So...

It has been a long time, and I know that the trip is over, but I also know that the blog is not finished. I have been incredibly lazy as far as writing. So now, if anyone is still reading, I am going to finish this. I do not have a deadline, though maybe it might be a good idea to set one. But I can do this...right?

So I have finally--tentatively--found a job. I have sent out tons of resumes and this morning, after I had given up hope about finding anything, I woke up to a job offer in my inbox. So, as of this morning I have a job. I will be working as a personal assistant; next week is my trial period. But I feel confident that I will be able to prove that I am capable. I think it is fair to say that I have a job, which means I can finally feel free to catch up on the blog.

Being unemployed is like winter--northwest winter. It is your own personal cloud, bobbing above your head reminding you that there is no money coming in, but that you still have expenses to pay. I felt guilty doing anything other than looking for a job. There were some activities that were okay to do, like house cleaning--I was still being productive and doing something nice for the housemates. I did yoga as an emotional release, because otherwise I felt like I was going insane. But other than that, everything else came with its own price tag of guilt. So before doing any activity other than looking for a job, I would check the guilt tag, decide if I could handle that amount of guilt for the day, and then--most of the time--I would skip it. The guilt tag for writing, by the way, is astronomical.

My mom kept telling me that writing would help--that it would act as a destresser. Now that I am out of school I feel like to need to approach writing with the seriousness one approaches a profession. If this is something I really want to do with my life than I need to work at it every day. I need to be structured, determined, and focused. I need to write everyday informally and formally. But this was way too much to handle when I kept imagining myself writing the check for next months rent--I would imagine rent being subtracted from my account. I would pencil out the math and when I wrote that zero balance my mind would shudder to a halt and turn off.

But now, I do not have to worry as much. I got the job offer this morning and I immediately wanted to start writing again. Someone flipped the light switch, that cloud of unemployment left me, and I can think again. I know I will have to learn how to write while I am stressed, but let's just take this one step at a time. First, I am going to finish the blog...even if everyone has stopped reading it. It will be good practice for me. My plan is to write one blog post a day (except weekends--come on we all need breaks) until the day comes when I no longer have anything about the bike trip to write.

For those who will still be reading--thanks for your patience. I will try to finish this soon :-)

Kansas: I Promised

I promised Ivan that I wouldn't use a title referring to the Wizard of Oz. He said it would be too cliche, but what can be said about Kansas that isn't a cliche? So we didn't come across Toto, there was no twister, and Dorothy didn't sing a song about a yellow brick road. But everything was so flat; if that isn't a cliche, I do not know what is. Isn't that why Dorothy ran away in the first place: lack of changeable scenery? Okay maybe her aunt had something to do with it, but I am sure the flatness didn't help. So here is how Kansas broke down (and as with every other post like this I will blog about the people we stayed with separately--everyone has been so wonderful they deserve their own blog post!).

July 29th: Sedelia, Mo to Kansas City, Ks. 91.05 miles. 90 miles. It felt good to do a significant distance. It was still depressing to think that a car could do what we did in a day in under an hour and a half. But I try not to think like that-I would never get anywhere. It was beautiful country, with long rolling hills. The state line was unmarked. It was a bit of a let down to not have a sign welcoming us to our fifth state, but four states down none the less. Across the border, Ivan's cousin Carla picked us up and took us to her house. It was already pretty late, but we were greeted with dinner none the less.

July 30th: Kansas City, Ks to Overbrook, Ks. 56 miles. Carla rode with us for the firs 12 miles and then she had to head for home. I like it when other people join us, no matter how long or short. The day was filled with rolling hills--no flat Kansas yet. I love hills. I am rather slow, but give me a hill over a flat any day. The sign welcoming us into Overbrook said "Don't Overlook Overbrook." It took a little fumbling around to try and find a place to stay. We rode around town, first to the police station, which was closed, and then we wondered aimlessly for a bit. Turns out our best bet was to just to go to the local gas station and ask. The lady behind the counter called the sheriff, who directed us to the local fairgrounds for camping. It was a nice night, briefly interrupted by some rambunctious men, but they left us alone.

July 31st: Overbrook, Ks to Council Grove, Ks. 52.55 miles. This was another day of beautiful rolling hills as we entered the Flint Hills of Kansas. True to form, Kansas was hot. This day more than most. I fell asleep on the side of the road under the only tree for miles around. I think I only slept for about 30 minutes, but it was enough time that Ivan managed to get significantly ahead of me. I had just started biking again when a car stopped ahead of me. The driver slowly got out of the car and moved towards me as I crested the hill and shouted to me, "WarmShowers?" This was my first introduction to Gregg who turned out to be our host in Council Grove, Ks.

August 1st: Council Grove, Ks to Hillsboro, Ks. 59 miles. Another hot day without much shade. Even just driving through Kansas has to be eye opening to how much space there is in this country. Granted a good chunk of it is not really habitable. Anyway to escape the heat we stopped at a small convenience store about half way through the day. We were deciding whether or not we should push on or just stay put, when I happened to glance at the front page of the local news paper. The very first ariticle was information on how to keep your cattle from dieing in the heat. One of the biggest tips was that if you were having a hard time keeping your cattle from over heating then you could call the local fire department to have them come out and hose down your herd. We decided to stay put, but after about an hour the air conditioning broke. We spent about 20 minutes helping the owners pack up all the chocolate merchindice and put it into the coolers. Even without the air, we stayed until about 5 or 6. Then we biked the rest of the way to Hillsboro where we stayed with another Warmshowers couple: Charles and Ellie.

August 2nd: Rest day in Hillsboro. We stayed another day with Charles and Ellie as the high for the day was 112 degrees. It hit 100 by ten in the morning!

