores in town, and I was stuck eating at restaurants. Sucks.

Saturday, August 11, 2007

Ashland, VA

August 10th - Free Union, VA to Mineral, VA

I ended up in the town of Mineral around 5:00. It was super hot all day, and I didn't really want to ride anymore. The next town was also about 35 miles away, and I wouldnt make it there until after dark. As a result, I ended up hanging out in the local ice cream shop talking to a few high school kids, who were completely amazed that I had ridden all the way there from Oregon. It was nice to just sit and relax inside in the air conditioning.

Bad part about yesterday - not being able to fall asleep until after midnight because it was still too hot outside.

This morning I got up early to escape the heat -- I was on the road by about 7:15, and the weather was quite nice. On the road into Ashland I was getting incredibly hungry... good thing I stumbled onto the local club ride, and hammered the last few miles into town at 20+ mph.

Anyway, time to figure out where I'm headed. To Tappahannock! It's about 50 miles away, so that should be a good afternoon ride.

Friday, August 10, 2007

Charlottesville, VA

Hello from Charlottesville!

Last night I stayed at Michael's
place, in Free Union, VA. It was nice to get out of the heat, take a shower, and relax for a bit. I was almost in danger of falling into that trap of letting my body and mind end the trip, but I can't yet. Four more days of riding.

Yesterday I rode up along the Blue Ridge Parkway, which not only had amazing views, but was cooler by about ten degrees than the bottom of the valley. Michael rode up from the bottom of the Valley to meet me up on top (22 miles of climbing for him) then turned around and rode with me back to the bottom. I enjoyed chatting about his trip, some of the days we rode together, and just getting the feeling that I'm really close to being done. On my side, I did about the same amount of climbing in 4 miles that Michael did in 12 miles. The four mile climb gained probably 2000 feet, and took me about 45-50 minutes to climb. That's really slow, but it was so steep. Think the McEwen climb in Berkeley, but 2-3 times longer.

Today I'm headed east! It's not too far to Reedville, probably 200 miles? I'm going from Charlottesville to near Ashland, VA today, then probably Ashland, VA to Tappahannock, VA tomorrow, then Tappahannock, VA to Reedville, VA on Sunday.

Almost there.

Wednesday, August 8, 2007

Christiansburg, VA

Hot and humid! It's supposed to be up around 100 degrees today. I'm trying to drink lots of water, but man, its hot. I'll be following I-81 for the next day or two, up to Charlottesville. Right before that, I'll spend some time up on the Blue Ridge Parkway, the road that follows the top of the Blue Ridge Mountains up at 3000'-5000' of elevation. That sounds great, but I'll have to climb up to it, which will stink.

Maybe Michael will be around and can join me for a bit, I'll have to call him later.

Radford, VA

August 7 - Troutdale, VA to Radford, VA - 78 miles

So, yesterday I rode into Radford, where I knew Thad Lee and family routinely hosted cyclists on the TransAmerica Trail. I got to their house in the early evening, and relaxed and made dinner. It was nice being able to cook pastsa, because I had run out of fuel back in Missouri. So, I've been eating cold meals ever since (or eating out). I don't think I'll buy more fuel, because I won't be able to use it all before I finish. Five more days until the Chesapeake, and then one more day to the coast!

I'm pretty excited to be done.

Last night Alia came home from Ireland, and it was incredible being able to talk to her again.

Tuesday, August 7, 2007

Radford, VA

Made it to Radford! I'll update more later.

Wytheville, VA

Lets see.. I'm getting further and further into Virginia.

August 6th - Rosedale, VA to Troutdale, VA - 60 miles

Yesterday I did a short day, which was short because of a late start, a long lunch break, and an early end. Go figure. I was rather slow getting out of the motel in the morning, and then spent a good amount of time in Damascus, VA. That town is a little hiker/biker town--there's this trail called The Virginia Creeper Trail, a converted rails-to-trails that attracts a lot of tourists. They get shuttled up to the top of the hill, and enjoy a nice leisurely ride about 15 miles down. Sounds good to me. Both the TransAmerica Trail and the Appalachian Trail both pass through there too.

I ended up in Troutdale, VA just because I was pretty tired. It was about 6:30pm, and it looked like there was some rain up and over the next hill. The First Baptist Church in this town had a little hiker/biker hostel, with warm showers and a covered roof to sleep under, so I took advantage of it and just stayed there. Sure enough, about 20 minutes after I stopped, it was thundering and raining hard enough to make me appreciate not being on my bike.

I fell asleep around 9:00pm last night, and got up at about 8:00 this morning. I've been pretty tired lately. Less than a week left! By next Tuesday, I'll be in Ocean City. Today I'm going to get at least to Radford, VA, because supposedly there is a guy that puts up bicyclists there.

Monday, August 6, 2007

Damascus, VA

Hello from Virginia!!!

Gonna make this a kinda short one, not much time left in the library.

August 4th - Booneville to Hardiman, KY - 68 miles
August 5th - Hardiman, KY to Roseland, VA - ? miles.. haven't counted it up.


Rode with a sweet family (http://ride2cooltheplanet.blogspot.com/) who are headed to DC to deliver a petition on global warming.

Yesterday was an incredibly hard ride.. probably 5 or 6 major hills, all were quite steep too. I'm talking a gain of 1000-1500 feet over only 2-3 miles of climbing, so probably average grades of 10%? With load, its really hard.

