Some Down Time

So, when I left Lexington, VA, I was pretty excited to get to Harrisonburg, VA. I hadn't seen any familiar faces since Americus, GA. Being out of the mountains and all, I was moving pretty quickly and made it to town by 11:00am. I didn't really know what else to do, so I pedaled around town a little bit, then over towards Eastern Mennonite University's campus to find Rudy, another Hesston College Disaster Management graduate from the same class as Alyssa (friend in Americus, GA). After lunch I found a couple more former students to hang out with until supper. During supper, I got a call from the Daily News Register, the newspaper in Harrisonburg. We made arrangements to meet the following day. That evening I made my way over to Clark's place where I would sleep the next three nights.


The following morning I was visited by a reporter from the DNR. We chatted for a while about the trip, Mennonite Disaster Service, and the Disaster Management Program at Hesston College. When we finished, I had brunch with Joe and his family. Joe and I took Probability and Statistics class at the same time in high school. It was a good time. I suppose you just had to be there. Anyway, Joe's family now lives in Harrisonburg and not Henderson, obviously. It was nice to talk with people that I have a longer history with. After brunch I went to an awkward little photo shoot with another reporter from the DNR. That evening I met up with my friends Eric, Beth, and Steve for tea.


The next day I hung out at the farmer's market with Clark, where I found out that the article in the Daily News Register was already out. I did a little bit of sight seeing around Harrisonburg on my bicycle that morning, then watched a little bit of World Cup soccer that afternoon. Honestly, the World Cup was the main reason I took a second day off. It was a little disappointing to see the US lose to Ghana, but all in all I'm pretty excited to see US citizens actually caring about soccer. I watched the first half with Clark, then headed over to my friend John's place. John moved away from Henderson during late elementary school. It was good to connect with him again and reminisce about the good ol' days and compare college stories. That night I watched a movie at Clark's place and got to bed way later than I intended.


The following morning I was moving quite slowly. I reluctantly rolled out of bed 40 minutes after my alarm had gone off, and by now the sun was already up and shining. I had some cereal and grabbed some brownies and cookies for the road, and set out towards Washington DC. I knew it was more than 130 miles to DC, so I had looked for campgrounds between the two locations the night before. I found a few options through Google and decided that the one right before my only moderate climb for that leg of the journey would be the best idea. It would be about 85 miles in, leaving a fairly short day to follow as I entered DC. I got to riding on Highway 11, heading northeast and basically paralleling Interstate 81, and things were going very well during the morning. By the time I stopped for a break, I had covered about 70 miles and it was only 11:15am. At this rate, I would be stopping to camp just shortly after noon. As I thought about it, I only had 60-65 miles left and I was feeling really good. At this point, I decided to just bike until the turnoff for the campground and think more when I got there. Well, the campground turnoff came rather quickly, and it was right at the foot of the one climb I had between Harrisonburg and DC. At this point, it was extremely hot and I was feeling a little rough because I had just started to climb. I started to think about how nice it would be to get off my bike at that point and set up camp and just relax for the rest of the afternoon and evening, with a pot full of beans and rice to keep me company, and how much more work it would be to bike the last 45-50 miles to DC. Then I started thinking about air conditioning and a bed. The air conditioning and bed won out. I got back on my bike and pressed onward up the mountain. I was reminded again of how much I hate climbing, especially when approaching 90 miles for the day. Looking at the elevation change and the number of miles in which I climbed that elevation, it wasn't a bad climb, but it really did take it's toll on my legs. I was no longer feeling as fresh as I had been that morning. The rest of the ride was a lot of the same stuff I had seen all morning: rolling hills with moderate grade. When I got to about mile 100, I ran out of water. At that point I really started looking for places to fill up, but since it was a Sunday, a lot of places were closed. The first place I came to that was open was called The British Pantry and Cafe. I was kind of wondering why there was this little British cafe and store out in the middle of what felt like nowhere, but I was more focused on getting water than I was finding out the history of the establishment. I asked the woman that was working if they had anything in their fridge that was not carbonated, and she pulled out a small $5 bottle of blood orange juice. I'm generally a tightwad, but at this moment I didn't care how much it cost, I wanted it. It was delicious. I ended up filling my bottles in the restroom sink and taking a seat outside to let my legs relax a bit. The woman at the counter seemed to take pity on me and gave me another bottle of the expensive blood orange juice. After a while off the bike, I went back in to refill my bottles one more time and the woman remembered that some energy drinks in the cooler were about to expire and that she would have to throw them out. She asked me how many I could carry. I took 4 of them (and drank all of them by the time the day was over) and thanked her again. When I got back on my bike, my legs had a little bit of renewed energy in them and I was able to make it to the outskirts of the city before stopping for another rest. At this time I knew I was very well hydrated, but my legs felt like they were constantly on the verge of cramping, so I went to a grocery store and bought a large bottle of v8 (Sodium). I drank about half of it and kept on cycling. As I got closer to the actual city limits of DC, I noticed that my GPS didn't really seem to understand that I'm on a bicycle. I had told it to avoid highways, but Garmin doesn't seem to understand the seriousness with which I meant "AVOID". Garmin just couldn't get it through it's head that I was not supposed to be on I-395 coming into DC. I looked for another way into the city, but Garmin was not helpful and I was too tired to bike back and forth looking for a bike lane. This was not a proud moment, and with my actions I probably gave some of the citizens of the area a worse view of cyclists, but I decided to go ahead and break the law and bike on the Interstate. Believe me, if I would have known a better way in, I certainly would have taken it. I-395 also happened to have construction underway, so there was no shoulder. I was on a bridge with a barrier on my right and in the midst of two lanes of traffic trying to get into Washington DC. Survival instincts were enough to get my legs (which had already cycled just under 130 miles for the day) to pump like crazy to keep from angering the drivers into smashing me into the guardrail. The bridge was pretty busy, which was a good thing because it slowed traffic considerably. I was still pumping out just over 30 mph the whole way across this bridge on my loaded touring bike. As soon as I got across I took the first exit I could and just slowed way down to a crawl. I picked a low gear and just kind of putted through town towards my sister's place. Upon arrival, I did some mapping and calculating, and figured out that it had been a 133 mile day in the heat.


When I got to Tiffany's (my sister) place, she and JR (her husband) had not yet returned from a weekend camping trip. Lucky for me, she has some kind neighbors. Christina invited me in to her place for a drink and to get out of the heat. We talked cycling for a while because I saw her new cyclocross bike and mountain bike in her living room. When Tiffany and JR returned, we didn't really do much that evening. My legs didn't really want to do much other than sit.

The next morning Katie, one my fellow Resident Directors at Hesston College, came over from Delaware to spend the day in DC. I tried not to show how tired my legs were as we walked around. I also knew it was good for me to be on my feet so that my legs wouldn't completely tighten up. The National Geographic Museum was our first stop after lunch. They had two primary exhibits going: Design for the Other 90% and Da Vinci - The Genius. They were two very different, but very interesting displays. Design for the Other 90% showed some simple yet brilliant solutions to issues like getting clean drinking water and cooking without electricity to providing internet communication to very remote locations for educational purposes. Da Vinci - The Genius had a lot of models of his crazy ideas for inventions that were centuries ahead of their time and some replicas of his artwork, including a section devoted to The Mona Lisa.


Our next major stop was at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. That's always been one of my favorite parts of the Smithsonian. Currently they have special exhibits on Darwinian Evolution and Masterworks of Yup’ik Science and Survival. Apparently the Yup'ik are a group of native people in Alaska. Both exhibits were pretty cool.