August 3rd: Hillsboro, Ks to Nickerson, Ks. 59.34 miles. This day felt pretty short. The heat wasn't as bad, though we were up and moving around 4 in the morning. I love biking at night/early morning. Everything is so still and the sky turns a dark purple. In front of us, about 30 miles, there was a lightening storm. the whole sky would turn white every minute or so and then it would fade back to that dark purple. We were supposed to stay at the Nickerson Senior Center, but their airconditioning broke. So a local couple took us in. Jim and June Gladden run have hosted something like 50 foreign exchange students over the years.

August 4th: Nickerson, Ks to Great Bend, Ks. 51.24 miles. What can I say about Great Bend?? It was a cute town, lots of brick buildings, and they had a wonderful Methodist Church that took us in and let us sleep in their basement. Yay for the Methodists! It was also the first night that I got to cook in a long time. I fried a potato and a green bell pepper along with some cheep beef. It was wonderful.

August 5th: Great Bend, Ks to Bazine, Ks. 51.67 miles. More flat Kansas--not much changes. We stayed at the Bike Oasis in Bazine. There is not much to Bazine besides 6 churches. We didn't even have to leave the highway as the Bike Oasis was right on the side of it.

August 6th: Bazine, Ks to Scott City, Ks. 65.13 miles. And more Flat. That's right--Flat, with a capitol F. You cannot get any flatter than that. We stayed at the local athletic club where we got to shower and swim and watch TV. I got to watch fried green tomatos before falling asleep reading on the cot that they gave me. Ivan had to get up in the middle of the night and turn of the light. I felt a little bad.

August 7th: Scott City, Ks to Sheridan Lake, Co. 74.46 miles. Our last day in Kansas, and our of sheer boredom I figured out how to read a book while riding. BEFORE you all freak out let me just say again that Kansas is flat. You can see any car coming for about 10 miles and you can hear it from about a mile away. There are also no turns. Seriously, once we were out of Kansas City we turned maybe all of five times, which includes any curving of the road. So it was completely safe. Well as safe as reading a book while riding a bike can be. Do not ask me what the book was. It is too embarrasing. Let's just say that if I had died while riding and reading that book it would not have been worth it. Moby Dick? Sure, kill me now. The Moonstone? Well worth dieing for. What I was reading was trash, but that's how bored I was in Kansas. I did put the book away when we got the state line. I felt that it would be wrong to not look around for the beginning of Colorado. Let me tell you, eastern Colorado looks a lot like western Kansas. Who knew?

Meet Virginia

The beginning of our travels! Finally Blogged! I know you never thought it would happen. I have not been very good at blogging, but I am trying. My plan for the next couple of blogs is to do a short profile on each person we have stayed with: how the visit went, what we did, what the people were like, etc. So this will be just the bare bones of what we did each day--from the beginning until Kentucky.

June 21st: Richmond, Va to Charles City, Va. 34 miles. First of all the name, Charles City, is grossly misleading. There is nothing City about it. There is a court house, a post office, a convenience store that doubles as the grocery, and a BBQ stand. The word, City, implies at least a stop sign or two. Anyway, it was a shock to my body to be riding. We had been sitting on a train for a couple of days, and the two weeks before that I had been, on and off, bed ridden due to sickness. My body rejected the idea of movement, hence only traveling 34 miles. Around mile 30 we started looking for a campground, which was pictured on our map, but we were unable to locate it. So we stopped in at some sort of environmental management office. They told us that the campground no longer existed and allowed us to set up tents on their property. In the morning we were let into the offices to shower. The lady at the front desk handed us each a sachet of lavender cookies for our journey. This was also the first time that Ivan was referred to as my husband.

June 22nd: Charles City, Va to Chikahominy, Va. 22 miles. We stayed at the state park at Chikahominy, which was right on the river. It was beautiful. This is where I met Suzie. She was dyeing her hair in the bathroom when we got to talking. She invited us over to her campsite that night for her family cookout. We had a great time. We met her daughter Victoria, her daughter's husband Jeff, who invited us to stay with them on our way back through Richmond.

June 23rd: Chikahominy, Va to Newport News, Va. 43 Miles. It was a wonderful thing to see the water when we pulled into Yorktown. That was our original plan, to stay in Yorktown. But it is a rather touristy town; everything there was out of our budget so we biked the 7 miles or so to Newport News and stayed in a campground there. The camp ground was beautiful, sitting right on a lake. Our site had a small hill running through it, with a sign asking you not to climb onto it because it happened to be an old civil war earthwork. Ivan was more skeptical than me. I thought it was good fun to imagine that the hill functioned as a barricade during some battle or another. Considering there were two that ran parallel to each other, in what I would assume would be rifle range, it wasn't that hard to imagine. I pitched my tent next to the hill and fell asleep to images of men crawling and kneeling behind it. For about five minutes I was a little concerned about ghosts, but then I fell in love with the romance of it all and fell asleep.

June 24th: Rest Day in Newport News. We decided to take a rest day considering our bodies were still adjusting to the idea of moving all day--everyday.

June 25th: Newport News, Va to Chikahominy, Va. 38 miles. It felt like heading home, even though we did not end up with the same campsite. This is where the squirrel ate through my bob bag, though I think this happened the first night we stayed at Chikahominy rather than the second.

June 26th: Chikahominy, Va to Richmond Va. 48 miles. This was the day of the crash. Yay! I will always remember the way the trailer swayed precariously behind me as I tried to stay on all two wheels. Jeff and Victoria were wonderful, sharing their home and their lives. (I will give them a whole blog unto themselves later!)

June 27th: Richmond, Va to Ashland, Va. 23 miles. It was a short day, I know. Jeff made us breakfast and they were so much fun we never wanted to leave. So we didn't, until about noon or so that is. So we just went 23 miles to a small KOA outside of Richmond. It is weird to consider that Ashland is really just the Gresham of Portland, distance wise.

June 28th: Ashland, Va to Mineral, Va. 45 miles. Things started to get a little hillier now. We were coming into more rolling hills, and probably what could be called the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains or the Old Appalachians. (Looking back, now that we are in Kansas, I miss those hills.) I already blogged about our stay at Mineral--if you haven't read it I refer you to that blog (Mineral is in the name).

