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!!