I find myself really enjoying the museums in DC when I go to them, but I don't go to them alone. If I'm ever out here visiting my sister and I have down time, I don't generally find myself exploring much, I tend to just wait for my sister or a friend in the area to get off work. Even when I'm cycling on this trip, I come across things that look like they may be interesting to see or explore, but I tend to bike past them, as though the mileage for the day or the destination are more important. Maybe this realization will cause me to take more initiative to explore on my own, even though it's generally more fun with a friend.


After the museum and a little more sightseeing around the Mall area, Tiffany, JR, Katie, and I went to Granville Moore's for supper. Apparently the chef at Granville Moore's bested Food Network's Bobby Flay on a mussel cook-off. Bobby Flay apparently has a TV show where challenges chefs to a cook-off on their home turf. I had the mussels and they were pretty tasty. The evening ended with a visit from my friend Hilary and a late evening of catching up since my last visit to the area.

Tuesday I decided to spend the morning being a tourist again, so I biked around by the mall for a while in the morning, snapping a few pictures that don't have me in them because I was the photographer. I met my friend Jen for lunch after a jaunt on the bike across town to a restaurant/bookstore called Busboys and Poets. The afternoon got hotter than I really wanted to experience outdoors, so I then headed back to my sister's place to enjoy the air conditioning. In the evening, my friends Joe and Jocie came over for a while. Joe has recently moved to the city, but Jocie has been here for a while and I have managed to miss her each time I come out, so I was glad to have connected with the two of them this time out. Due to a work schedule that demands Jocie wake up at 4am, the two of them did not stay late. My friend Hilary ended up stopping in just after they left, and we ordered Ethiopian food from a little place just down the street. I love Ethiopian food. When I was at Hesston I would have the occasional privilege of a kitchen full of Ethiopian students. They repaid the use of my freezer and kitchen with some of the food that they made. I really think I came out ahead on that deal.


Today I slept in. My intent was to wake up and work on my bicycle a bit, just cleaning and making sure everything is running smoothly. I sat around the house and started to write this blog until Tiffany called and invited me to join her for lunch. After eating with her, I called up Jonathan, one of my former RAs from Hesston, and we met for coffee. Now I'm looking forward to going out for Thai food with my friend Veloris who is headed to town from Baltimore this evening. I intend to hit the road early tomorrow morning headed east towards Maryland and Delaware (I should be hitting two states tomorrow!). Another former RA from Hesston has agreed to meet me at the bay bridge to transport me and my bike across, as it is illegal for me to ride across. Probably about as bad of an idea as how I got into DC, only on a much longer bridge. I will try to be better about blogging as my travels continue, but when I actually have people to talk to, I find it more difficult to sit down to write about my travels.

More pictures from DC:

NEBRASKA!

Pre-4th of July fireworks safety demonstration at the mall. NEVER look inside!

Surly visit's Capitol Hill

Virginia, West Virginia, and back to Virginia

I got out of Claypool Hill, VA, at a pretty decent time, even with a stop at a little diner for breakfast. The morning was relatively cool and there was patchy cloud cover. According to my GPS, it was not going to be a climb-filled day like the past several had been. It was basically a straight shot through a valley to get to West Virginia. At the start of the day I was about 95 miles from a Mennonite Your Way home that had agreed to host me on Tuesday night, so I knew I was breaking that 95 miles up into two days. Knowing that there wasn't as much climbing to do, I was a bit energized. I moved quite quickly towards West Virginia and entered the state at the town of Bluefield. The sign welcoming me to West Virginia was actually in town. I suppose they were technically two different towns, since they were in different states, but that's where I crossed. I stopped only long enough to take my picture, then I kept going.

So, a while back I thought my GPS was trying to kill me when it was routing me through some hilly cities. I think that it may have learned it's lesson, and now I'm the idiot. I saw a road on the map that was more of a straight shot to where I was going (south of Princeton, WV), so I thought I'd take that and shorten my mileage a little bit. As soon as I started descending into this valley, I knew it was a bad idea. I've learned that the further you go down, the further you have to climb back up. It wasn't the worst climb I've ever experienced, but on a day when I thought I was going to have none, it was not a pleasant experience. I climbed out of this valley to a point where I crossed with Interstate 77, then descended into another valley. I would really like to know the last time a bicycle rode on this road. I can't imagine they get many cyclists, being in the middle of nowhere and all. I came upon some construction, which was just a bunch of dump trucks dumping rocks off the edge of the road into the river to help prevent erosion from taking the road out from underneath. The truck drivers looked at me like I was a novelty. Another reason I think cyclists are rare around here.  The picture here is not even of the construction zone.  There was nobody working on this one, they just marked it off with orange barrels.  This is what happens if they don't dump loads of rocks off to prevent erosion under the road.  Nebraska doesn't get pot-holes like this.  At least not where I'm from.  Another short climb later I was out of the valley and continued for another few uneventful miles before crossing back over to Virginia. 

Just after crossing into Virginia, I found a small campground by the river in Glen Lyn, VA. It had been a relatively short day, but I was about 35 miles from the Mennonite Your Way house for the following night. As I rolled in to the campground, I didn't see any place to register. I saw a group that was setting up camp, so I asked them how it worked. They said someone would come around and collect the money that evening. They invited me to set up camp next to them, and maybe we could split the cost. Dwight was certainly the most talkative of the bunch. He told me a couple different stories about 5 or 6 times each throughout the evening, including his boxing career, his martial arts training, and repeated examples of how great a guy he is. Aside from the one brief anti-Semitic rant, he seemed like an alright fellow. They got their grill going and offered me supper, so I jumped at the opportunity to have a burger instead of my beans and rice. After we got done eating, I offered to help them clean things up, mostly because it looked like rain was coming. They told me that it wasn't going to rain and that they'd clean it up later. At this point, it started to sprinkle. I asked them again if they wanted help cleaning up, but they continued to say that it wasn't going to rain and that they'd clean it up later. I got in my tent and mother nature proceeded to dump on us. From what I could hear, their tent blew over and they just threw all of the wet equipment into the trunk of the car. At this point, I put in my earplugs and tried to sleep. The wind and rain did not make for a quiet tent, and when the rain stopped, my neighbors got out of their car and started a fire. I drifted in and out of consciousness as the four of them enjoyed their night life. In the morning a woman came around while I was packing up to collect camping fees. My neighbors on the other side were in a small camper that looked as though it had been by the river a long time. They pulled the collection woman aside and complained about the noise from the night before. The woman from the camper told me that if she had owned a cell phone, she would have called the police in.

I had slept in (if I slept at all) a little more than I had wanted to, so I threw things together and hit the road. I stopped at the first gas station I came to, which was about 9 miles down the road. My bike felt like it was riding difficult, so I looked things over and found that my rear wheel was loose. It was locked in place, but it was wobbling at the bearings. I took off all the bags and flipped the bike over to have a better look. Long story short, I got it functional again, but the bearing felt extremely rough and was even sticking at some points, so it wouldn't spin freely. This made what would have been a short day with a couple of decent climbs into a crappy morning.

I made it through the climbs and arrived at Mariann and Bob's house just after 12:00. They fed me lunch, pulled a vehicle out of the garage so I could work on my bike in the shade, and even lent me their car when I needed to go to the bike shop to have them look at my wheel. The bike shop adjusted my bearings for $2 and told me of another bike shop in town where I could find the tires I was looking for. At the other shop, I dropped $80+ on new tires for my ride that shouldn't give me 3 flats in a day like my other, worn out tires did. I had been hoping to make it to DC on those tires.