June 29th: Mineral, Va to Charlottesville, Va. 48.6 miles. We found a lovely KOA outside of Charlottesville. They had wonderful hot showers and a nice big pool. I cooked the best dinner that night. At a small grocery I had bought a small squash earlier that day and an onion. I chopped them up and sauteed them into some macaroni and cheese. Boy, was I happy.

June 30th: Rest Day in Charlottesville. I spent the day at the pool, reading Anne of Green Gables. It was lovely. Towards the end of the pool hours, around five or so a family showed up. There were four children and a mom and dad. Two of the children were obviously adopted from Africa--their names were beautiful and I can't help but wonder if they meant something. Though I will never find out because I can't remember what they were. The other two children were of their parents, so to speak, seeing as they had the same white skin and red hair of their mother and father. The family just didn't make sense. It had nothing to do with skin color or adoption. It was the dynamics of the children and how they interacted with their parents. I can't put my finger on what was weird, or off, but something was. I think it had something to do with how the mother was mothering. I feel like she had read a parenting book, and was acting from it verbatum. She was very formulaic.

July 1st: Charlottesville, Va to Afton, Va. 20 miles. A short day, but a long day, ending with two miles of the steepest climb of the trip...so they say (or so they could say, if they could talk, and had identical opinions to my own). We stayed with the Cookie Lady, or rather in her cycling museum. She was in the hospital when we arrived. She is in her 90's after all; we were told that her mind was starting to go and that it was unlikely that she would be coming home.

July 2nd: Afton, Va to Vesuvius, Va. 32.71 miles. The day started with a climb of about two miles, from the Cookie Lady's house to the left turn onto the Blue Ridge Mountain Parkway. We got to coast for about 50 feet before we started climbing again. It was a long day with only about two remarkable downhills. Ivan told me later that this day, these 32 miles, are the breaking point for a lot of people. Apparently a lot of people finish the descent into Vesuvius and pack it in. Ivan has already blogged about the hill into Vesuvius. Let me just say that it was intense. That hill should be closed off. Whoever decided to put a road there was out of their mind. Anyway, we rolled into town, had dinner at the BBQ shop we would camp behind, and changed the flat tire that I got riding my breaks down that darn hill.

July 3rd: Vesuvius, Va to Lexington, Va. 21 miles. The beautiful scenery continues, as does rolling past historical marker after historical marker. We stayed in a hotel here. Not all that remarkable. We did order pizza and watch some Lord of the Rings. It was pretty epic.

July 4th: Lexington, Va to Troutville, Va. 44.83 miles. Fourth of July, and yet it was just another day for us. We biked this day just like we had the day before. We got caught in a rather impressive storm. We tried biking through it for a while, but after awhile the rain began to get a little cooler and the wind a little stronger. Thankfully we were close to our destination for the day, so we took refuge at the local elementary school. We hunkered down in one of the door ways and read until the storm passed. Then when the sun came back out and the puddles began to glow butter yellow, we rode the last five miles to the Troutville Town Park. The park manager, Cecil, set us up. He showed us the fire station where we could shower, told us about the route for the next couple of days, and let us sign his log book. Cecil was amazing.

July 5th: Troutville, Va to Blacksburg, Va. 44.11 miles. It was a beautiful day of riding, with winding roads over some smaller mountains, through a couple valleys, finally landing us in Blacksburg. This is the day that Ivan's trunk rack finally died. He had been stopping every now and then to add zip ties and duct tape to the rack, in the hopes that it would hold together. But ten miles outside of town the rack decided it had had enough. We made on last ditch effort to fix it, which included using sticks as splints. It looked ridiculous by the time we rolled into town. This was the first night that we stayed with someone that we found off of Warmshowers.org, a website like couch surfing, but catered to the touring community. We stayed with Micheal and Jane Abraham. They were wonderful, which I explain in full detail later.

July 6th: Rest Day in Blacksburg.

July 7th: Blacksburg, Va to Draper, Va. 35 miles. Another day of riding through rain, although it was oddly liberating this day. Oddly enough when the rain hit, I was able to move faster even up the hills. It felt good even though my shoes made my feet feel like sunken ships. We pulled into Draper around 5 in the evening. We had heard a rumor about a farmer in the area who was taking in cyclists. We stopped into the Draper Mercantile to see if they knew of the man. Turns out they didn't, but Kate (the shop girl) let us set up camp out back. It was fantastic.

July 8th: Draper, Va to Marian, Va. 48.09 miles. We made camp outside of a Baptist church in Marian. I managed a sink shower at the local sonic and spent the night reading. The man who let showed us where to camp at the church was nice, but he had a wondering eye if you know what I mean. I am not sure he looked at my face once, and he lost his train of thought often. I mean I get that I am wearing spandex, but isn't there a commandment that goes something like "thou shalt not leer at young women"?

July 9th: Marian, Va to Honaker, Va. 50.63 miles. So if staying behind a church and showering in a fast food restaurant's sink, and drying off with brown paper towels didn't make me feel hobo enough staying at Slate's campground sure did me in. Mr. Slate set up a donation based campground along the river that runs through his property. As a result he has several trailers parked along the river with rather permanent residents. If you ever wanted to live outside the law, this would be the way to do it. I felt like a vagabond.

July 10th: Honaker, Va to Breaks, Va. 38.85 miles. This is the day we met Don. Don is a 62 year old man doing the same thing we are. He started after we did, in a different place, but he is headed towards Oregon like us. After we met him we started climbing Big A Mountain. That is actually the mountains name, but anyway I took my time and Don passed me pretty easily. He is riding the Surly Long Haul Trucker, which has lower gears than mine. We met up with him at night again at Breaks Interstate Camp Ground. That's right: INTERSTATE. As in between Virginia and Kentucky. This was our last night in Virginia, finally.

