Today was one of the best, I rode with Brandon and David Stassi, two of the best guys to ride with because Brandon s super encouraging and funny, and if there was an award for the team clown it would easily go to Stassi. The ride started out pretty gross, some really run down areas and industrial districts coming out of Charleston. Eventually we got out of that area and ended up on a road going through a valley right next to a river and surrounded by hills and thick forest, as we got further down the road it got more and more amazing. We would ride for a mile through thick woods on either side in a tunnel of green then it would open up at the top of a hill and we had an incredible view down the middle of the valley and over the hills to more mountains and hills in the distance, which was a good sign that we would be climbing those hills later on. Some sections were covered in ivy, it draped over everything around the road from trees to telephone pools, for some reason the whole seen just reminded me of Jurassic Park. After we hit the halfway point we stopped at Matt’s crew stop for water and he warned us that it was about to get more hilly and we were getting into the real Appalachian roads. Sure enough right down the road from his stop we make a sharp hairpin turn to begin the first of many switchbacks. I was still in my big ring and worried at that point that I would have to shift down but was able to hold it all day still. That first hill was pretty intense but the views were just getting better climbing steep hillsides we glimpses of the river below us. It made me feel like I was in the Tour De France, I wanted to start racing up the hills so bad but I kept with Brandon and Stassi and helped them get through the hills. From that point on it was almost all either a gradual hill or a steep hill with a quick decent slowly working our way up in elevation over the next 35 miles. I enjoyed every bit of it, the climbs and especially the decents. There was one climb towards the end that was really fun, for most of the day we were pretty much on our own, didn’t see any other pace lines and we thought we had a pretty good gap between us and the next line behind us until we hit a steep hill. We were working our way up and suddenly Stassi yells “Look friends!” and I look back and see Bott and Dylan then around the corner comes Preston TJ and Brentley “More friends!” When Bott saw us he yelled up at us “Go bones!” and the other 7 of us yell the same back, it was really cool to see them and it got us all a little pumped up to finish that climb and the one after it which were both beasts of a hill. From there we powered through the rest of the ride and showed up to lodging a few miles short of what I expected which is always a nice little surprise. Our Logistics Coordinator Zack was also able to get us some better lodging, we upgraded from a church floor to dorm rooms at University of Charleston in Beckley.
We took showers then a van full of guys and 5 bikes went to get some fixes at a bike shop, the shop yesterday did not do a whole lot of good for me and other guys needed some checks and tune ups. They were an awesome bike shop, two really friendly mechanics, one of them was a TKE at a small school and friends with some Pi Kapps so he knew a bit about Push America and the Journey of Hope. They were super generous and fixed everyone’s bikes on the spot, setting their other work aside for us and they only charges us for parts and gave us a discount, I was especially lucky, they 3-4 times as long messing with my chain, taking links out so it was the right length, adjusting the derailleur and hanger and riding it around, making more adjustments and when I went to the counter to pay he just said don’t worry about it, so amazing.
Unfortunately before dinner while I was on the phone with Emily my phone was acting weird and kept freezing and turning off and right before we left it did it and wouldn’t turn back on, so for now I am without a phone which is really annoying because I use it mostly for pictures and my blog and we are about to hit some really amazing picture spots on the road and of course at arrival. I am looking into replacing it in one of the cities we stop in in the next couple days or in the worst case scenario I get a loner phone from a T-Mobile store when I am in Manassas right before arrival. I want a new phone anyway so this isn’t totally a bad thing.
Our dinner and friendship visit was with another Mountains State Center for Independent Living and was very low key. They had a few individuals in their programs come and hang out and eat with us though. I met Nora who was very friendly, she came over to us and brought her drawing books to show. She had a couple notebooks and folders filled with her drawings, some of them from 1998. She said she loves to draw anything, there were some cats, planes, flowers, hearts and she also had some drawings in there that she did with her niece and nephew who like to draw with her and they give her drawings to keep.
Tomorrow is going to be a tough day but exciting arrival. We are heading to Blacksburg Virginia, our last state before DC and have an arrival for the Virginia Tech chapter where TJ, Sam, and Evan go. The ride is 85 miles with supposedly 8,000 feet of climbing. It will either be tomorrow or the century day with 10,000 feet of climbing that I am going to ride with Hayden and absolutely kill our legs and go as hard as we can on the bike. It will have to be decided tomorrow morning but either day will be a blast as always.
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