After a wonderful supper and some conversation at a bit of a higher level than an inebriated Dwight was able to give, I headed to bed. I rose early to get on the road before the rain that had been forecast would begin. The weather people were wrong. I started the day at around 7am in the rain. It wasn't heavy, but enough to get me wet, and with the humidity, I didn't dry off. The cloud cover that came with the rain did stick around until early afternoon, which was nice. I pushed pretty hard and didn't stop very often. It was nice to be out of the rough part of the mountains. The road just rolled.

When I got within about 15 miles of my estimated end to the day, I passed a zoo. It seemed a bit off the beaten path, but it was there. There was a sign advertising that you could have your picture taken with a baby tiger. I passed it. I got about a mile past it before I decided that I needed my picture taken in my cycling gear with a baby tiger. This is the one time that I have actually backtracked on a bicycle tour for anything unnecessary. I don't like to cover the same ground more than once, unless it's to get to food, water, or shelter.

After the picture, the clouds were gone and the heat had come. It wasn't too bad when I was moving and had a breeze. As I pulled in to Lexington, VA, I saw an ice cream stand in a parking lot. It sounded too good to pass up. I had a peach shake. It was amazing. When I finally got to my final destination just north of Lexington, I had ridden about 90 miles on the day. I was a bit surprised. I only expected 75-80. Now Harrisonburg is just that much closer for my ride tomorrow. Again, chance for rain in the afternoon in Harrisonburg, so hopefully I'll beat it there.

Virginia, Kentucky, and back to Virginia

Well, the day's ride out of Baileyton, TN, started off pretty well. I didn't have breakfast, but it was a pretty quick ride to get to Kingsport, TN. I stopped on the edge of town to fuel up a little, then rolled north through town towards Virginia. The day was going quite well. Then I got to Virginia. I wasn't more than 2 miles across the border when I got a flat tire. That happens. I stopped on the side of the road, found some shade, and got things rolling again. Just a couple of miles later, as I was pulling in to Gate City, VA, I got another. At this point I was getting a little bit irritated. There was glass everywhere. I pulled off on their main street, just a half block from a bike shop. I walked over there to get an extra tube (I'd eventually need another, and this saved me from digging for one of my spares in my bag). Now, I try not to let this taint my view of a bike shop, but the guy had never heard of a Surly. I expect most people won't recognize the brand, but this was a bike shop. The guy in the store was polite enough and I got my tube and headed back over to get things going again. When I did, I decided to alter my route a little to avoid some hard climbing in the afternoon. As it turns out, both directions had plenty of climbing; I chose the direction that had less shade. I was one good climb away from my destination for the day, Big Stone Gap, VA, when I heard hissing coming from my rear tire. Again. Three flat tires in one day. These tires had survived the mess that are the Louisiana roadways, but I got THREE flats since entering Virginia. This time it was a small piece of wire (steel belting from a shredded car/truck tire). I dug through my bag to find an extra tube and got myself going again.

I pulled into Big Stone Gap, VA, and set up camp for the night at Jessie Lea RV Park. The owner and several of the guests were quite friendly, and the camp site was great. There was a nice little river that I pitched the tent by and walked around in when I would get hot while setting up camp. They told me where I could get a cheap breakfast in the morning, so I took their advice. If you had a member card for their grocery store (the owner of the RV park gave me his old one), you can get 2 eggs, a biscuit with gravy, sausage, and coffee for $1.99. I don't know how they can make money on that.

I started the day off with a full stomach, which was good, because the first thing I was doing right out of Big Stone Gap, VA, was climbing a mountain. It was a pretty awful climb. I got to the top and took a break at a scenic overlook. A family had stopped there as well, and I struck up conversation with the husband while my legs rested and the rest of the family wandered around. They were on their way to a family reunion and had come from Asheville. They had a German woman with them (I'm assuming a foreign exchange student) that took my picture. She said she was going to put it in her scrapbook. We parted ways and I continued pedaling. I cruised along the top of the ridge I had just climbed for a while, then headed back down on the other side. The descent went FAST.  I don't know what the grade was on this downhill, but it was long and straight, so I just tucked and rode it all the way down. I don't know if it was on this descent or the next one, but my new speed record is 49mph. I was keeping up with traffic pretty well. When I'm coming down like that, I don't even try to stay on the side of the road. It wouldn't be safe. All the crap that can give me a flat tire is over there, and a flat doing 49mph sounds like a bad idea.

My next big climb came all too soon. It was at the Virginia/Kentucky line. When I got to the top, I looked at the warning sign they put at the top to let trucks know they need to use a lower gear. Sometimes they say what percent grade the slope is. 8%. Not fun. It took a long time, and I stopped to rest a couple of times, but I made it to the top to take my picture by the Kentucky sign. Just on the other side of the ridge, before descending, there was a place to pull off. I thought I'd take a rest before speeding down the ridiculous slope into Kentucky. There was a car there with two people looking at maps near the back of it. I stopped and asked where they were headed. That part of the conversation didn't stick in my memory. What did was that when I said I was riding for Mennonite Disaster Service, the woman gave me a high-five (I think she didn't know what else to do, because I was a dripping sweaty mess). Her name was Barb Sheats, and she said that MDS had helped her ex-husband out a while back when they had some big hospital bills. She also said that he had worked with MDS after one of the hurricanes (can't remember which one she said) and they were impressed at the efficiency and organization of MDS compared to everyone else. Needless to say, an amazing interaction like this helps to encourage me when I'm pedaling up an awful climb like the one I had just come up.  Honestly, the majority of people I come across generally respond to me with, "Mennonite...you mean with the black hats and beards?" occasionally followed with, "So, the bike is ok, but no car?"  If I've got time, I will occasionally give a brief Anabaptist history lesson and explain why some Mennonites don't wear the plain coat or a head covering, but most times I just smile and nod.

From my interaction atop the Virginia/Kentucky line, I kept pedaling until I got to Breaks Interstate Park. It's not along an interstate highway, it's a state park that lies in two states. It was an unpleasant climb to end the day with, especially with 94 degree temperatures. I was again disappointed when I entered the park and it was a couple more miles to my camp ground. I ended up camping on the Virginia side of the border, so Kentucky is the first state thus far that I have ridden in but not slept in. The locals told me that was a good idea. No offense, Kentucky. I got to the campground, paid for site number 88 (very close to the restrooms), but when I got there to set up camp, people were already setting up their camp. I wasn't a big fan of this. I told them that I had just paid for that site, but they said that the woman at the counter had told them to go pick a site and to come back to let her know which one. It was unfortunate that they had picked number 88. Rather than stand and argue, I just went and picked another one. The rest of the sites were not nearly as nice. It was kind of busy since it was a weekend. I found a spot, and just as I was about to set up camp, it started to rain. There was a 20% chance of that. I hurried to get my tent set up, put the rain fly on, and get my gear inside. I liked the cool rain, so I stayed outside for a bit and eventually went to the bath house for a shower. I kept refuge in my tent after that until it quit raining, but nothing was going to dry my tent before morning when I had to pack it up.

The next morning I packed up my wet tent, threw the gear together, and hopped on my wet bike to get moving for the day. It wasn't a long descent out of the park before I started my first big climb for the day. It was a big climb. It wasn't that I got that terribly high, but it was just straight up. This was a small enough road that they didn't have signs posted saying what grade it was. This road hardly made the cut on my map (it was one of those light gray ones that doesn't have a label). Looking back at the topographical memory of my GPS, it looks like about 600 feet of climb in just over a mile. That's pushing close to 10% grade. That's disgusting. Pictured here you can see what I was about to descend on the other side. It was equally steep and had similar switchbacks. You can see a road on the left side of the image, and another one way down on the right. That's the same road. I think there is only one road in this county. I could smell my brake pads. If it weren't for all those switchbacks, I think I'd have a new speed record.  Below is a picture of how my entire hand, fingertips included, has pruned up because of all the sweat running down my arms that has saturated my gloves and proceeds to drip from my fingers.  It's hot.