July 11th: Breaks, Va to Booneville, Ky. 62.80 miles. Our longest day yet, finishing off our first state. Virginia seemed to stretch on forever--granted we took our time about it. I can honestly say that there was a pack of stray dogs waiting for us at the border. So begins the state of dogs and coal trucks, where poor miners and rich mine managers live side by side in their respective trailers and mansions. Good bye to the rich rolling hills of Virginia, good bye to the plantations and the white picket fences. Hello to back roads, to outside showers, moonshine, and fried catfish. Oh yeah this is the night we met Chris Xia, who would ride with us until Missouri.

Dear Missouri

Traveling through Missouri took less time than I thought it would. Traveling through Virginia took forever, Kentucky just seemed like Virginia with a different name (for the most part), and Illinois was Illinois. We spent six days total in Missouri, only four of which were biking days. Here is the break down:

July 24th: St. Louis, Mo to Marthasville, Mo. 55.07 miles. We left the lovely Rhonda's house, in St. Louis, while she was still asleep. We spent a good part of the morning traveling through the outskirts of the city, until we finally made it to the KATY trail, which we planned on following for the next day or so. The trail was beautiful, flat, easy, covering what used to be an old railroad bed. We spent about 60 miles of our day on this trail. We took an afternoon break at a small brewery, and then we pushed on, traveling the last ten miles until Marthasville. We camped out under the covered patio at the community baseball field. The field, when we got there, was being used by a family for their reunion. We were greeted warmly by one of the family members and given free beer, as we explained what we were doing and how we were doing it.

July 25th: Marthasville, Mo to Jefferson City, Mo. 66.64 miles. We had planned to pull close to our first century this day, but we got a later start than we intended, and by the time we got to Jefferson City Ivan had gotten a flat. So we just had Ivan's uncle, Steve, meet us there. He picked us up and drove us the hour to his house in Centrailia. He is so bright and happy. He greeted us both with huge hugs that exuded such exuberance; I immediately felt right at home with him. When we finally made it to Centrailia, we were greeted with a wonderful home-cooked meal, a hot shower, and a steaming hot tub. Pure bliss. We then spent the next two days with Uncle Steve, his wife Bonnie, and their daughter Alicia. (I will blog about our actual visit with them in greater detail, later).

July 28th: Uncle Steve's. Mo to Sedelia, Mo. 53.58 miles. It was sad to leave Uncle Steve's, but though we left the house behind we didn't leave the people! Alicia rode with us for the first 40 miles of our day. It was so nice to have her along. Then we stopped in a small town and had a picnic lunch with Steve, Bonnie, and Alicia. After lunch it was rather hot; we didn't want to leave so upon trying to find a restroom in that small town, Steve found us a salon that let us sit on their couches for several hours during the worst of the heat. We parted ways at the door of the salon. Hugs all the way around. After resting, we filled up our water and headed out. We only made it to Sedelia another 15 miles or so. But Steve called ahead to some people he knew and, like magic, we were let into a church for the night. We even got to have showers!

July 29th: Sedelia, Mo to Kansas City, Ks. 91.05 miles. Our longest day yet, and it went pretty well. The day was long, and we covered beautiful rolling-hilled country. There was no state line sign, but we ended the day by riding on State Line Drive (or a street name to that effect). We stayed the night with Ivan's cousin Carla, her husband Jeff, and their small son Bridger. They made us a wonderful, late night, spaghetti dinner. In the morning we had a lovely breakfast, and then Carla joined us for the first 12 miles of our journey. Staying with them was the perfect way to end one state and begin another.

See what I mean? Missouri went by fast.

Catching up: Kentucky!

So again, I am behind on blogging. I am still trying to catch up, even though we are now on our last day in Missouri, ack!!! It doesn't seem possible. Anyway below is the breakdown of our days in Kentucky. Enjoy!

July 11th: Breaks, Va to Bevinsville, Ky. 47.78 miles. Today was our first full day of riding with Don. We all started out early and rode into the fog, down the long hill about 10 or so miles, to breakfast. We stopped at a small diner called the Rusted Fork. I had oatmeal, fried apples, toast, a bit of biscuit, and a glass of milk. I adore food. We are in the heart of coal country. We are passed constantly by coal trucks, and by the end of the day I am usually coated in a film of coal dust. Sitting down to breakfast, we shared the restaurant with several truck drivers. All sat around drinking their coffee and smoking the first of their many daily cigarettes. It is strange to sit in a restaurant and watch people smoke. We are definitely in small town America. Anyway we ended the day in the very small town of Bevinsville. They opened up a small church for us so we could us the bathroom, and then they let us camp outside. While we were setting up camp, a storm moved in. The clouds were moving so fast, swirling like a milkshake in a blender. I tried to set up my tent, but before I could get it staked down the wind was too strong. Thankfully Ivan has a two man tent so I just bunked with him. I managed to get almost all of my stuff into the tent, and my bike wrapped in the tarp before the rain hit. As the rain broke I threw the rest of my things into the tent and then literally dived in myself. It stormed all night and into the morning, delaying out start in the morning. There was a short dry spell that allowed us to get our gear packed up, our bikes loaded, before we headed out. As we were packing, a big fan full of teenagers pulled up to the church for Vacation Bible School. Before we left we were, all of us--Don included, were herded into the church for a prayer circle, where God was asked to keep us safe on our travels. Amen!

July 12th: Bevinsville, Ky to Hindman, Ky. 28.50 miles. Due to the weather today was a short day. We ended in Hindman at the Knott Historical Society, which is located on the top of a very large hill. David, the proprietor, met us at the top with glasses of the most delicious iced tea. For $25 we were shown to a large base camp tent, complete with large full-sized air mattresses. As we relaxed our laundry was done, we got a hot shower, as much ice tea of we could hold, one beer, a lovely baked potato (mine was sweet and Ivan's was Irish) with all the fixings, a shot of cognac before bed, and in the morning David made us a beautiful breakfast. It was hard to leave. The Society sits on a beautiful piece of property, and there is the most adorable infestation of cats ever. There are about 20 cats in all, including the five or so that were just born a couple of days ago. All of them are well tended, well fed, and happy. David is therefore, known as the cat-man. I have never seen so many of the feline in one place at one time. My cousin, Thad, would have loved it.


