Kiki Bikes Across America

The start wasn’t too bad this morning – weather was decent. A bit overcast, but still cool enough to not feel hot. Our plan was to reach Charlottesville tonight to stay at Jen Creasy’s house. We were doing pretty well for the first half of the day, getting in 30 miles by lunchtime at noon and having stopped at someone’s house to spray ourselves with the hose and cool off – also were semi-offered cake (if only we had been later in the day would we have gotten some, but it wasn’t ready yet). We saw a street called “Beer Can Alley” as well as a few odd looks from cars passing by or people in their yards yelling out to us and asking where we were going. We talked to people here and there and lots of them thought we were doing something pretty cool and said they couldn’t ever do it…but admired us.

We had hoped to arrive early so Chris could get a haircut, so I could mail some stuff home, and so we could stock up on some food for the next day or two for camping. Needless to say, we didn’t get to Charlottesville early, instead we arrived around 6pm to Jen’s house. We had a bit of a mishap 30 miles into the ride – just at the lunch stop, Chris and I biked to the post office to mail stuff back home… on the way back down the hill Chris disappeared out of my sight when I looked back and later arrived back to our lunch stop (a little hitchin post deli). I asked George if he had seen Chris – he hadn’t either. So I biked back up to see what happened and there he was on the side of the road. He popped a spoke and couldn’t ride anymore. We tried one of my spokes, but that didn’t fit so then I asked a man if he drove a pick-up and was going towards Charlottesville. He said yes, and said he’d take Chris to the next bike shop up the road. He did and then George and I rode our bikes the 6 or so miles up the road to meet Chris again after getting his bike fixed.

Our team captain (George, aka  Amish Boy) decided we needed a morale boost so bought us push-up orange ice cream pop things at the gas station as Chris was finishing packing his bike up after having it repaired. It was yummy indeed especially since it was so hot out and the sun was scorching. We were literally dripping wet all afternoon from sweat and the heat on us. Our worst part of today, in my opinion was the last 15 miles into Charlottesville. Route 53 and another road were packed with traffic and it was windy and no shoulders… we rode in the middle of our lane sometimes so that cars couldn’t try to pass us and risk creating accidents and we’d have to hold our arms out telling them NOT TO PASS us as cars were on-coming. Some of the drivers were absolute idiots, but luckily no close-calls or accidents of any kind. We were really cautious and I thoroughly enjoyed getting into Charlottesville as opposed to riding on those roads leading us to the town.

Once in Charlottesville we went to Jen’s and she made us a yummy dinner – salad and veggie burgers and loaned us her car to run out to Performance Bike and Walmart. That was a little weird, only because we felt so out of our element – we were in civilization again and things were really strange from the perspective of a car or walking. It was a nice change of scenery though since we’ve mostly been out in the fields and boonies of central Virginia.

Things are starting to blur  really fast – our days are so similar and we can’t remember one day from another already. I can barely keep track of what day of the week it is and what the date is. I hope I don’t forget important things that I need to do back home via Internet or what not while I’m gone, but I have no sense of time. I ride all day and don’t know what time it is unless I deliberately look on my bike computer or ask Chris (he relies on a wrist watch). I thought those were out now since cell phones do everything for people now days. Overall, the day was pretty good, but definitely a tiresome one, especailly since we lost 3+ hours in our lunch break + bike repairs. We dealt with a lot of rolling hills, and hope it only better prepares us for what’s ahead tomorrow with the huge hill were all so curios about, yet dreading!

I’m exhausted and need some shut eye, but will update again when I get a chance. Most likely it won’t be tomorrow as we camping out after we conquer the huge hill after visiting the cookie lady in Afton, VA

GPS Stats:
Start time: 8:45am
End time: 6:00pm
57.3 miles
39.7 max speed
11.8 avg speed
04:51 moving time

Computer Stats:
58.47 miles
41.0 max speed
12.2 avg speed
4:47:16 moving time

Total distance to date: 205.68
Snake count: 1 for today, 6 to date
Dog chases: 1 today, 3 to date
Aches/pains: again, moderate back pain… leg pain is gone. Stretching a ton to keep muscles loose and not let them get too tight. Overall, feeling great., especially when off the saddle! Butt is definitely sore though – we’re all fighting that one!
Favorite piece of gear: insulated water bottles today, really nice to not have hot water!