After that climb, things weren't too bad. There were two longer and slower ascents later in the day, but they weren't nearly so painful. Now I've got a cheap hotel room in Claypool Hill, VA, for the night. I just did my laundry in the sink, so it's out on the balcony drying at the moment. Passing traffic gawked a bit at my clothes out on the railing. Whatever. The closest laundromat was about 5 miles back, and I'm done riding for the day. Tomorrow I should make it to West Virginia where I may spend the night, unless I get ambitious and want to make it back in to Virginia.

Baileyton, Tennessee

I got up before dawn again today to hit the road early.  Larry got up around dawn and saw me off.  It was a big foggy in town when I started pedaling, so I got my bright flashing red light out of my bag and clipped it to the back of my helmet.  It truly is an irritatingly bright light.  I'm guessing drivers don't like me when it's on, but I'm pretty sure they see me.  As I got out of town, the fog got more dense and it felt like I was sucking on the output of a humidifier when I was climbing the hills on the outskirts of town.  On my sunglasses I have a little mirror that clips on to the frame so I can see if cars are coming, so I like to have those on at all times when riding, but the fog kept collecting on my glasses so I couldn't see.  My sunglasses also have interchangeable lenses.  I popped out the lenses and kept riding.  When I see my sunglasses without the lenses, they remind me of those goofy looking glasses that the blue people wear when they fly on their dinosaur-birds in the movie Avatar.  If you haven't seen the movie, don't worry about it.  If you have and don't know what I'm talking about, look at them next time, and you'll know what my sunglasses look like without lenses.

When I was away from town, I ended up on a road that paralleled the French Broad River.  It's a north-flowing river, so I got to coast down hill for a while out of Asheville.  This was a bitter-sweet thing, as I knew the more I descended, the more I would have to climb later.  It was nice to follow the river though.  It was a very relaxing ride.  Near the town of Marshall, NC, I started to climb out of my valley.  I really expected things to be worse than they were.  Coming back down was a bit unnerving.  Hwy 208 and whatever road that turns into when it crosses into Tennessee is not a straight road.  Coming down I had to ride my brakes pretty hard to keep myself on the road.  When a sign says the speed limit is 20mph, that applies to loaded touring bikes, too.  I'm sure a light road bike could handle faster, but when I pushed things a little faster around some corners, I knew I needed to slow down.

I climbed the last major pass of North Carolina and crossed over to Tennessee just in time to see two guys sitting on the side of the road.  I was a little confused.  Generally I'm the guy on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere.  I pulled over to see what their story was, and as it turns out, I was crossing the Appalachian Trail.  These guys had just hiked about 4 days worth of it and were waiting to be picked up.  The one that I was talking to mostly had also just biked from the Georgia/Florida state line to the southern end of the state.  They seemed like my kind of people.  I gave them my card, and maybe they'll see this post.

I got to Greeneville, TN, shortly after 12:15pm.  This would have been too short a day if I had stopped there, so I found a McDonald's so I could get on the internet to find a campground.  As I searched, the one that seemed within a decent range and still in the right direction was the Baileyton RV Park  & Willowview Cabins.  I am specifically mentioning the name because this one is worth mentioning.  My last experience at an RV park (just north of Travelers Rest, SC) probably made me appreciate this experience just that much more.  I checked in at the office, paid, then went to set up my tent.  As I was setting up, one of the employees said that I needed to find a place with more shade than where I was at, so she took my bags up towards the picnic pavilion.  I toted the rest of my stuff up there and ended up making small talk with a few other residents and employees as I went there.  The Restrooms were about as clean as any campground I've seen in my travels thus far, and when I checked in, the woman at the desk told me that if I ever found anything a mess, I needed to call her so that she could make it right.

When I had camp set up, I checked my messages and I had one from my sister saying that I should call a guy at the Greeneville, TN, newspaper.  I called him and he sent someone out to get a picture of me.  I'm guessing that they'll run a story in the paper. If they do, and anyone from Greeneville reads this, thanks for checking out my site.

As I set up camp, a man that had been mowing and trimming eventually came over to chat with me, and he offered to take me to supper.  He just moved to the campground and will be here for the next 5 years as he works as a surgical tech in the area.  We chatted and eventually got on the topic of religion (which can get interesting here in the "Bible Belt", as one woman in McDonald's bragged to me).  When I got back to my campsite, I found that the owner of the RV park had refunded the charge to my credit card, and had included a note saying: "Thank you for caring for others."  The last RV park I was at was made a positive experience by Jeff and Joyce.  This experience has been all around positive.

Tomorrow I should make it into Virginia, followed shortly by Kentucky and eventually West Virginia.  We shall see what terrain awaits for me there.  I'm looking forward to the Shenandoah Valley after West Virginia.  The worst (terrain) should be behind me then.

Climbing Made Easier

I woke up yesterday morning ready to climb into the Appalachian Mountains.  I got a great breakfast at The Coffee Pot restaurant, right next to the RV park, and headed towards my climb.  As I headed upward, climbing was just as unpleasant as I remembered from my trip 2 years ago when we rode through Colorado and Wyoming.  As I continued to climb, it felt like things were getting worse.  I haven't done any real climbing on a bike in the last 2 years, so I just chalked it up to either not remembering how bad it can be, or just being out of shape.  I came around a curve and it appeared as though the percent grade decreased, but I was still cranking really hard to get up.  I hate to stop mid-climb (I'd prefer to make it to the top, then rest before enjoying the ride down) but I got to the point were I just couldn't go any further.  Upon dismounting from my bicycle, I realized that my rear tire must have developed a slow leak a while back, because now it was completely flat (at this point, I can hear my former cycling companion, Dustin, muttering "dumbass" under his breath).  It had to have happened very slowly, or I would have noticed. Anyway, I proceeded to replace the tube, re-inflate the tire, and continue on my way.  It's amazing what a difference a tire full of air can make!  And, yes Dustin, I did feel like a bit of a dumbass.

After making it to the top of that climb (about 1/3 of a mile later), I was officially in North Carolina.  It was mostly just rolling terrain after that.  I pedaled through a few small towns, but the one that stuck out was Hendersonville, NC.  They had a neat downtown area that kind of made me want to stop, but I knew that stopping just meant more time in the sun later.  I kept on going until I got to Asheville, NC.  I pulled off at a Starbucks to see if they had wireless internet access.  They do, but only if you have AT&T.  They will have regular wi-fi in July.  Until then, I'll keep looking for McDonald's.  At this particular coffee shop I got to talk to a man (unfortunately I don't remember his name) that had been a hiker back in the good ole days.  He hiked (in sections) from Florida to Nova Scotia, including the Appalachian Trail. He pointed out a bike shop across the way, so I hung out there for a bit.  One of the employees was preparing for a tour from the Atlantic to the Pacific, so she asked me all kinds of questions about gear and whatnot.  Another employee was very helpful in discussing which way I should head when I leave town to get to Tennessee.