July 13th: Hindman, Ky to Booneville, Ky. 62.80 miles. Today was a hilly day. We climbed and descended about three mountains. I was walking most of the hills towards the end, but it was a beautiful day. I was on my own for most of it, being slower than Ivan or Don. I got to finish out the day as the sun set, riding through the rolling hills and fields of Kentucky. I was tired, but the sun covered everything in butter, and the sweet grass glowed as I moved by. We stayed behind a Presbyterian church that had built a shelter just for cyclists. There was a shower, an outhouse, and we didn't have to set up tents. Ivan and I made a dinner of mac and cheese with hot dogs. It was wonderful, though I think both of us are set on salt for a while.


July 14th: Booneville, Ky to Berea, Ky. 61.65 miles. Today is the day we parted ways with Don. It wasn't necessarily intentional--by the time we got into Berea Don's phone was completely dead (needing the help of the local Verizon store). So we headed towards the RV park, Oh! Kentucky Campground, where we were going to stay, and Don headed to a motel. We didn't hear from him again. Ivan has since checked Twitter and we know that Don is still plugging along somewhere. By the time we got to Berea I was in need of a salad and a large sweet tea. Thankfully, McDonald's obliged.


July 15th: Rest day in Berea, Ky. Berea is the small town where my Grandmother went to college, all those years ago. It was neat to ride down the streets that she walked daily. We spent the day with Chris and his father. Richard drove us out the a bike shop where I got the drop out on my bike replaced. It is a small metal piece that holds the rear derailleur to the frame. I think it must of gotten bent when I crashed, way back in the beginning. So for 20 bucks they fitted a new one, tuned my bike, and voila! the final remnants of the crash was fixed. After the bike shop we went and saw the new, and final, Harry Potter. It was incredible; the end of an era, marking the end of my childhood.

July 16th: Berea, Ky to Bardstown, Ky. 79.25 miles. I believe that today was our longest day yet. we managed pretty well, the terrain wasn't too bad, and we pulled into town around dusk. It was a little hard to leave Berea--our rest day went by too fast, but I can say I was a little glad to be back in the saddle. Chris and his Dad have joined us for good, at least for a while. Richard started the morning by asking me why I wouldn't put my gear in his car. I now realize how incredibly stubborn I am. I said I would get myself, and all my stuff, from point A to point B. That is exactly what I am going to do. Even though the idea of riding without any weight being pulled behind me sounds amazing. Anyway, we stopped in Bardstown at a camp ground, which I believe was named something like Oh My Old Kentucky Home Campground or something like that. I do not really remember.


July 17th: Bardstown, Ky to Big Clifty, Ky. 49.2 miles. Today was a shorter ride, but because we had ridden almost 80 miles yesterday I did not mind. We camped outside the Double L Grocery in Big Clifty. The Double L grocery is owned by Arnold and Lucy Lucas, and we were greeted by them and their daughter Lauren. Arnold was full of jokes, Lauren was wonderfully hospitable, and Lucy looked like a cross between my mom and my Aunt Sue. I wanted to hug her and never let go. But I didn't; I didn't want to get arrested for harassment. Anyway they let us into the grocery to shower, and fed us some pickled dog (bologna), pickled cucumber, and gave us large glasses of ice water. Chris and his dad set up a tent in the back, Ivan slept on an old futon that was on the side of the building, and I got to sleep in a hammock. It was bliss. In the morning we feasted on homemade biscuits and gravy.


July 18th: Big clifty, Ky to Utica, Ky. 70.49 miles. Today was a long day, ending with us riding in the dark. We try not to ride after dusk, but sometimes it is unavoidable. The day was filled with small hill after small hill. Sometimes when you are climbing up one, the curve of the road makes it look like when you get to the top that you will just fall off the other side. It is always surprising, when you get to the top of a hill like that, to see more hills on the other side. Riding like this, though, convinces me that the earth is round. I do not need to see a photo to believe it. Anyway we got to the Utica Fire Station around 9 pm. It was dark and the gnats were out with a vengeance, by the time we made it. Strangely enough I seem to ride better certain adverse conditions, like rain or darkness. I do not know what it is about being cloaked in night or drenched in rain, but my legs seem stronger and my fatigue seems to go away. Maybe it is because I know it is unsafe so I keep moving as best that I can. Maybe it is that I have to focus on other things, like trying to see the road and traffic, that I forget to notice how hard this all is. I am not quite sure, but I ended this ride strong. It felt good, and the fire station was the perfect place to stay. There were showers, we got to do our laundry, and there was a gas station across the street so I got to have a huge glass of milk before bed. Thank you Utica, population 500.


July 19th: Utica, Ky to Shawneetown, Il. 68.76 miles. Today we managed to leave the fire station bright and early. It was a nice ride through rolling country side, though it did get rather hot during the middle of the day. I hate to say it, but I did end up walking a lot of hills. This I can safely say can be attributed to the heat and not the height, nor length, of the hills. Chris had a flat tire incident, but I was already ahead of him so I could not help. Luckily for him Ivan was behind. It was a flat in the most inconvenient of places: near the valve of the tube. Long story short, instead of being able to patch it they had to over inflate one of Ivan's spare tires and ride into town on that. It worked like a charm. Mean while I waited for them to catch up outside of a diner, names The Diner. When we were all reunited we ate at The diner. For around 7 bucks, I got three large slices of roasted ham, mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans, and a very large slice of homemade pecan pie. I adore small town America. We ended the day by crossing the Ohio river. I may have uttered a profanity or two when the bridge came into sight. The 5 or so miles leading up to the bridge are completely flat. The bridge however it not, but we made it up and over to stay in the small town of Shawneetown. One of the local policemen was kind enough to find us a church where we could shower and sleep.