I can't wait to get back on the road bike. I wish I could be doing this ride right now without load, the scenery is pretty amazing.

Friday, August 3, 2007

Berea, KY

So... I came to the library to upload some more photos, but I realize that I left my USB cable at Mark Morgan's house. Sad day. Especially because photos are probably the coolest part of the blog, getting to show everyone the sights that I'm seeing.

Staying at their place was wonderful. A nice bed, cool room, and a shower. The worst part was leaving in the morning. I got on the road by about 10:00, and it was quite hot and humid out already. It's probably in the mid 90's with high humidity. My legs would just not respond this morning, and I still have a headache (it's 2:30 already) lingering from this morning. I've eaten plenty of food, drank plenty of water, I just can't figure out why I feel like crap.

Maybe its riding 3500 miles in 45 days.

Thursday, August 2, 2007

Danville, KY

August 2nd - Eastview, KY to Danville, KY - 86 miles


Wow. This is a record. Three showers in three days. This hasn't happened since I left Berkeley. Tonight I'm staying a Mark and Joni Morgan's house, in Danville. They're about to be empty nesters, parents of three sons--only Patrick and Sam are home for the summer. Patrick is about to be a junior at Furman College, while Sam is about to be a freshman at Centre College. Its nice to be around some kids my age. It is also good to be on the road, yet randomly taken in and treated as someones son for the night.

Thanks for the shower, the good dinner, and the roof over my head tonight.

And now, some pictures!


A dinner at Violet and Bob's place.


Bob was scooping out some fresh ice cream. Homemade banana, delicious.


Bobby Bruce and family.


Name that plant! If you live on a farm out in Ohio, or did at some point, please don't spoil it for the rest of the city folk out there.


This road was great. Not only was it shady and moderately flat, it probably cut off about 20 miles of my day. Wonderful.

Lebanon, KY

Man, I'm getting tired of riding. Today the TransAm route seemed to do do a semi-circle going north an extra 15 miles, so I've found some roads to cut this way out a bit. I've probably saved 10-20 miles total, which is nice (about 1.5-2 hours of riding, which is a lot these days).

July 31st - Golconda, IL to Sebree, KY - 80 miles.

This day was pretty sweet.

1. Crossed into Kentucky! Awesome.
2. Had the best hamburger in a long time, complete with homemade bread as buns. It
was big, and not expensive. Just before lunch too, a guy that runs tours for Adventure Cycling came up and offered Adam and me a place to stay at his house, complete with a cooked dinner. I didn't end up taking him up on it, because it was too far away.
3. First Baptist Church, Sebree KY

I was immediately greeted by another cyclist, Jeff (http://jeffmentzer.blogspot.com) greeted me instantly. He walked out of a house that was right next to the church. Yelling out the door at him was Violet, telling him to show me the ropes and where everything was. It turns out that this church has a little hostel for all cyclists in its youth center in the basement. I had a mattress to sleep on, a shower to shower in, a kitchen to cook in, and people to keep me company. I met Stephanie, the first female cyclist I've seen that's touring solo, she's from MA headed out to Colorado Springs, CO (http://stephbike.blogspot.com/)

Even better--Violet immediately took my laundry from me, and washed all my clothes (I wore a spare change of Bob's in the meantime). Also, I rolled in right as dinner was being made, so I had a big bbq dinner. Awesome. Especially because it was topped off with HOMEMADE BANANA ICE CREAM. That stuff was like my banana bread in ice cream form. Delicious.

Best quote from Violet - "I try not to miss a single one of you [cyclists]"

August 1st - Sebree, KY to Eastview, KY - 101 miles

So riding was wasn't the best yesterday. More Kentucky scenery. The highlight was definitely when the day ended. I decided to ride until it got dark, because the road I was on had plenty of homes, so I was going to knock on a door and ask to camp in their yard.

I ended up at Bobby Bruce's house, and at first it seemed like it was just going to be the usual camping-in-yard/using-the-hose-for-water arrangement. However, we probably talked for about an hour about anything I could ask him. He's a machinist that likes to specialize in maintenance/fixing things. I saw some of his property (he has about 100 acres) and he has a cool big barn and plenty of trucks, farm equipment, etc. It was well past dark by the time we were done talking, I had been able to get a shower inside, and all was good. They live right on the TransAm trail and didn't even know it, and finally now know why there are so many bikers that seem to ride on the road.

I wish I could dictate my thoughts to the computer and have it write for me. I'm also really hungry, and am going to find some food. I saw a Mexican place in town, may the burritos in Kentucky be as good as they are in California! I can't seem to upload any photos from this computer, but I have a few that I'd like to put up soon. Also.. for the end part of my trip. I'm taking the ferry from Reedville, VA to Tangier Island, VA, then Tangier Island, VA to Crisfield, MD. One of the ferries doesnt take bikers on weekdays, so I'll probably time it so I get there on Monday the 13th. Taking the ferries will likely take all day too, because the second one leaves at 4:00 in the afternoon. From Crisfield, its about 60 miles to Ocean City. That'll probably be the 14th, then I'll relax and enjoy the beach for the rest of the day.

If anyone wants to come meet me out in Ocean City on the 14th, I think that'll be the day I get to the Atlantic.