After leaving the bike shop, I rode further into Asheville and found a McDonald's.  This particular McDonald's was having issues with their wireless.  I was trying to figure out where to stay that night, so long story short, I found out there were 2 Mennonite churches in town, so I called one (Mennonite Fellowship of Asheville), the interim pastor answered, fed me supper and found a home for me for the next two nights.  I had been interested in taking a day off here, and it has been great.  Larry and Jane have been two of the best hosts I person could ask for, and I'm not just saying that because of all the fresh peaches they fed me.  Their home has been a comfortable place to rest my weary bones and to wash some laundry somewhere other than in the shower with me.  Larry gave me a mini tour of town while we were out running some errands this afternoon.  Asheville passes my "Could I live here?" test.  They've got good bike shops, cars that are used to seeing bicycles on the road, and a little Mennonite contingency that would welcome some strange guy on a bike in, not just for one night, but a second as well.  Well done, Asheville.

Tomorrow I'm off towards Greeneville, TN.  Could be another rough one.  I'll be looking back at my tires a lot more this time.

South Carolina and Sweet Tea

I tried to get up and on the road as early as possible again, but I wasn't moving as quickly this morning.  I rolled out of the campsite and headed towards the South Carolina border, just 7 miles down the road.  I didn't really know where I was headed for the day, other than just sort of north.  Again, each time I stop at a gas station to refill with water, people ask me where I started.  They seem a little dumbfounded when I ask them, "You mean today, or before that?" or, depending how they word their question, "Where am I from, or where am I coming from?"  Outside of cycling culture, people can't seem to grasp riding a bicycle more than around the block for an evening stroll.

As I looked at the map, a little town north of Greenville, SC, jumped out at me called Travelers Rest, SC.  I thought that sounded like the place I needed to go.  I got there and there were two moderately priced hotels (not the dirt cheap ones with cowgirl sheets I look for) and not too much for campgrounds.  After making a couple phone calls, I ended up riding another 8 or 9 miles further down the road to an RV park.  En route to this RV park, I saw a free-hand painted sign advertising local South Carolina peaches.  I had to pull over.  Inside the woman working the register rang up the two peaches I picked out and asked for $0.70.  In this heat, that was an incredible bargain.  We talked cycling for a bit, and I learned that the Greenville, SC, area is a pretty popular place for triathlon training.  While we chatted, I glanced at the beverage cooler along the wall and saw Blenheim Ginger Ale.  If you've never had this stuff, you've never had ginger ale.  Hesston students used to bring it back to college with them from Ohio.  The stuff is amazing.  There are two colors of caps to denote how "spicy" the ginger ale is.  I had to have a bottle.

With my two peaches and bottle of ginger ale in hand, I continued down the road to the RV park.  I pulled in, called the number at the front desk, and Mark came to meet me.  Now, I've come to accept that tent camping can be an expensive (relatively speaking) thing to do out here, but generally the amenities are worth it.  At this RV park, I paid $20 for permission to throw up a tent somewhere out back by the propane tanks and the dumpster.  The previous night I paid $19 and got water, electric, and (unintentionally, I'm sure) wireless internet!  Here I was about a quarter mile from the restrooms and a decent source of water.  Fortunately for me, I stopped to ask a fellow patron of the RV park about the weather forecast.  I definitely picked the right camper to ask!  Jeff and Joyce proved to be excellent company for the evening.  Joyce kept refilling my glass with some of the best sweet tea I've had since I've been down here!  They even got me a small hose adapter that would allow me to utilize the water source of one of the unused RV sites.  Yes, I was camping by the dumpster while there were several empty RV sites.  Anyway, Jeff, Joyce, and I talked until close to dusk, at which time I dismissed myself to go make supper on the camp stove.  Beans and rice!  Now I see it as the more of that beans and rice I eat, the less of it I have to carry through the mountains!  And from the sound of things, tomorrow I will be climbing.

Early Start, Early Finish

In response to the brutal heat and humidity out here, I got up at about 4:45am to get myself packed, fed, and on the road at about 6:30am (sunrise).  I cranked out about 54 miles before stopping in Royston, GA, for a bite to eat at Subway, where the clerks genuinely thought I was out of my mind when I told them where I had started for the day (Monroe, GA).  They haven't heard of bicycle touring in general.  They didn't know people rode more than a mile unless they were in the Tour de France or something.

Before getting there, I had to go through Athens, GA.  I've biked in a lot of different places (if you include my last trip out to Idaho), but I haven't been to very many places as hilly as the city of Athens.  Maybe my GPS is just trying to kill me and took me on the worst streets possible, but I think biking through Athens took me just as long as it took me to bike to Athens from Monroe.  I wish I had reset the data on my GPS, because it would be interesting to see what kinds of speeds I hit coming through that town.  I could have gotten a speeding ticket on some of those hills.  Then there's the obvious down side, if you go down, you have to come back up again.  I refused to shift into my lowest gear, but I probably could have used it.  When I was in Americus I boxed up some of my gear that I didn't think I would need for a while and sent it ahead to my sister Tiffany in DC, and after those hills in Athens, it's tempting to make another cut-back.

Anyway, after Athens and the Subway in Royston, I pedaled to Hart State Park, right on the Georgia side of the Georgia/South Carolina line.  I picked out a campsite and was done for the day by 1:00pm.  I set up the basics of my camp, then went to find a cold showers with my laundry.  I didn't want to bike back to town to find a laundromat, so I did my own in the shower.  Now it's hanging all over my camp site.  I have a hammock that packs down very small that my friend Travis gave me, so I hooked that up and had a short nap already, and now it's doubling as a clothes line.  I opened up my computer to just type something for the day and save it until I got internet access, but apparently the marina across the way has a pretty powerful router, so I'm online at a picnic table overlooking the lake. There are a couple of ducks about 30 feet away enjoying the shoreline.  Soon I'll probably make a big pot of refried beans and rice, and probably compliment the meal with some beef jerky and some dehydrated applesauce.  Sounds like a meal, eh?

Hot and Humid

I rolled out of Americus, GA, at around 7:00am on Friday, after my friend Alyssa got up and made me breakfast.  It's nice to get good food in my stomach to start the day off.  All in all, it was a pretty uneventful day of riding.  Depending on how I felt, I had considered trying for about 93 miles to get to Indian Springs State Park, but the heat and humidity really got to me.  Each time I would pull off at a gas station to cool off or get a drink, at least one person would ask me what the heck I was doing out there in that heat.  The last 24 mile stretch was pretty awful.  I had pushed up and down the hills all day, and then I got on this road that just kept going.  Every time I crested a hill, I thought I had to be getting close to Forsyth, GA. 

When I did get to town, I collapsed into a chair at McDonald's and checked my email.  After that I headed across the interstate to a KOA Campground.  I had some great neighbors named Barron and Sarah that were on a weekend trip.  They fed me, alerted me to the existence of a swimming pool at the campground, and engaged in some good conversation. 

I went to bed right around sunset and got up a half hour before sunrise.  I wnated to get an early start to try to avoid some of the heat I had encountered the day before.  It was still in the upper 70's at dawn, and it just got hotter from there.  When I checked the weather forecast on my phone, it said that the current temperature was about 91 degrees, but it "felt like" 103.  Indeed. 

When I stopped to look at the weather, I was in Monticello, GA, and there was a farmers market.  It was amazing.  I walked around looking at stuff, and came across a guy selling peaches by the bag.  I didn't want a bag of them to carry, so I asked how much one would be, and he just gave it to me.  There was a woman selling honey across the sidewalk from the peach vendor that struck up a conversation with me as well.  She said her husband was actually at a cycling race (I don't remember where).  She gave me a bottle of her honey for the road as well.  Good quick energy. 