And that is the beginning, middle, and end of Kentucky. Two states down, eight more to go, and a little over a month to do it in. Ug.

Catching up: Illinois

Alrighty, here is the skinny on Illinois so far. Hopefully I will go back and fill out some of the days, but if I don't this will have to suffice.

July 20th. Shawneetown, Il to Murphysboro, Il. 67.27 miles. Another hot day, but our first full day in Illinois. It felt really good to be in our third state, like we are actually making progress. We are still riding with Chris, and his dad is still following us in his car. Sometimes I envy Chris, with someone to carry all of his stuff. He can afford to have along some more luxuries like a full-size towel or a nice big air mattress. But we are carrying everything and I find it, at the end of the day, satisfying to know that I got myself and all my stuff from point A to point B. Each morning Richard asks if I am sure I do not want to put my stuff in his car. Every morning I am tempted, but I always say no and this morning he didn't ask--though I am pretty sure he thinks I am crazy.

July 21st. Murphysboro, Il to Rockwood, Il. 30.32 miles. We had planned on this being our rest day, just doing 30 miles. But we got a late start and by the time we were riding we hit the heat of the day. It was hell. The first 7 miles or so were not that bad. We took a break under an awning with some construction workers. The bridge we needed to cross was under construction and closed to cars. But after they moved a large piece of equipment we were able to walk our bikes across. While we waited one of the workers gave us a bottle of Gatorade to split and a Ivan scored a free sandwich. We had also planned on making it to Chester, Il, but as we were riding past the Rockwood Trading Post we were flagged down by the owner. The Post was originally a small church, but Fred bought the land it sits on back in the '90s for $300. Insane I know. Over the years he had bought up the land around it, built a house next to the post, and he now lives there with his wife, Mary, and his two children: Stevie and Chase. Initially, Fred only invited us up to give us some water, but that water turned into dinner and then an invitation to stay the night. We couldn't turn him down.

July 22nd. Rockwood, Il to Chester, Il. 9.67 miles. I know the mileage for the day is short, but technically this turned out to be out rest day. From Rockwood we made the short jaunt into Chester, passing the Welcome to Chester sign, sporting a large, grinning Popeye. Chester is after all the home of Popeye, and the town flaunts this with several marble statues of the characters all over town. We stayed at the Eagles Lodge, where they had built a small bunk house for cyclists. I spent part of the day at the library, part of the day running round trying to get a money order, and part of the day at their city pool, which cyclists get to swim for free.

July 23rd. Chester, Il to St. Louis, Il. 72.25 miles. We made great time today; in the morning we did 18 miles in an hour and a half. Our time got little slower, but we made it to St. Louis in time to spend a couple hours at the City Museum (www.citymuseum.org). IT WAS THE COOLEST PLACE EVER. It is an old factory building that was given to a bunch of artists, who basically turned it into the largest jungle gym ever. There are numerous slides (one that travels down ten floors in a spiral), four crazy floors of tunnels, hiding places, and things to crawl all over. It was all my childhood dreams, fully realized in a couple adult hours. Glorious. Tonight we are staying with Rhonda. She has left us to go out dancing, seeing as how it is a Saturday night. There was a hot shower, laundry, a lovely beer in the fridge, and a very comfortable looking bed. I do not think we could ask for more.

White Castle

I'm pretty sure White Castle makes all of their business off of first time customers. When we rolled into the one in Elizabethtown, KY, there were people outside having their pictures taken in front of it. I was hungry as heck, so hey, perfect place. Our friend Chris that we have been riding with suggested that we get a Crave Case, which is 20 burgers and four medium fries (they only have two sizes of fries, medium and sack) and the perfect amount of food!

It wasn't. It was too much food. The fries were alright, I gotta admit, but when are crinkle cut fries ever bad? The burgers were a whole other story. I've seen how they are made before, but I didn't realize what the finished product truly looked like until I had it first hand. I hate the burgers. Steamed buns, paper thin patty, onions, a pickle, and cheese. It was a wreck. But I ate nine of them. And I have nightmares about it.

In retrospect, I'm glad that we went there. Probably won't ever have it again, but I did what I set out to do. And we got some hilarious memories out of it.

Oh Heat My Heat

I hate this heat; it is so intense. Today, the 19th of July, is the hottest yet. I started biking at around 7:30 but only managed about 25 miles by 11:30 due to the head wind. Then things started to get hot. We had this brilliant plan that we would get up early, bike a couple of hours, and then take a break during the hottest part of the (from about 2-4) and then finish the day out with another 20 or so miles in the evening. Somehow, it just didn't work.

By three I was still on my bike. Well not for long anyway. By about 3:10 I decided to pull off to the side in a small clump of shade. I was just going to stand there for a minute, while I tried to remember how to breath in the water they call air around here, but then my helmet was too hot, so I figured I would just take it off for a minute. Then I looked at the ground, "look there is ground," I said to myself. "One could sit on the ground."

And that's what I did. I woke up around 3:45. It was still incredibly hot. The high today is 97, with a heat index of fantastically infernal degrees, which in layman's terms is somewhere between roasted egg on pavement and "well I guess I didn't make it to heaven" hot.

Unfortunately because I am slow anyway, Ivan and Chris spent about 45 minutes waiting for me. Though because they had to wait for me they had an excuse to find some McDonald's and shade. I think they survived.

