Hotter

Hey everybody, it's Alex. I'm gonna follow up Pete's blog with a little correct grammar and punctuation haha. Things are going pretty well. We're through the worst of the mountains, like Pete said, but the heat is getting a bit intense. Kevin in Gravel Switch last night was so nice. He and his family fed us and let us shower and wash our clothes. I've been getting some good footage for the film, although it's not as much as I would like due to the fact that the helmet camera is out of order. Hopefully I'll be getting that back within the next few weeks so that I can get a little more footage, but I'm disappointed that I've missed getting more shots of the Appalachians. Hopefully everyone wont be disappointed with stills--I took plenty of them.
Physically, I think we're doing well. A little sore and tired (and hungry at the moment) but well altogether. Mentally I'm fine too although the heat is getting to me kind of a lot. It makes me hate my life... But, getting up early like we've been doing and sitting out the worst of it really helps.
We've given away a lot of Amani brochures and talked to a lot of people about it. Kevin, that we stayed with last night seemed really interested in donating and said that he would talk to his church about giving because they help a different charity every month.
Well, time to eat lunch! We'll try to keep updating as much as we can.
-Alejandro

hot

the terrain has eased up considerably since the mountains and now we are in rolling hills which we occasionally have to ram-jam over. both alex and i are now physically used to biking all day but the heat has become to be a factor. right now we are in a library in hodgenville, ky and the temperature is around 90 so we are gonna sit out the worst of the heat since we woke up at 6 this morning and have already ridden 45 miles. around 4 we will keep going another 20+ more miles. the dogs in kentucky are crazy. they are constantly sprinting after us growling but i have my bike pump close by in case i need to whack one. that hasn't happened yet but i've been pretty close. right as we entered kentucky i clocked a jack russel at 25 mph. last night a nice man from Gravel Switch, Ky let us sleep in his basement which included an amazing dinner, showers, laundry, and cookies and biscuits to take with us. alex also got some good footage for his documentary. well i am gonna go find something cold to eat. if you are one of my friends and have a special address at a summer camp or something, email that to me at dunlpb5@wfu.edu
Cruizin',
Pete

Woah

hey so this is pete
i'm now in radford, va and we just had a heck of a time climbing up and down some hills. but despite really sore legs we are having a lot of fun. yesterday i finished my ride around 1pm and checked in to the comfort inn in troutville. that was nice because i got my first shower and washed my clothes in their tub. now it is like 10:30pm and i'm really tired so
Cruizin,
pete dunlap

First Week

Hi everybody, it's Alex. I'm writing from home (but no, I didn't quit). I had planned to have this weekend off from biking to come home and attend my friend's graduation from Salem College. I have a lot of good friends who are graduating and felt like I should be there. It also gave me a good chance to reevaluate everything we had been doing and decide what we needed to change and whatnot. So, my mom picked me up on Friday night from Afton, VA where I left Pete for the weekend. He's kept on biking and I'll meet back up with him tomorrow in Troutville, VA. I'll be back to make up these 100 miles later in the year.

So, I realized that some of the film equipment I had with me I wasn't going to be using--ie the video light and the telephoto lens. That shed a few pounds from my already (in my opinion) too heavy trailer that I'm lugging. Pete was able to weed out a good pound or more of the stuff that he wasn't going to be using too often. I picked up some spare bike parts and things while back in Winston, and got my bike looked over and tweaked to make sure everything was good to go.

The first four days were very... interesting... to say the least. The first day was, without question, one of the top 10 worst days of my life. It was surprisingly tough considering we were on the coast and everything is so flat, and the mental toughness factor really reared its head. Pete and I were both just wiped out after that first day. A nice church in Glendale, VA let us spend the night in their "Red Hut" behind the church--heated and with electricity--which really helped us rest up. The second day was a LOT better than the first, even considering the fact that we got lost twice. We also met up with my friend Kristy who lives in Ashland, VA and she agreed to take our trailers in her car and meet back up with us down the road in Bumpass, VA and give them back to us. This was great because biking without a trailer makes a HUGE difference. It began to rain that afternoon before we met her and we pulled into this country store just outside of Bumpass. To our surprise and delight, the owner was very biker friendly and let us camp in the backyard of the store with her goat Precious. Kristy met back up with us and we had dinner, and then set up the tarp and hit the sack after a long, but good 65 mile day. The third day was very up and down also. We began to hit alot more hills and really began to feel like we were approaching the mountains. We rolled along through the countryside and eventually arrived in Palmyra, VA. There was nowhere to sleep there, but we were referred by the sherriff to go 1.5 miles outside of town and camp in a meadow there, which turned out to be beautiful (and there was a picnic shelter which we slept under... on top of the picnic tables). The fourth day we were awoken by the groundskeepers mowing the grass (oops) and left just in time to pass the 4 busses of middle schoolers heading for a picnic at the shelter we had just slept under. We passed through Charlottesville, VA in time to have lunch. It looked like it was going to rain all day, but luckily we stayed dry. We hit some serious hills that day and it became fully apparent that we were in the MOUNTAINS. After a hilly and windy 28 into Afton, we went to the Cookie Lady's house who is famous for her good deeds to hikers and bikers. My mom showed up and we left Pete, who stayed in the Cookie Lady's hostel and headed on.

Back on the road tomorrow :). Hope I didn't soften up over these 2 days!!

First Post

Testing this thing to make sure it works.... I'm really looking forward to this trip... And It's 2:40 in the morning and I need to go to bed. Goodnight!