I was hoping to make it to Fort Yargo State Park, but as I was pulling in to Monroe, GA, thunder started and I didn't want to get stuck in the last 14 mile stretch.  If I didn't make it to Fort Yargo State Park, Monroe, GA, was the last place I would find lodging short of there. Now I'm in another cheap motel room, enjoying air conditioning.  I'm really hoping to get good sleep tonight and to be on the road with a full stomach right at dawn.  I would really like to be done by noon tomorrow to stay out of this brutal heat. 

Two Days Off in Americus, GA

Well, I've taken two days off in Americus, Georgia, now and my body feels fully recuperated from the last week and a half.  I took my bicycle apart to clean it all up, and it turns out that the rear wheel bearings were in some rough shape.  I think it was from the day riding to Pass Christian, MS, when I got sandblasted by the gulf winds coming across the beach at me.  I got the rest of my bike cleaned up, but I had no way of taking apart the rear hub.  Honestly, I didn't think it would have gotten in there.  At any rate, I took the wheel in to the nearest bike shop (45 minutes away in Albany, GA), and they got it all cleaned up and ready to go.  It turns out it was a good thing I was waiting on some mail here in Americus.  If I hadn't gotten that hub cleaned up, I'm guessing that sand would have eaten my bearings in no time.

Should be back on the bike tomorrow morning headed north.  Next state line to cross: South Carolina.

(Pictured above: Alyssa Hostetler, Disaster Management graduate from Hesston and excellent breakfast chef
Pictured below: me playing with my computer at the coffee shop)

On to Americus

The day started off with four packages of instant oatmeal at my camp site in Kolomoki Mounds State Park. I'm OK with oatmeal, but it's not my favorite breakfast. I'm probably going to simply hate it by the time the trip is through. After packing everything up, I hit the road and didn't get out of the saddle until I was past Cuthbert, GA, 26 miles later. I found a little diner on the side of the road, so I decided to get a little more of a breakfast in me. While I was stopped there, a truck driver named Melvin Richardson (or maybe Richison?) that was headed from San Diego, CA, to Albany, GA, struck up conversation with me. When I told him what I was doing, he said that not enough people do good things for the world, and proceeded to pick up my tab. We chatted a bit, then parted ways. About eight or nine miles down the road he caught up to me, slowed way down so he could greet me through his window, and kept on rolling. A whole lot nicer than the guy that ran me off the road yesterday.

As I pulled in to Dawson, GA, I met a man on the side of the road that was just taking a walk during his lunch break. He asked if I was with the other two cyclists that had just come through town with bags on their bikes. Honestly, I'm in the-middle-of-no-where, GA, far from any kind of cycling route that I'm familiar with, and I just missed two loaded cyclists by about an hour? Apparently they came in to town the same way, but were turning south from there to go to Albany, GA. Anyway, I asked this man on the side of the road where I could take a break and maybe get a bite to eat for lunch. He directed me to a little buffet in town. I just biked 50 miles, of course I'm looking for a buffet! It was one trip through, as much as you can fit on your plate, for $6.50. That's a heck of a deal if you ask me. It even came with all the sweet tea a guy can drink. Needless to say, I left there a bit logged down with sweet tea. After that I only pulled over once to fill my water bottles and kept on going to Americus, GA, where I would have an air conditioned bedroom waiting for me.

Upon arrival, I introduced myself to the housemate that happened to be home and then jumped into a cold shower. After the shower, I collapsed onto the floor below a ceiling fan and waited for my friend Alyssa to get back from work. Lucky for me there was a potluck with other Habitat for Humanity workers that evening, so I was once again fed quite well.

The Habitat workers were a friendly bunch, and many of us went to a softball game that evening. Habitat has a team in the church league in Americus, so some of my new acquaintances were participating. It was an entertaining game, but unfortunately Habitat didn't come out on top. After the game I got to talk to some of the workers that are about to take a cycling trip organized through Habitat. I'm hoping to talk more with some of them tomorrow. There's a chance we'll both be in Washington, DC, at the same time during our respective trips. It'd be cool to bump into that group. Their trip is going from Niagra Falls, NY, to New Orleans, LA. I think their trip sounds like a lot of fun. They'll cover 70 miles a day for 5 days a week (gear carried by a truck/van) and there are currently 30 registered riders. I think it'd be awesome to have a group like that.

Now for a day (or two, depending on the U.S. Postal Service) off the bike in Americus, GA.

Alabama again, and on to Georgia

I pulled out of the parking lot of my shady home for a night at a little before 6:00am. Locals had been telling me all day yesterday that today was supposed to be record highs. They might have been right; I never saw the temp. For the sake of time, I rode 18 miles before eating anything (no good food available in Bonifay, I would have had to backtrack 2 miles to get food). Biking on an empty stomach sucks. I eventually found a Subway and got the Orchard Chicken Salad. I recommend it. I made my way from there through Dothan, AL, and on towards Blakely, GA.

During one stretch of road a bunch of logging trucks kept going back and forth. Most of the local traffic and most of the logging trucks responded well to the presence of a bicycle on the road. There was one jerk amongst the logging truckers. When he was about a half mile back, he just laid on his horn and made it clear that he was not going to move anywhere or slow down, and I had to take the ditch. Size wins. I was tempted to respond with a fairly universal gesture of disapproval, but my conscience won (aided by the MDS logo on my back).

On my way from Dothan, AL, to Blakely, GA, I crossed the Chattahoochee River (State #5). Sometimes when I'm out biking and I see something that reminds me of a song, even a song I don't know well, that song sticks for a while. I was down yonder by the Chattahoochee, and it was hot, though I can't speak much to the analogy Alan Jackson uses to describe the heat. Several days ago I rode through a town called Pascagoula. It was close enough to the name of the town in that one song with the squirrel that gets in, runs amok, and starts a revival in a baptist church. Well, if no one else knows what I'm talking about, I think my parents should. They have got to be the only reason I would have ever heard that song.

When I pulled in to Blakely, GA, I didn't know where I was going to sleep. It took me a heck of a lot longer than I thought it would to get from Dothan to Blakely, but later I realized that the Chattahoochee River also marks the line between Central and Eastern time zones. I ended up calling a state park 6 miles north of Blakely just after they had closed, but a woman was still in the office. She said that if I'd hurry, she'd wait for me. I told her I was on a bicycle and that it'd probably be 30 minutes. She said she'd stick around until I got there. The camp site is very well kept and quiet. I don't think people come camp out here much. I do have some neighbors that are quite friendly, even though their chihuahua isn't. Tomorrow I should make it to Americus, GA, where I will visit a friend and Hesston College Disaster Management graduate Alyssa Hostetler. I intend to take a day off the bike to clean it and let my legs rest before delving further into the rolling terrain of Georgia towards the ominous Appalachian Mountains. Seriously, they scare me.

And here's the camp site.

And the view.

And here's my spacious home.

A Long Day in the Rain

So, yesterday I rode through the rain in Pensacola to the far edge of town where I found a very pleasant man working at a gas station across the road from a Ramada Inn. I pulled off at this gas station to just take a break, but as soon as I pulled under the awning, it started to rain yet again. I figured I'd wait it out. I wish I could have gotten a picture of how hard it was raining. It was incredible. I couldn't see more than 30 feet out the windows of the gas station. At this point I thought it might be wise to call it a day. I went across the road to the Ramada to see how much a room would be. Their prices seemed reasonable (and I think she gave me a “Pitty the miserable soaked cyclist” discount). The people that came in after me didn't get my price. I used the laundry facilities and called it a night at about 8:30pm.