I have had so much water to drink. I have refilled my Camelbak twice and finished one of my two water bottles. That is about 180 ounces, which equals 5.62 standard nalgene bottles. The problem is that it means I have to go to the bathroom all the time, but unlike a man I kind of have to bare all--so to speak. On a rather trafficked road, where cars zoom by, and there is hardly any shoulder cover that isn't probably infested with snakes (considering all the dead ones I have ridden past and the one live one I rode over) it is a little hard to find places to go. It is not like there is a gas station conveniently placed, according to my specific bladder needs. I have found that it is all about timing. You pick a spot, as covered as possible, and wait till you don't hear anything, drop the drawers, and hope that you timed it right. So far I have been very lucky.

How long do you think my luck can hold?

Darn men and their convenient anatomy.

We Are Expecting!!

Yes, it is true. Ivan and I will soon be welcoming a bouncing, bright, young man of 17 into our little clan.

We are calling him Chris, but his full name is Chris Xia (pronounced Shaw). He is from New Jersey, still in high school, and biking the same direction and route as us. He is riding solo with his father following in a support car.

Tomorrow, July 15th, we will head out together and Chris's father will head for home. We met him two days ago now. He is smart, fun, and very mature (for a 17-year-old). He asked us very politely if we wouldn't mind if he joined up with us. Ivan and I thought about it for maybe two seconds and said yes.

We made sure to talk finances with him. I think we have covered all the bases, and I think it will turn out well. There are some practical things to consider. It is a responsibility, and for all his maturity he still is a minor and if something were to go wrong or some accident were to happen Ivan and I would be responsible. But I have no worries. I have also checked out his blog and done some research...I like him already. His blog is chrisxia1.blogspot.com

I have been complaining of being a little homesick and Ivan joked that I could, in an attempt to rectify that, be as domestic and motherly as I want. I am sure if Chris is reading this probably thinks I am insane. I promise not to mother him...too much.

Ivan says that he gets to be the cool one of the group, the bad influence. "Quick, she isn't looking," he will say to Chris. "Let's do back flips off this."

There will be no back flips.

Vesuvius

The hill leading from the Blue Ridge Parkway (which although having gorgeous views was much harder to enjoy during a heat wave) to the town of Vesuvius should have a sign at the top and bottom for cyclists denying responsibility for anything that happens in those three sweet miles. You lose 500ft in elevation every mile on short hairpin turns. Or gain, if you're going the other direction. It's impossible to maintain momentum going up, and improbable going down. Everyone recommends partially deflating your tires before heading down. You can't ride your brakes on the hill because the heat build up on the rims will increase the PSI in the tubes to dangerous levels and could cause a blowout. You also can't bomb the hill with any gear at all because you don't have the turning capabilities. You can accelerate from 0-45mph in a few seconds. Very intimidating.

We took breaks partway down the hill in order for our rims to cool off. Another necessity. We both made it down, but Nikki blew out a tube regardless. The valve stem broke clean off of the rubber. She didn't want to stop and change it so she walked her bike the rest of the way.

All this being said, we had a great place to stay. There is a BBQ joint in Vesuvius owned by Gertie that lets cyclists camp in the back for free. We were famished and went inside to get delicious BBQ pork and slaw sandwiches (a habit since coming to Virginia). The lady working saw that we were cyclists and showed us where to set up. We had access to a hose and outhouse, which was all we needed for the day, and promptly (re:slowly) went to bed.

Oh! They brought us sharpie pens to add our signatures to the thousands of others that have rolled through the town after we had finished eating. Fantastic stuff. I drew a Croatian coat of arms next to a light bulb on the ceiling. Hopefully some one finds it.

Nikki losing her Mind

Nikki already wrote a post about her card being disabled, but for all you interested, her is a video of her freaking out.

A Commentation on Comments

So I just did a quick perusal of all the comments everyone has been so great to leave. I am taking this time to answer a couple of questions and make a couple comments of my own.

First--yes we are wearing helmets. Anytime I am on the bike the helmet is on me. We all know how clumsy I am, therefore need all the help I can get.

Second--Arianna it is really hard to write you a letter if I do not have your address. I can write and write and write and yet have no where to send them to. Get me your address; I'll write you a letter.

Third--"Our Schedule" We usually set the alarm from somewhere between 5 and six which means we get up somewhere between 6:30 and 8. Then we get ready. I have my system down and can be ready in 45 minutes if I am not rushed and 30 minutes if I feel like I need to move. This includes packing up all my gear, taking down my tent, eating breakfast, brushing teeth, pretending to wash my face, and liberally applying Bag Balm.

Then we ride. Ivan is navigator (a very good one), and I follow him. He is a lot faster than I am, and can ride a lot of the hills that I tend to end up walking. I am getting better, but I am still slow. I do not mind that much. I can take my time and look around and talk to myself. I have also started singing along to my Ipod while biking--out loud . I know I look and sound insane, but when you are in the saddle for 11 hours during the day what else is there?? I find that it actually helps me regulate my breathing and I am teaching myself how to harmonize, which is pretty fun.

Anyway, I find that I like to take a rest (about 3-5 minutes) every ten miles. I get off my bike, stretch out my shoulders and thighs, drink some electrolytes, and then get back on. We have learned not to take too long of a break in the afternoon--it just gets hotter, but I do like to take about 30 minutes to an hour for lunch. Then it is back in the saddle. We usually roll into camp around 4 or 5, sometimes 6 and then we make camp, shower if possible, eat, and sleep. It is a simple routine.

Right now I am averaging about 10 Mph. Obviously this varies going up and down hills. Mileage wise we are covering between 40 and 60 miles a day, with a grad total of 837.55. In about three or four days we will break the 1,000 mile mark!

Fourth--We are avoiding riding at night at all costs. It is just too dangerous: visibility is low for us and others, anything could happen, and it is scarier at night. So we are just having to deal with the heat. It sucks, but there is no way around it.

Fifth--in the post titled Sorry/Mineral/Domestic Abuse I mentioned a quote that I had been thinking of. The actual quote goes "we have met the enemy, and he is us." Obviously, the poster is posted above. Enjoy!