I woke up for the days ride at 5:00am. I got everything packed up, got dressed for the day, and headed to breakfast before hitting the road at around 6:30am. Almost right out of the parking lot I saw two cyclists up ahead, so I hurried to join them (they were not loaded with gear, so catching them took a bit). It was exciting to see cyclists heading the same direction that I was. They were headed to the Blackwater Trail to meet their wives for a ride. My route also had me taking the Blackwater Trail, so we stuck together until the head of the trail where they stopped to wait for their wives. As much as I enjoy having someone to ride with, I don't think I could have kept up too much longer with a couple of unloaded bicycles. I was keeping up OK I think, but it was tiring.

Once I got on the trail, I realized that I was probably going to run out of water before the next services. From the head of that trail in Milton, FL, to the town of Holt, FL, was 25 miles and I only had two full water bottles. I think a third one would have been just right. When I got to Holt, I pulled into a gas station and bought two 32 oz bottles of Powerade and drank them both immediately. Up until this point, it had been as hot and as humid as every other day down south has been. While I was at the gas station, it started to rain, so I waited a bit for it to calm down. When it subsided, I pedaled on to Crestview, FL, for lunch. There was a nice little diner on the edge of town that had a buffet, so I stuffed myself while talking with a married couple that was about to take a 6 week trip around the Midwestern US (not on bicycles). We talked a little about traveling and whatnot, and when I told them about why I was doing this trip, they gave me $20. I gave them a card with the website on it, so hopefully they get a chance to read this.

From Crestview, it was 30 more miles to get to DeFuniak Springs, FL; my intended stopping point. As I rode that 30 miles, it started raining again. I pulled off at another gas station to let it pass, and it did, but when I got back on my bike I think I caught up to it again. I kept riding and got right into the worst of it. When I saw the first thing that didn't look like a private residence, I pulled off towards it. This ended up being an AMVET (sort of like a VFW, I think), just outside of DeFuniak Springs. There weren't any windows facing the front, so I just stood under the awning of the building and cleaned my glasses and got my flashing tail light out so I'd be ready to get back to it. One of the guys from inside came out to use his cell phone and saw me and insisted that I come in for a bit. He signed me in as his guest and invited me to sit and have a drink while the storm passed. I took him up on his offer, and I chatted with the bar tender and one of the patrons for a while.

When I left the veterans, I had decided that I wanted to use the cool and cloudy weather to my advantage and cover more ground than I had earlier projected. I ended up riding an extra 27 miles past DeFuniak Springs to Bonifay, FL, where I found a pretty shady looking Economy Lodge. I just cycled 108 miles, I was wet, my shoes were wet, and I thought I earned a stay at a cheap motel. Now I'm lounging around, typing a blog entry, and eating dehydrated applesauce (like fruit leather) and beef jerky from the Henderson Meat Processor. Good stuff. Tomorrow I turn northeast.

Enjoy some pictures of the creepy Economy Lodge

In case you were wondering, those sheets do say something on them.  Here's a closer look.

Farewell Economy Lodge!

From Louisiana to Florida

It's been a few days since I've taken the time to update you all, but now I find myself seeking refuge from the rain in a McDonalds in Gulf Beach, FL.

The ride out of New Orleans went much smoother than the ride in.  No need for hitch hiking this time.  I was on highway 90 the whole way and saw several cyclists along the way.  It's been consistently hot and humid, so the day was nothing out of the ordinary, though I must have been following a storm because there was water standing on the shoulder of the road where I was trying to ride.  It really made my bike a mess.  I had just cleaned up the chain on my day off, but by the time I was crossing into Mississippi it was black and gross.  As I was crossing the Saint Louis Bay bridge I got my first flat of the trip.  If you've ever seen a car or truck tire that has shredded, you'll see fine steel threads all over the place.  These little steel threads eat bicycle tires.  My tires are relatively puncture resistant, but these stupid little steel threads are the only things that have ever given me a flat.  The bridge had a really wide pedestrian/bike lane, so it wasn't a bad place to be changing a tire (except for the lack of shade).  I got things functional again and hit the road again.  When I crossed the bridge into Pass Christian, MS, the wind was coming off the Gulf so hard that it was sand blasting my legs and getting all over my messy bicycle chain.  Sand is bad for bike chains.  I could hear it grinding as I pedaled. 

Fortunately, I was getting close to a home that was listed in the "Mennonite Your Way" directory.  They said that they did not intend to be listed, they just wanted a copy of the directory, but would host me any way.  Matt, Heather, Kyle, and John welcomed me and my bicycle into their home for the night and where extremely gracious hosts.  Not only did they provide me with a place and the means to clean up my bicycle, but their son John even gave up his bedroom for the night and slept on the couch.  Heather made supper that night and Matt made breakfast.  After spending two days at the MDS house in New Orleans and a night in Pass Christian with Matt and Heather, I was really feeling spoiled.

I hit the road after breakfast and found a calmer day to ride along the shoreline.  As I was leaving Pass Christian, I tried to find a Mississippi map.  I'm going to get a map in each state, regardless of whether I need one.  Call it a memento.  I stopped at a book store, thinking that would be a great place to find one.  They had maps of just about every town in Mississippi, state maps of Florida, Georgia, Alabama, and Louisiana, but no map of Mississippi.  Ridiculous.  Eventually I bought a map at a gas station that would suffice and kept pedaling towards Dauphin Island, AL.

The day out to Dauphin Island ended up being about 89 miles total.  At about mile 83 the bridge to Dauphin Island came into view.  I came out of the trees, felt the headwind, and saw a very long bridge with a pretty steep hill in the middle to allow ships to pass through underneath.  The headwind and the unnecessarily steep segment of the bridge were not pleasant things to find at the end of  a long day.  I made it over and stopped at the first gas station I saw.  There, I purchased a quart of chocolate milk.  To some, that sounds awful at the end of a pretty lengthy workout.  I thought it was the best chocolate milk I'd ever drank.  I don't know if I even came up for air; I just drank it in one shot.  Then I went and bought a quart of vitamin D milk, shoved it in my bag, and headed for the campground.

There weren't a lot of people camping with tents in the area, but there was a group of Boy Scouts from Tennessee right next to me.  I set up camp, took a shower, and headed towards the beach.  I walked along the shore with my feet in the water for a while.  Off in the distance I could see oil rigs out in the water, and it made me think about the oil spill.  I walked a little further and saw a guy bent over on the beach, poking at something.  He stopped me and asked if I knew what it was he was poking.  It looked like runny brown silly putty.  He said that clumps like that were the form the oil was in when it got to shore.  "They say this stuff is pretty toxic, but I figure it's just oil," he said as he continued to poke it with his finger.

After I left the beach, I was just about to set up the camp stove for some more beans and rice when the scout troop invited me over to their camp site for burgers.  Troop 4 from Trinity Christian Academy in Tennessee.  They were a great group of guys and they fed me quite well.  Much more satisfying than the beans and rice would have been. I sat and talked with the men that were leading the group of scouts for most of the evening.  In the morning they even gave me breakfast before taking a group picture and sending me on my way in time to catch the first ferry of the day at 8am.

Today's been a pretty good day except for the pot hole.  While riding through Gulf Shores, AL, I was cruising down the bike lane, looking at the expensive hotels, when this pot hole came out of no where.  This wasn't a normal pot hole with jagged edges and broken pavement that you can see.  This looked like a sink hole in the pavement, like when they were paving the road they decided to pave it with a hole in the bike lane.  I slammed into the hole, one front pannier (bag) came off and bounced away, and I just about ate pavement.  Fortunately I saved it and hit the breaks.  The pannier's brackets that attach it to the bike were still functional, and I didn't see any holes in the bag at the time.  I put the bag back on the bike, took a traffic cone that happened to be near by and put it in the hole, and kept pedaling.  With all of my gear, not to mention my own fat butt, on this bike, I'm pretty shocked that I didn't fold the front wheel in half when I hit that hole.  It still rolls true.  As I mentioned earlier, I'm currently parked in a McDonald's, about to hop back on the bike to head for Pensacola.  I'll probably stop there for the night.  It's the first week.  No point in burning myself out, right?