In the house of the Cookie Lady

A long day short, we eventually left Charlottesville, catching the trail again headed up to Afton and the start of the Appalachian mountain range. It was hot, it was long, and there were climbs, including a tough 1.9 mile climb to our destination.

We were going to find the Cookie Lady, June Curry, the Trail Angel of the Trans Am. She is legendary. She's hosted cyclists going cross country since the first Bikecentennial in 1976. There's a house always stocked with food and plenty of room to sleep. Everyone who bikes the trail knows of her. There's a book about her, countless news articles, and thousands of stories about her hospitality.

Sadly, at the time that we arrived she was in the hospital. She is over 90, and suffered a stroke a few years ago. They aren't sure if she'll be able to make it home this time. Her neighbor, Hope, came over to let us into the bike house to set up our things and explain the whole situation to us. She left us to our rest and we got to explore the bike museum.

She keeps everything that the 14,000+ bikers that have stayed there over the years leave or send back to her. Words don't do it justice. Without further comment, the pictures I took of the four main rooms of the bike house.

Debit Card Debacle

Ivan is blogging about this, but I figured I would add my side of the story.

My bank shut off my debit card, and it was not because I was traveling. Apparently any person who has used their card at a Michael's Craft Store is at risk for their information to be stolen, duplicated, and then their accounts cleaned out. Unfortunately, for my Christian Traditions class I had to create a reliquary as an art project. Although my reliquary, housing "the arrow" that tried to kill St. Sebastian (he was effectively martyred twice--the first time was by firing squad with bows and arrows, but he was saved by a woman who would become known as St. Irene. She nursed him back to health, so the soldiers decided to bludgeon him to death instead), tuned out really cool, I had to go to Michael's for the supplies.

Now Onpoint, my bank, did try to contact me, but my parents had recently shut off their home phone in favor of cell phones, and their number being my primary emergency/permanent number, I was effectively unreachable.

Ivan became my bank. Thankfully. But I was not able to fix the problem for about another week--seven days, when we had made it to Blacksburg, Va. This was the first town that we had come across on a day that was not a Sunday or a holiday (the 4th), and it was also the first town that was really big enough to have an ATM handy.

So I was able to call my bank, as I was standing in front of the ATM and they unlocked my account. I withdrew the legal limit ($500), and as soon as I had the money in my hands they shut the card down again. I then transferred the money to a rechargeable Visa card which is FDIC insured so if the card gets lost or stolen I can, with a little trouble I am sure, get the money back. All in all things could have been worse.

Now Ivan is going to be uploading a video of me freaking out about the card being shut off. I had just called the bank, found out what happened, and in the video I am talking to my mom about it all. Yes I was a little over dramatic. Enjoy.

Where we lose Contact

We just stopped blogging for a while. It was a confluence of events that led to us dropping off the radar, something that we are still trying to rectify (that I'm riding a blog about beginning the Appalachians when I've just finished them gives you a sense of time). Our goal after Mineral was to make it down to Charlottesville and take a rest day, something we hadn't done in mumble mumble mumble. The theme of the day was "avoid the official route at all times" and it came together splendidly. We left north out of Mineral on a tip from the blogs I have been following early in the morning and had gentle rolling hills all through to Louisa on route 22 where we eventually turned south onto Poindexter Rd. which took us through the Green Springs National Historic Landmark district. What that translates to is more easy scenic riding through pastures and by ranch houses.

But Google Maps has a sinister side to it's bike directions. It almost had us turn onto an unpaved road which led who knows where for who knows how long.We kept on going south instead and emerged out at the highway again. One of our worst habits, that we have under control now, is taking too long of a break in the middle of the day. We sat at a McDonalds reading and relaxing while the day just became hotter and hotter, and by the time we left it was scorching again.

We needed to stop by a grocer at some point, and since our camp was well out of the way of Charlottesville proper, we decided to take another detour around Lake Monticello (altogether avoiding Thomas Jefferson's house, which is a shame, but if you want to know what it looks like, just turn a nickel over) and this is where Maps betrayed us.

While you are looking at directions, the roads are kind of... simplified, so you don't get too good of an idea of what they are really like. We ventured into the woods and eventually the road disappeared. Pavement became gravel, and eventually a red clay, wrought with puddles from a storm the previous night. It wasn't that long, really, so we had to press on. Interesting riding, shady, and very creepy. There was but one house on the path, and as we passed a whole brood of pups and nursing mother came out after us. We didn't stand a chance. The mother was nipping at Nikki's trailer, and it was all we could to do walk our bikes through. Their owner eventually called them back and we were on our way again, but it made me wonder what else would happen.

As it turns out, not much. It was hot and because we were trying to avoid the big hills leading into town we took other big hills in a private neighborhood. Everyone wanted a house on a separate peak it seemed like, so the climbs were abrupt and demoralizing. I'm sure we looked silly to all the retired folk as we sat in some one's yard munching on snacks.

But yeah. We made it up the last biiiig hill (Red Hill Road!) to the Charlottesville KOA Kampground, where we were told the internet was out and that they couldn't check us in. They would let us know when we could check in, and were incredibly friendly about it. The two people working in the office were pretty young, maybe around our age, and very fun to talk with so I found excuses to wander around making conversation. We set up our camp in as private a spot as we could, there were only two other tent groups there at the time, on the other end of the road, and Nikki disappeared to the pool.

The next day was more of the same. We relaxed, and I rode north into town 9 miles to get food and call home. We had a rowdy group show up in the middle of the second night, drive around for a while, and proceed to drink and party until 2 in the morning. Not the best sleep that we've had. It was a trend for Virginia.

'So why didn't we hear from you for so long?' I ask myself using your voices. The campground was an utter deadzone for Verizon, and Nikki doesn't seem to have service anywhere so doubly for her. It was alright, we were in once place and were going to relax. We'd call people eventually, and blog even more eventually. But we lost the momentum. At the end of each day we were too sweaty and tired to write anything. But we'll fix that.