**Update**
I made it to the far end of Pensacola and got a hotel.  The rain just kept coming and going, and I was sick of being wet.  The Ramada here seems very nice.  Friendly attendants at the desk.

The Day Off

After retiring for the evening just after 9:00pm I found it easy to wake up at 6:30am, half an hour before my alarm.  I slept like a brick.  After breakfast, Mike, the project manager, took me to one of the job sites.  There was a structural inspection to take place that morning, so we needed to make sure someone was there when the inspector showed up somewhere between 9am and noon.  He showed up around 10:45 and spent about 60 seconds in the house.  Apparently he had already been to this house before, but at that time something wasn't right with the building permit and the structure was fine, he just needed to make sure it still looked like it did when he saw it the first time. 

From the work site we went on to the bike shop to pick up my ride.  Bayou Bicycles (www.bayoubicycles.com) proved to be the right place to call when I picked up the phone book yesterday.  They got my ride up and running quite quickly and were fun to chat with when I stopped in.  They had a fellow Surly LHT owner in the house and another probable future owner, so I know they've got good taste in bikes!  Mike covered the cost for the repair and even bought me a back-up set of brake pads (carrying as much weight as I am, I'll need them pretty quickly I'm guessing). 

After we got back with my bike, the group of us at the MDS house got in one of their vans shortly before noon and drove down to Diamond, LA, MDS site.  I remember hearing stories from Hesston College Disaster Management graduates that were stationed down there for 8 weeks a few years ago.  Knowing the group that was there and hearing some of those stories, I really think that would have been a heck of an experience.  I wish we could have gotten a boat ride out onto the bayou, but just seeing it from where we drove out to was a sight to behold.  I tried taking pictures, but some things just can't come out right on film (SDcard?). 

On our way back from Diamond, we stopped at Zydeco's Cajun Kitchen.  The people I've met down here have been great and all, but I'm really going to miss the food!  Now we're back at the house and I'm preparing for the ride tomorrow.  I intend to ride to Pass Christian, MS, tomorrow (about 60 miles) and then on to Dauphin Island, AL.  I'm pretty excited about that stop.  I would like to get there early so I can enjoy the island.  I'd like to see the Audubon Bird Sanctuary if I have time.  I'll start the following day off with a ride on the Mobile Bay Ferry. 

EMS to the Rescue!

Don't freak out, mom, I didn't get hurt. I'll explain the title of this post in a bit.

Monday morning my parents and I enjoyed breakfast with the crew at the New Iberia MDS site before my official sendoff. The Hesston Disaster Management students decided that I couldn't just saddle up and ride away. I needed to prove myself worthy of wearing the MDS logo on my back for the next 6 months. They set up a little "challenge course" for me. First, I had to put on a hard hat, climb over some scaffolding (not so easy in cycling shoes), run over to some boards on saw horses that I needed to run three screws into while wearing a dust mask, run to another set of boards on saw horses to pound in 4 large nails while wearing appropriate eye protection, then off to the trailer with my bicycle where I threw on the helmet and peddled out and through the finish line. All in all, not a bad way to start the trip. However, earlier in the morning my bicycle had fallen over. As I pulled away from the MDS site, I noticed that it wasn't shifting very nicely. I believe I bent the rear deraileur hanger. The only gear I could ride in without the chain jumping was to cross-chain so that the chain was on the smallest front cog and the smallest rear cog. I proceeded to ride single-speed for the next 150 miles to New Orleans.

Aside from the mechanical difficulties, the first day started off pretty well. My parents tracked me down a few miles after leaving the MDS site to give me my towel that I forgot at the site. The morning was a beautiful morning to ride with only a slight breeze and patchy cloud cover to keep it cool (or cooler than it would have been). Early in the afternoon it got a bit warmer. I stopped at a McDonald's in Thibodaux, LA, to use their wireless internet, and while I was online it said that the temperature was 91 degrees and it was raining. I had just been out there and it was sunny and hot. When I went back out, it was indeed still 91 degrees and raining. In Nebraska it cools off when it rains. Not here.

I wasn't in too much of a hurry because I thought I only had about 9 more miles until the place I was going to set up camp. When I rode those 9 miles, the park that I had seen in my GPS was not there. I kept riding. I stopped at a gas station to ask where a guy could set up a tent. They didn't know. I kept riding. I asked some guy on the side of the road. Nothing. Eventually I came across an ambulance that was just sitting in a parking lot beside the road. I pulled up to ask them where I should go. They said that the safest place they could think of was near one of the truck stops across the river. As we got to talking I mentioned Mennonite Disaster Service and the driver perked up a little. When I told them what I was doing for the next 6 months, he made a few phone calls and told me to ride down the road a few more miles and pull off at the fire station. They let me camp in their back yard, use their shower, do some laundry, and enjoy the air conditioning of the station for the evening. I set up camp, enjoyed the amenities of their station, and made some refried beans with rice for supper. I looked at my cycling computer to see how far I had ridden on my first day of the trip, and it came out to 100 miles exactly. I hadn't ridden a century, loaded or unloaded, since RAGBRAI last summer. Not at all how I wanted to start things off, but things didn't end up so bad, thanks to the guys at St. John Westside Volunteer Fire Department.

I laid down to sleep that night, belly full of refried beans and rice and thinking I was well enough hydrated for the coming day. Then at about 12:20am I was jolted awake by both of my groin muscles cramping up simultaneously. Seriously, I thought my leg was going to rip itself off, or at least make me very unhappy while trying. There was no position that proved helpful. All I could do was wait for it to go away on its own. I don't think I've ever experienced a pain that sharp for that long. Eventually I was able to slide myself out of my tent and hobble over to the water hose on the back side of the fire station. I think I drank 60 ounces of water. I felt incredibly water logged, but I was hoping to avoid a recurrence of the last 20 minutes. I went back to bed. 1:40am rolls around and I am once again jolted awake in one of the worst ways possible. I repeated the events of an hour earlier and went back to bed. This time, my slumber lasted til morning.

I wanted to get an earlier start, so I packed things up and hit the road as soon as I was ready. I intended to find some dining establishment that would serve me breakfast along the way. After a few miles on an empty stomach and no sign of a restaurant, I ate a cliff bar. After a few more miles and still no restaurant, I bought a bottle of gatorade, a small bottle of milk, and ate another cliff bar. That turned out to be enough to get me through the 51 mile day.

As I approached New Orleans, I needed to find a way across the river. My GPS kept telling me to take the Hwy 90 bridge. I peddled that direction, but soon realized that this bridge was very high (especially with only one gear to pedal in), very long, and very busy. When I got to the on-ramp, there was a sign posted saying no pedestrians or bicycles allowed on the bridge. The next bridge was quite a ways down river, and I didn't even know if I could ride across that one either. What's next? Hitch-hike. I sat at the intersection, and every time a truck of any kind would drive by, I'd try to hail them for a ride. Eventually one nice young man pulled over and let me throw my stuff in the back of his truck. Once across the bridge, the riding was just kind of stressful, with lots of stopping and going. Eventually, I arrived at the MDS site all in one piece. We called a bike shop to get my rear deraileur looked at so I will have my other 26 gears to choose from again. They said it would be done tomorrow sometime, so it looks like I'm taking an unexpected day off already. Not a bad place to be doing it. Thursday off to Mississippi!